Aside from his training, focus, et cetera, Michael Phelps also enjoys a distinct physiological advantage over his competitors.
Generally, a man's arm span equals his height but in his case it's 6'7" -- three inches more than his height. Naturally his arms work as powerful propulsive paddles, giving him a clear edge over others. His lower body, interestingly, is shorter than that of an average man of his height. His relatively short legs result in less drag or resistance. In short, Phelps has an upper body of a 6'8" person but his lower body seems to be of someone who is only 5"10", which also make the perfect plane in water.
His size 14 feet may not dwarf Ian Thrope's size 17 but Phelps' double-jointed ankles allow him to do a ballerina's 'pointe' standing on the tips of the toes. It allows him to whip his feet as if those are flippers and break loose.
I swear this is my last entry on this kid and his remarkable accomplishment. I really tried to avoid the buzz, but it is quite an astonishing story. I just hope he hooks up his relay teammates who helped him immensely the past few days on his record setting swims as Phelps is about to collect some very large paychecks from sponsors and such.
Lebron James and Kobe Bryant at Phelps' 8th gold medal winning race. When these three went out later that night in the Olympic Village and ran game at the Swedish bikini team and the Brazilian twins, Kobe and Phelps began to tease James about not having a championship of any sort on his resume. Allegedly.
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