Michael Phelps On Making Olympic History

(CBS)  What happens after you win an historic eight gold medals in a single Olympic Games? Only one person in the world can answer that question: Michael Phelps.

Since Beijing, Phelps has enjoyed his longest break from training ever. He's on a victory lap of sorts, touring the country and building the Michael Phelps brand. He let us tag along with him, and gave CNN's Anderson Cooper his most extensive interview since the Olympics.

He explains how he won in Beijing, how he almost didn't, and what life is now like for an unassuming 23-year-old swimmer who's also the greatest Olympic athlete ever.

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At the red carpet at MTV's Video Music Awards in Hollywood, the loudest screams were not for a rapper or a rocker or the usual suspects: they were for Michael Phelps, a guy who can barely carry a tune.

The next day, he had an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, then a red eye flight to New York, where he helped open the stock exchange the next morning.

But Phelps was starting to show the wear and tear of a tour that had taken him from Beijing to Portugal, and to San Francisco among other stops.

By mid-September, he had not been home for three months. 60 Minutes caught up with him in New York, between a commercial shoot and a rehearsal for Saturday Night Live.

Asked if he worries he's doing too much, Phelps told Cooper, "No, cause I'm having fun. You know, it's like (yawns), excuse me, you know, after I…"

He has no trouble sleeping, telling Cooper he can fall asleep within seconds. "Probably within a minute I could, I could be out cold."

Sure enough, Phelps started nodding off. "It took you 50 seconds to fall asleep after we stopped. We actually timed it," Cooper pointed out.

"I was exhausted that day," Phelps replied, laughing. "I was really tired that day."

"Are there moments when you're like, 'This is just nuts?'" Cooper asked.

"There have been a few times where I'll be like, 'Wow this is, you know, more than I expected or more than I thought would happen,'" Phelps admitted.

What's happening is a just reward for a guy who's been training non-stop since age 11. His teenage years were spent swimming lap after lap, thousands of hours staring at a black line on the bottom of a pool.

"For about five years he did not take one day off," explained Phelps' coach Bob Bowman.

Bowman said Phelps even trained on Christmas Day and on his birthdays.

"How do you do that every day?" Cooper asked.

"To be honest, it's not wanting to lose, wanting to do something no one's ever done before. That's what got me out of bed every day," Phelps explained.

The workouts were so intense, Bowman became known as the mad scientist. The toughest workouts, he said, were swimming 10,000 meters for time, which takes about two and a half hours.

"Two and a half hours of full-out racing?" Cooper asked.

"Just swim as hard as you can for two and a half hours," Bowman explained.

"Like horrible, horrible workouts. When you see them on paper, you're like, 'I can't do this.' He makes us do it so we're more confident and we know that we can do anything that we put our mind to," Phelps said.

Payoff came at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Phelps won six gold medals, an extraordinary achievement but he just missed Mark Spitz's record of seven golds.

Then came Beijing and a chance to make history. To win eight golds, Phelps needed to swim 17 times in nine days. So many things could go wrong in Beijing - and they did. In the 200-meter butterfly final, his goggles filled with water virtually from the start.

"They started filling up more and more and more. And about 75 meters left in the race, I could see nothing. I couldn't see the black line. I couldn't see the T. I couldn't see anything. I was purely going by stroke count. And I couldn't take my goggles off because they were underneath two swim caps," he remembered.

Somehow, he not only won his fourth gold medal of the games, he also set a world record.

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[kukini]

Did I see Michael and Anderson in the SUV without seat belts on? If so, shame on the both of you!!

[hughjastic]

And then I make my own stupid typo. Heh.

its

[hughjastic]

Anderson,
Fun piece. Well done.

Minor points:

1. "an historic"? Really?
2. enormity. It's become ok for people to mistake this word for meaning what it sounds like, but it's original meaning is quite horrible.

Keep up the good work.

an hysterical fan,
hj

[avigil2]

To swimgirl9: please learn how to use the mouse by clicking on "Publish" just once.

[stevenst3]

Shame on you 60 minutes for failing to mention that Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals only because of his team mates, specifically Mr. Jason Lezak. If not for Jason''s blistering anchor leg in the 400 medley relay and the 400 freestyle relay, Mr. Phelps would have gone home with 6 medals and we would be spared such one-sided stories like this one. Sadly, neither Mr. Phelps nor the interviewer displayed the maturity or grace to even recognize or compliment Mr. Phelps team mates. It should be noted that Mr. Lezak (and others) likely worked just as hard as Mr. Phelps to prepare for the 2008 olympics (i.e., for their whole lives). Furthermore, at age 32, it may have even been a bit more difficult for Mr. Lezak to prepare; did he have numerous sponsors keeping him afloat or did he have to go to a day job? Unfortunately, the corporate world let Mr. Lezak and the other accomplished swim team members of the 2008 games fade into obscurity even though Mr. Lezak and a few others now hold gold medals; Mr. Lezaks were earned from arguably two of the most exciting races in the water cube. That said, those of us at Mr. Lezak''s alma mater (UC Santa Barbara), and most certainly his college coach Gregg Wilson, are really proud, and we wish him all the success he earned.

[swrf35]

Oh Anderson, Don''t call yourself middle-aged. And that race wasn''t fair - you didn''t even have goggles on. I''d ask for a re-match!
Given other Phelps'' interviews I''ve seen - this was excellent - no offense to anyone, but direct questions soliciting Phelps'' limited responses are probably the best for an interview. Well done Anderson.

[librablue-2009]

I thought Anderson did a great job with this interview of Phelps. He put a lot into a few minutes. It was interesting to hear how Michael feels about his success a few months after the Olympics.

Without being intrusive, Anderson gave us a little peek into Michael''s personal life by introducing us to Michael''s mother and his dog Herman, he even showed us Michael''s new apartment. We also got some insight into Michael''s training regiment and eating habits as well as his financial future.

I thought it was very professional of Michael to admit how he won the race for his seventh gold medal against Cavic. No matter what, it doesn''t diminish his hard won victory.

To top it off, Anderson even "exposed" himself just for fun in the "uneven race." What more could anyone want?

[p_a_rice]

Mr. Cooper,
Please consult your dictionary before you use the word "enormity" [as in "The enormity of his achievement still hasn''t completely sunk in."]. I don''t believe you intend to say that Mr. Phelps'' achievement was notable for being outrageously wicked.
Let''s keep the usage of this word distinct from "enormous."

[p_a_rice]

Mr. Cooper,
Please consult your dictionary before you use the word "enormity" [as in "The enormity of his achievement still hasn''t completely sunk in."]. I don''t believe you intend to say that Mr. Phelps'' achievement was notable for being outrageously wicked. Let''s keep the usage of this word distinct from "enormous."

[p_a_rice]

Mr. Cooper,
Please consult your dictionary before you use the word "enormity" [as in "The enormity of his achievement still hasn''t completely sunk in."]. I don''t believe you intend to say that Mr. Phelps'' achievement was notable for being outrageously wicked. Let''s keep the usage of this word distinct from "enormous."