 Helping hands
By Patrick Whiteley (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-12 08:52 American Michael Phelps yesterday got by with a little help from his friends. He comes from a country that worships the power of the individual, but it was somewhat ironic that it needed a collective effort from his buddies to keep his Olympian dream alive. And didn't the boy from Baltimore know it. Phelps's vein-popping victory scream rocked me on my lounge-room sofa. It was so emotion charged and powerful, I started screaming for the American too. And I'm a flag-waving, dinky-die Aussie. For about 3 minutes of the most exciting race of the Games so far, I was cheering for my boys. The start was perfect. Eamon Sullivan broke the world 100m freestyle record when he led the Australian team off in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay. He zoomed past Phelps. For the whole race, the leading swimmers were splashing ahead of the world record line, which moves across the pool on the TV screen. I began to worry when the world-class French team motored past my boys and I gave up hope in the final 50m, when former world-record holder Alain Bernard headed for what looked like certain victory. But out of nowhere came Jason Lezark. His arms seemed to grow a few extra inches and his final surge was phenomenal. It was a blow to see my Aussie team go down (they did win bronze), but strangely my spirits lifted when I watched Phelps's reaction. He completely lost it and I can understand why. The former kid from the mean streets of Baltimore was about to have a dream shattered again. But from nowhere, a good friend steps in and lends a helping hand up, just like his swimming coach did when he was 11 years old. He was able to refocus Phelps, who suffered from attention deficit disorder, and the rest is history. When he races my Aussie brothers, there is no way I'm cheering for Phelps. But yesterday's team performance was what living is all about. You can't do it everything on your own. (China Daily 08/12/2008 page8) |
