First Man on Mars

That was Mark Spitz' assessment when asked what it weould be like to win eight.

There's an interesting article on Phelps on stuff which looks at physical and genetic differences in the big man.

It also points out, 'In his quest for an unprecedented eight gold medals, he will swim a total of 38.1 kilometres in heats, semis and finals in his nine-day Games program.' I have no idea where the author, Alex Brown of the Sydney Morning Herald, got the figure from but I calculate it at 3.1 kilometres of races plus around 1.5-2k warm-up and 1.5-2k swim down for each race (to keep going over nine days at that level there would have been no scrimping on either) that could be up to 70k over the nine days.

Remember that next time you're planning taper!