Just like Mike (Phelps)

By Corine Gatti The News Virginian
Published: August 16, 2008

U.S. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps has achieved super-stardom after winning eight gold medals, breaking Mark Spitz’s 1972 record. He tied the mark on Saturday morning, Beijing time, winning the 100-meter butterfly by .01 second. The next day he won No. 8 in a relay.
The hype and media around the 23-year-old has sparked a greater interest in swimming. According to the Associated Press, 25.6 million people watched Phelps’ swim Friday night.
Along with the rest of the country, there has been a stirring at the pools in Waynesboro. Shenandoah Marlins Aquatic Club swimming coach Ryan Sprang is just as excited that swimming has arrived.
“The media attention on Phelps is very exciting to watch,” Sprang said. “In the past, swimming was seen as an amateur sport, and now I think that has disappeared. I have been swimming since I was four-years-old. I’m 29 now, and I have never seen kids so excited about swimming. For me, I feel the same way.”
Sprang, on vacation in New Jersey, has noticed a trend.
“I saw these kids swimming at the hotel pool and they were saying while they were swimming ‘I’m swimming like Michael Phelps,’ ” Sprang said.
“I have never seen kids this excited about this sport. I have always seen kids play football, basketball or baseball, but swimming, not as much. I think we are going to see a lot more kids get involved. I will encourage kids to follow the Phelps story.”
SMAC swimmers including twin sisters Logan and Elizabeth Terrell, 10, have watched Phelps also.
“I think he’s fast, and I like watching him,” Logan said.
“I would like to do that one day too,” Elizabeth added.
SMAC will start registration on Aug. 27 at the YMCA in Waynesboro. Sprang expects attendance to grow.
“I’m expecting that we will get more interest,” Sprang said. “Swimming has never been looked at as being a glamorous sport. In other sports like basketball you have players making millions of dollars and they are always on television.”
But that might change.
The superstar from Baltimore is winning the hearts of many, and Sprang is hoping that Phelps will be his swimmers’ role model.
“About 15 years ago it was Michael Jordan. Now kids are looking up to new heroes,” Sprang said.
“What Michael Phelps has done for swimming will change it, and give it more recognition.”
Sprang said he was going to send a mass e-mail to his swimmers on his plans for the upcoming season.
For the Terrell twins, they just like watching Phelps swim.
“I will keep watching. I like how he swims and I think I would like to do what he’s done,” Logan Terrell said. “He must have had a good coach.”