Recently Michael Phelps created history. When people would give an arm and a leg to be capable of winning even one Olympics medal, here’s one who won as many as 8 Olympic Gold Medals – that too in a single Olympics- the one going on -the 2008 Olympic Games at Beijing.
Here’s a description of how he won those 8 Golds in a single Olympics. With this he beat the record set by fellow American swimmer, Mark Spitz way back in 1972 when Spitz won 7 Golds in the Munich Olympics.
Remember that Phelps had won 6 Golds in the last Olympics at Athens in 2004. With this haul of 8 more, he is now by far the person with the most Gold Medals – 14, leaving behind other greats like Carl Lewis, Mark Spitz and Paavo Nurmi with 9 Gold Medals.
This achievement is phenomenal. To cap it off, 7 out of the 8 Gold Medals came from world record performances. As Phelps himself said at a post-medal ceremony, records are there to be broken but this is one record which will take some breaking. His perseverance, commitment and focus are to be admired. He has set himself up to be a role model for young swimmers all over the world.
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This is Post No: 259 of the “A Step A Day” series : To provide perspective and provoke thought to facilitate self-development across a wide spectrum of issues- big and small- crucial for executive success.
People at Work & Play 