After Eight

Thirty-six years is a long time for an Olympic record. But that is how long swimming legend Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals in a single Olympic Games has stood. On Sunday, Spitz’s record was broken by fellow American and swimmer Michael Phelps when he powered the US team to a gold in the 4x100-metre relay. Phelps’s tally of gold medals now stands at 14, which is also a record.

Questions will inevitably be raised now whether Phelps is the greatest Olympian ever. If you go by numbers alone, Phelps is way ahead of the other greats like Spitz, Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi who had all won nine golds. And there might be more since Phelps plans to take part in the 2012 Games. But just as it is difficult to compare performances across disciplines, so it is to compare between eras. The training, schedules and incentives have all changed since the days Spitz competed. The swimming pools are different, so are the new corset-like suits.

What is more important is the ability of Phelps to reach the heights that he has in a system which is focused on sporting excellence but does not force athletes to perform. As a seven-year-old, Phelps joined a swimming club in Baltimore where he quickly showed amazing potential and was taken under the wings of coach Bob Bowman. Spitz, too, began at a local club at Santa Clara in California. Local clubs, along with schools and universities, are the backbone of America’s sporting success. Athletes from several other countries also train in American universities as did Serbia’s Milorad Cavic, who came second to Phelps in the 100-metre butterfly event. There are poorer countries that are following this model. The fastest man on earth — Jamaica’s Usain Bolt who won the 100-metre sprint in record time — along with a host of other top-class sprinters such as Asafa Powell train at the island’s University of Technology on a scholarship programme.

India must borrow a leaf from such schemes. While we could look at China’s example of focusing on a few disciplines, we must build up an institutional structure that is not dependent on the government. Some of the Indian boxers, who are doing so well in the Olympics, learnt their boxing in local clubs before getting sponsorship from private trusts. There is plenty more such sporting talent waiting to be tapped.