by Kevin Ash

Created on: August 16, 2008   Last Updated: August 17, 2008

Life has very few certainties. You can always assume that when the sun sets, it will rise again; you can be certain that winter will be miserable in Wisconsin; it's a guarantee that after you've shopped at The Men's Warehouse you'll like the way you look; and it is common knowledge that when Michael Phelps enters a pool, he will win whatever event he wants.

Every sport has its greats. Some have a dozen or so, others two or three, and for many years golf has had Tiger Woods. The talk was always, "Tiger, or the field". Tiger was the phenom, a golfer being declared the greatest athlete on the planet. Until the 2008 Summer Olympics set the stage for Michael Phelps to become more than the greatest Olympian of all-time, but the most incredible athlete ever.

For the past two summers I have worked on a golf course in northern California. Topics of conversation amongst the golfers and course staff have always been predictable: the ongoing baseball season, the upcoming NFL season, and of course, golf.

Often, I would talk with my co-workers when business was slow about any topic dominating the sporting world. Just a matter of weeks ago I expressed my regret of never getting the chance to see a player like Babe Ruth dominate a sport the way he did with baseball. Tiger Woods would be the closest comparison and often brought up in our many debates.

Little did I know that in less than a month I would see something beyond what Ruth ever accomplished. I would get the opportunity to see Michael Phelps race. The complexity and magnitude of his first and second gold did not set in until work the next day that the topic of conversation did not steer away from sports but did swerve in a new direction. Swimming. Never before had I been asked, "Did you see the race last night?" with the question surrounding a swimming event. People everywhere were talking about this guy, Michael Phelps; asking when he raced again and what event, and if he would break a record (which was probably already his own).

Every night a nation would drop what they were doing to run to the TV because Phelps was on. Single handedly Michael Phelps did what David Beckham was supposed to do for soccer and Phelps wasn't intending to do it. He made swimming cool. He made swimming something you could watch and talk publicly about without people looking at you funny or walking away.

The only athlete that comes close to Phelps's dominance of a sport is Tiger Woods. The reason Phelps is beyond the realm of the golf superstar is that people don't ask, "Phelps or the field?" They ask, "Will Phelps break his own record?"

The saying goes that records are made to be broken, and Michael Phelps was made to break them.

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