A young Michael Phelps watched his sisters, Hilary and Whitney, from the poolside, then dove in himself. Now they're watching him.

BEIJING -- On Friday, Michael Phelps goes for his sixth gold medal of these Olympics. He's the undeniable star of the Games -- a goofy-grinning Poseidon with boy-band popularity -- but the television cameras will give plenty of time to the other instrumental characters.

They'll show Bob Bowman, not just Phelps' coach, but also a surrogate father in many respects. He'll bark and he'll calculate, and when this hunt for gold is complete, he'll deserve much of the credit.

And they'll have another camera pointed at all times on Debbie Phelps, who worked long hours and piled up many miles driving to and from the pool. She's clearly appreciating every step of the journey, and, in turn, it's impossible not to appreciate her role in the history that's unfolding.

But when you see Debbie, pay special attention to a couple of faces around her in the stands. Cheering every race, shedding tears with remarkable frequency, are sisters Hilary and Whitney. Put simply, not only would Phelps have not found the sport without them, but he also wouldn't be the person he is.

Not only does Phelps have more gold medals hanging in his closet than the president has neckties, but he's also about as well-adjusted as you can reasonably expect from a confident, elite performer, a champion without peer.

You want to point to his physical attributes, to his mental toughness, to his training and his dedication. Or you can simply point to his genes and to his sisters.

"A swimmer's path isn't always an Olympics path," Debbie says. "There are many different paths to take. Hilary was a Division I swimmer. Whitney was swimming at age 14 in Rome. And Michael is . . . well, he's Michael."

Hilary, 30, hit the water first, taking up the sport in 1985, the same summer her baby brother was born. She remembers the instant she threw her childhood into the pool. "I swam in a meet at the end of the year," she says. "I ended up getting a third-place trophy, and I said to my mom, 'I want a bigger trophy.' 'Well, honey, these kids swim year-round, and they practice all the time.' That was it."

Whitney, 28, would follow her to the pool, and it was only natural that when Michael was old enough, he would too.

"He was literally raised on the pool deck," Hilary says. "Because we were swimming since he was able to walk, he was at meets all the time. He kind of grew into it."