A Lesson from the Athletes: No Doubt Allowed

I emailed Rohit Brijnath to thank him for his piece on Phelps that I posted earlier this week.

He wrote back: “I will never forget these Olympics because there is something rewarding and inspiring about watching a young man chase an incredible dream. Today, when the Chinese hurdler limped out of the heats, I thought, how hard it is to win even one gold, how much can go wrong. And Michael Phelps has eight. It still amazes me.”

Today, I see he managed to get some face-to-face time with Phelps. I take some lessons from the world’s greatest Olympian.

Photo: Albert Sim, Straits Times

Over and over, it seems, the notion of perseverance keeps surfacing as the key to success.

Brijnath writes:

Time defines Phelps. If this is his time, then it is because of the time he has put in the pool. To the point where he could write a thesis on tiredness and a dissertation on pain.

To comprehend how he could race 17 times in nine days, we have to briefly revisit his youth, when he began his tryst with the ridiculous.

The longest race at the Olympic pool is the 1,500m (1,640 yards), but Phelps famously did 5,000 yards straight in the pool. At 55 seconds per 100 yards. No rest in between every 100 yards.

To give this perspective, the 100m world record holder Eamon Sullivan would swim the 100 yards in about 43 seconds. And Phelps was doing the 100 yards 50 times. He was also 15.

It was so wearying that even now Phelps winces: ‘It was the worst thing. I used to always complain to Bob (Bowman, his coach), ‘I’m not going to do this, I don’t need to do this’.

‘And Bob said, trust me, it’ll pay off down the road. He used to have to give me little incentives. I used to love BYOC, which was Be Your Own Coach for a workout, which means you do whatever you want (i.e. play games).

‘He gave me incentives when we had timed swims because he knows I like to be rewarded and that was his way to get me to swim fast. It was so tough, and you’re so sore, you climb out of the pool and pretty much go to bed. It takes every ounce of your energy.’

Ian Thorpe recently spoke about his body shaking uncontrollably after a torrid workout, and he loved it; it was proof of what he could withstand. He called it ‘an athlete’s feeling’.

Phelps knows this feeling, he has understood also, as only athletes do, the idea of investing hours for a moment of a few minutes that comes four years later.

As he explains: ‘It’s something I learnt from Bob at a very young age. That everything you do you’re not going to see immediate rewards, it’s going to take a long time before we see the improvement. If you stay positive, and you think anything’s possible, you can do whatever you want.’

All those lengths of the pool was like a machine tuning itself, being tinkered with, being oiled, getting prepared, obviously, for one insane fortnight in Beijing.

It’s why Phelps says, once on the blocks, he is not thinking, he’s ready. ‘Once I’m getting up to race, to compete, I don’t think. I’m there to do a job, that’s all I am thinking about.’ What he’s done, he says, is ‘programmed myself’ for greatness.

But before races, after races, to get to his point of brilliance, Phelps’ real weapon is not body but mind. His virtues are both the quantity, and purity, of his desire and his perseverance.

He admits there were days this past week ‘where I was so tired, exhausted, I just wanted to go back to bed’.

But his response was always mighty, for he told himself: ‘This is the Olympic Games, I can’t be tired, I’ve got to get up. If I didn’t get up, then why am I here. This is the biggest of the big.’”

The second lesson is to never question yourself or your abilities. Fix your eye on the prize, the goal, the finish line, and just go for it; there is no room for doubt.

The interview continues:

Surely, I ask, there was one moment, where doubt visited. After all, what he was trying had never been achieved.

He shook his head. ‘You can’t doubt. If you doubt, then that’s it. The biggest thing is staying positive and imagining anything is possible. Because it really is.’ Yes, now we know.

Thank you Phelps for being such a great example of a dream chaser; of excellence; of positivity; of mental strength; of perseverance.

You have changed the world. Now it’s our turn to get in the pool.

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