A relaxed Michael Phelps looked at the Times Sport page, saw the previous night’s IPL report, and chuckled. “Cricket? Doesn’t that take, like, 10 days to get over?” He was only joking, of course, but we explained there were three formats, and that this was the ultra-shortened version. He seemed to like the idea, especially an analogy which cropped up about fine wine co-existing with the cheaper variety on the shelves, but still couldn’t stop guffawing about a game taking days to get over! Phelps’ swimming career, after all, was all about short, sharp bursts of sustained physical, tactical and technical excellence. It was all about extending the will and soaring above the bounds of the possible, something he did better, and more often, than most other sportspersons in history. The most decorated Olympian of all time, with 28 medals, 23 of them gold, Phelps is that rarest of rare species — a sporting genius. As we found out, though, he can also be remarkably human....
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