Highlights of Beijing Olympics 2008

Almost 1,000 medals were handed out at the Beijing Olympic, but there are only a few that managed to create waves across boundries. Olympic is not only about winning the medals and bagging big endoersement contracts. It is about doing it all with a style. Beijing had its own share of magical moments. Here are a few for you. Michael Fred Phelps, swimming, USA He sets fire on water and he proved that in style at the Beijing Olympics. The living legend not only won eight gold medals in Beijing, Michael Fred Phelps of the US did it in his trademark best by bettering seven world records and one Olympics record. Of the eight, five are his individual effort. Apart from the Chinese invasion in the arena of sports, Phelps displayed what few would have dreamt of. He not only won 14 career Olympics gold medals, the most by any Olympian till date, he swam ahead of Mark Spitz who won seven gold medals in the pool at the 1972 Olympics Games. And it took 36 years and the greatness to redefine the finest muscles at work in water. Overall he won 16 Olympics medals which includes two bronze at Athens in 2004. So any doubt why he has been the World Swimmer of the Year Award in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007. And now he doesn’t need the award, rather the award needs him. With 48 career medals which comprise of 40 gold, six silver and two bronze, this Baltimore, Maryland born swimmer is just 23 year-old. A graduate from Towson High School in 2003, Phelps was diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). He started swimming at seven year-old and excelled as a swimmer, and by the age of 10 held a national record for his age group. More age group records followed, and Phelps’s rapid improvement culminated in his qualifying for the 2000 Summer Olympics at the age of 15. Throughout the 2008 Olympics, Phelps was questioned by the press if perhaps his feats were “too good to be true”, a reference to unsupported rumors that Phelps may be taking performance enhancing drugs. In response, Phelps noted that he had signed up for Project Believe, a project by the United States Anti-Doping Agency in which US Olympians can volunteer to be tested in excess of the World Anti-Doping Agency guidelines. During the Games, Phelps was tested nine times, and passed all of them. Usain Bolt, athletics, Jamaica It needed a Jamaican thunderbolt to set the Birds Nest’s tracks ablaze. Usain Bolt is the second legend of Beijing to celebrate his birthday on the podium. The 22-year-old Jamaican sprinter now is the undisputed fastest man on the earth, shattering the Olympic and world records for the 100 metros at 9.69 seconds, the 200 metros at 19.30 seconds and, along with his teammates, the 4x100 metros relay at 37.10 seconds, all set at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Post Carl Lewis magnificence in 1984 Olympics, Bolt became the first man to win all three events at a single Olympics and the first man in history to set world records in all three at a single Olympics and hence his nickname ‘Lightning Bolt’. Bolt’s record-setting sprints caused commentators not only to praise his achievements but speculate about his potential to become one of the most successful sprinters ever.