Olympic Games: Phelps Sets Gold Standard

Michael Phelps claims he is not greedy. 'I want at least one gold medal,' he says, which is a bit like Thierry Henry saying that he hopes to score a couple of goals next season.

When you are a swimmer who evokes comparisons with Mark Spitz, one Olympic gold represents just a warm-up. Phelps, already being hyped as the star of the Athens Games, has broken 12 individual world records, including an unprecedented five at last year's world championships, and his six-and-a-half-foot 'wingspan' puts him within reach of the record seven golds Spitz won in 1972.

The 19-year-old from Baltimore last week broke his silence on the worst-kept secret in swimming - that he could race up to eight events in Athens next month - five individual events and three relays, although he is likely to take part in only two of the team events. His decision was no doubt helped by Speedo's offer of $1 million if Phelps can match Spitz. The size of the potential bonus represents the magnitude of the task. But at least the first hurdle is out of the way.

Phelps completed a mission improbable at the United States Olympic trials in Long Beach, California, last week. He did not win all six of his events - only four - but he reserved a pool lane next month for each with a pair of second places during a week of admirable consistency.

With relays, Phelps could have gone for nine, but he has dropped the 200 metres backstroke. 'We decided to save the backstroke for another opportunity sometime down the road,' he says. 'We wanted to do the best programme we felt the most confident with.'

But Phelps - who could also match Soviet Union gymnast Aleksandr Dityatin's record haul at one Games of eight medals, of various colours, in Moscow in 1980 - maintains that he will attempt at least seven, even if it could ruin his chances because of exhaustion. Eddie Reese, the US team coach, compares the ambitious goal to getting a haircut. 'You don't know if it's any good until it's over,' he says.

Phelps will swim the butterfly over 100m and 200m, the 200m and 400m individual medleys and the 200m freestyle, plus the relays. He faces a schedule of up to 20 races - three more than Spitz - in eight days.

Spitz won the 100m and 200m freestyle, 100m and 200m butterfly and was part of the winning US 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle and 4x100m medley relay teams in Munich. His seven gold medals were won in the space of eight days - all in a world record time.

'We don't want to spread him so thin that he compromises his chances,' says Bob Bowman, Phelps's coach. Bowman, who has a weakness for racehorses, says of his job: 'It's like training [Triple Crown winner] Secretariat - don't screw it up.'

Ian Thorpe, who four years ago before the Sydney Games was in the spotlight as much as Phelps is this time, says that his rival is deluding himself if he believes that he can win seven golds. 'It's something that's unattainable, I've always said that,' Thorpe, who won three gold and two silver medals in 2000, insists. 'It's unattainable for me and unattainable for anyone.' They will meet in the 200m freestyle.

Phelps turns a deaf ear to Thorpe's criticism. 'He is saying that he doesn't think it's possible for him,' the American says. 'I want to do something that no one has done before. People are trying to knock Thorpe off his pedestal.'

Bowman says that a strategy has been worked out for Athens. 'He'll probably be conserving as much energy in the semis and prelims as he can,' he explains. 'He'll probably never have a prelim swim where he's pressured, but it just adds that extra layer of stress. He'll be saving his best efforts only for the finals.'

Phelps tested himself at the world championships last summer in Barcelona, where he smashed five world records, including two marks in two different events on the same day. Then he went home to Maryland and about a week later he won five titles at the US national championships.

'At the worlds, that was a big step to really see what we could swim and what I could handle,' Phelps says. 'Physically and mentally, it took a lot out of me. I can take a few events before I start getting drained. Mentally, it runs you down so much.'

Bowman says: 'Michael has already changed the landscape. It's hard not to put him in the history books.'

Phelps already makes a good living swimming and has splashed out on a 60-inch plasma television for his family, electronic gadgets for his car and a new puppy to replace his ageing cat, which disappeared in November. But a cool million is not money to be sniffed at.

Phelps is such a star in America that he announced what events he planned to swim in Athens last week at a promotional appearance alongside supermodel Cindy Crawford. The fame, though, has not gone to his head, it is claimed.

'He knows that swimming faster is the only thing that matters. If he doesn't swim faster, there's no more money,' Bowman says. 'He doesn't swim for the money, but he has a very good perspective: if he does his job, all the other good things will kind of fall into place.'

It is not just in the pool that the 6ft 4in, 14-stone Phelps makes his presence felt. He also wins when he and his team-mates stage contests to see who can consume the biggest breakfast. 'The most I ever had was an order of French toast, three pancakes, an omelette, a bowl of grits and three breakfast sandwiches,' Phelps says. 'I'm going to keep eating like this until I can't.'

He has added 30-35lb and grown four inches since the Sydney Games, where, at 15, he was the youngest member of the US men's swimming team since 13-year-old Ralph Flanagan competed in the 1932 Los Angeles Games. Flanagan did not finish his race, the 1,500m freestyle. Phelps at least finished, coming fifth in the final of the 200m butterfly.

Flanagan bounced back to make the team again in 1936, competing in three events in Berlin and winning a silver as part of the 800m freestyle relay. For Phelps, silver would represent massive failure. He wants to apply the lessons he learnt in Sydney to help him become a legend.

'When you are in an Olympic training camp, there are a lot of opportunities to do a lot of different things,' Phelps says. 'You can go to a baseball game or go to a video arcade to have some fun. My coach was telling me the other night that before Sydney he remembers me being very excited about going to a video-game place.

'Tom Dolan [a team-mate] was standing there and my coach asked if he was going there, too. Tom said, "No, I'm going to rest". It made me think maybe I should also have rested to get psyched up for my event.

'And when I walked out for my Olympic final, I didn't even have my suit tied properly and the strings were hanging out. Things like that make such a big difference.'