Phelps takes swimming to new heights

Mark Schubert, the U.S. national team’s head coach and general manager, said he believes the Phelps Phactor will be evident long after he hangs up his trunks.

“Without a doubt, we’re going to see the effects of this 12 and 16 years down the road, because people are going to be interested in swimming,” Schubert said. “People are going to want to go out for summer club swim teams. People are going to want to join USA Swimming clubs in the wintertime. It just develops an interest. More talent in the sport equals more success for the United States.”

Even more than in Athens, Phelps figures to be the transcendent U.S. athlete in Beijing, if for no other reason than millions of viewers will get to watch him chase Spitz every night on live television — in prime time, no less. And how did that happen when the Olympics are being held half a world away?

Well, NBC wanted a ratings boost, and saw Phelps as the surest way to get it. When billions of dollars speak, the International Olympic Committee tends to listen. Shrugging off the complaints of other countries, the swimming schedule in Beijing was flip-flopped. Preliminaries will be held in the evening and finals in the morning, allowing NBC to snare its biggest possible audience back home.

Chasing history
Right about the time most families are finishing up dinner and putting away the dishes, Phelps will be chasing history with a plot line that everyone can understand. Spitz won seven gold medals in Munich. Phelps will be racing eight times — five individual events, three relays — and needs to win them all.

Laying the groundwork, NBC and its cable partner, USA Network, televised eight straight nights of live prime-time coverage during the U.S. Olympic trials.

“This is the best thing that could happen — a generational superstar combined with unprecedented television coverage both at the trials and at the Games,” Schubert said.

Although Phelps certainly could have selfish reasons for wanting to increase swimming’s popularity, those around him say his passion is genuine. He really does want to take others along for the ride.

“I wish people could see how consistently he holds his priority to grow the sport of swimming above most other things in his professional career,” Carlisle said. “Sure, he benefits from that, but he’s not thinking about it that way. If there’s something he can do to help change the sport and benefit it 20 years down the road, he’s thinking along those lines. He’s working very hard with us when we try to create sort of a new platform that hopefully can chip away at things.”

‘I hardly recognize the sport’
Not all the credit goes to Phelps.

Many within the tight-knit swimming community credit Chuck Wielgus, USA Swimming’s innovative executive director, for bringing the sport into a modern era. He was the right man for the Phelps generation, quickly recognizing that today’s fans aren’t content with just watching what’s going on in the water.

The Olympic trials were held in a temporary pool set up inside a sprawling, modern arena in downtown Omaha, Neb. There were pyrotechnics on the pool deck, a cascading green waterfall that spelled out the names of the winners, on-deck interviews conducted by 1976 gold medalist John Naber, and booming music each time the swimmers walked on deck for a race, like fighters heading to a title bout.

“I hardly recognize the sport,” said Biondi, star of the Seoul Games and leader in the fight to professionalize swimming in the late 1980s and early ’90s. “I love the green waterfall. I would like to see my name coming down that fall.”

Wielgus, who took over the organization in 1997, said his biggest accomplishment was something that went largely unnoticed unless you were a ticked-off swimming parent: USA Swimming doubled its annual dues from $25 to $50, then pumped most of that new revenue back into the sport. Half went to grass-roots programs and 25 percent was dedicated to marketing and promotion.

“Hats off to USA Swimming and Chuck Wielgus for embracing sports in the modern era,” Biondi said. “The old mold of AAU swimming, of doing it for the love of the sport, has been broken. They’re looking to the future in a very competitive market.”

Of course, it sure doesn’t hurt to have a star such as Phelps leading the way.

“He’s a special swimmer,” said Eddie Reese, coach of the U.S. men’s team. “One of a century.”

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