Bethany Well

By far, the most compelling Olympic story for the world America is Michael Phelps’ pursuit of 8 Gold Medals. In 2004, Phelps captured 8 medals, eclipsing Mark Spitz’s 7 medals in the 1972 Olympics. However, Phelps received 2 bronze medals in that games and so Spitz still held the mark of 7 gold medals in one Olympics.

So far in Beijing, Phelps has captured 5 gold medals, thanks in large part to this, and has set 5 World Records doing it. He has 3 more races to go, all of which he is favored to win.

The debate has begun about whether he is the most dominant athlete of all time or whether he is the greatest Olympian ever. (Personally, I vote for Babe Ruth and Jesse Owens). But for how much of Phelps’ success should he receive credit?

I get it. Michael Phelps is really, really, ridiculously good.

There have been many factors that contributed to Michael Phelps’ success.

• His body type has been called the ‘prototypical’ body for a swimmer. ‘Flexible ankles’ is what I keep hearing.
• His older sisters influenced him to take up swimming at the age of 7 to help give a release to his constant energy (he was diagnosed with ADHD).
• He trained during his early teens under Bob Bowman (currently Michigan Swim coach).
• He swims for the United States, who has won 478 medals in swimming since 1896. By far the most.
• He consumes 12,000 calorie/day.
• Out of his 11 gold medals so far, 4 of them have been relays.

God-given talent, proper recognition, support of family and teammates, and material resources that are made available to him because of where he was born. After all, it’s not like he got to choose his body type, his sister’s hobbies, his country of birth, etc. He’s had to rely upon many people along the way.

Of course, he has worked tremendous hours with tremendous discipline to achieve success. However, we cannot ignore the fact that in order to reach his level of success, he needed to rely on the support of family, coaches, teammates, country and God.

Never can success be attributed to just one individual. Once we realize that our success is not wholly in our our control, then we are ready to acknowledge God and trust him. Trust can be defined as Total Reliance Under SovereignTy.

So as you watch Michael Phelps swims to gold in the 200m Individual Medley, the 100m Butterfly, and the 4x100m medley relay, remember to trust God for your success.

Written by: RjL on August 14, 2008.