Thaindian News

New Delhi, August 12 (ANI): Swimmer Michael Phelps, who won his third gold on the third day since the Beijing Olympics kicked off last Friday, says that he never made breaking Mark Spitz’’s 36-year-long record of winning seven gold medals his ambition.
He insists that he is just preparing himself the best he can, to compete the best he can.
“You guys talk about that, and I haven”t said anything about breaking any records,” news agency Xinhua quoted him as telling the reporters.
Phelps even said that there was only one person who knew what goals he had set for himself.
“My goals haven”t been published. Bob (Bowman, U.S. coach) is the only one that knows it,” he said.
And, as it appears, Phelps pays due respects for his competitors.
He called South Korean Park Taehwan, who he lost the 200m freestyle title to him, “a great swimmer”.
He even accredited his victory over the South Korean to “good luck”.
“I knew he was going to finish strong and he always does in races. I saw his time was incredibly strong in the 400m freestyle,” Phelps said.
While talking about his two bronzes in Athens in 2004, Phelps insisted that he disliked losing, and ever since then tried to swim faster.
“Four years ago I wanted to race and I hated to lose, getting third in the 200m freestyle and when I do lose in races like that it motivates me to swim faster,” he said.
Unlike many other swimmers, Phelps tries to remain a cool head, and try to focus.
“I have so many races, so much to do in every race, I have to keep 100 per cent focused. No matter how good, you have to force it out of your head,” he said.
Phelps also revealed that he would eat a lot of pasta and pizza, a lot of carbs (carbohydrates), and sleep as much as he could to deal with the multiple events.
“Every morning I wake up at 4.30-5.00, and it takes me a while to get up in the morning but it’’s the Olympics, you have to. I need to recover as much as I can and it is crucial for the coming events,” he said.
Phelps faces finals in the 200m fly and 4X200m free relay Wednesday morning, and a 200m individual medley heat in the evening session at the National Aquatics Center, popularly known as the Water Cube.
“There’’s a lot more swimming left, so I”ll just try to keep the ball rolling,” he said. (ANi)