So, for a 19th birthday present, what do you give a wave-making, record-breaking swimming phenomenon who has everything -- all the strokes, all the explosiveness, all the world's attention -- up to but not including fins and gills?
Debbie Phelps had a thought: How about a leisurely cruise around Baltimore harbor?
Debbie's son, Michael Phelps, has made his reputation in the water. Why not a little relaxation on top of it?
Bob Bowman, Phelps' longtime coach and possibly too avid a fan of "Gilligan's Island," had a question for that question.
"What if a storm comes up?" Bowman said to Debbie Phelps.
Just like that, Michael Phelps -- owner of three individual world records, pursuer of Mark Spitz's unequaled mark of seven gold medals at the 1972 Olympics -- was landlocked. There would be no three-hour tour.
Cruise, out.
Steakhouse, in.
Debbie Phelps laughs as she tells the story, which happened in June. Who wouldn't laugh? Her son is the goggled, chlorine-drenched face of the Athens Olympics, already a Sports Illustrated cover man and the star of a television commercial showing Phelps churning laps across the Atlantic Ocean.
If anyone in Baltimore could handle a summer harbor storm, the list would have to start with Phelps.
Yet Bowman's cautious reflex reflects the state and packaging of Michael Phelps Inc. And if bubble wrapping it and slapping on a handle-with-care tag wasn't enough, Bowman joked about another option the day before Phelps' first race at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials in Long Beach last month.
"If I can get him back to that hotel right now and lock the door and not let him out till tomorrow morning, my job is over," he said, smiling.
Lockdown or not, Phelps emerged the next day and broke his world record in the 400-meter individual medley. He won three more individual events, finished second in two others and it took world records to beat him in the 200 backstroke and 100 butterfly. Though he qualified in a record six individual events, Phelps will swim five in Greece and could be on as many as three relays.
Spitz told Phelps during the trials he thought Phelps had the chance to do it, matching the Moby Dick of records, the seven golds of Munich, and claiming the $1-million bonus carrot dangled by Speedo. When there's so much talk about a swimmer redefining a sport, it's understandable that Team Phelps gets a little nervous about the precious cargo.
