Cod psychology from coach Bowman spurs Phelps to Olympic splendour

'How could my own coach say such a thing to me when I am going for my seventh gold medal of the Games?' Michael Phelps wondered aloud when the only swimming mentor he has ever known, Bob Bowman, uttered the poisonous phrase ahead of the men's 100 metres butterfly final. 'I'll show him. I'll show everyone.'

Phelps did, and he now stands alone as the greatest Olympian.

Without that spark to reignite a flame in danger of being extinguished by fatigue, however, the most staggering feat of our sporting times might not have happened.

Knowing look: Phelps (left) responded to the words of his coach and mentor Bowman (right) with his seventh gold at Beijing on Saturday. The 23-year-old duly extended the achievement with a record-breaking eighth gold in the men's 4x100m medley relay

Bowman knew what he was doing. He knows Phelps like no other man on Earth. He has coached and guided him like a son since Phelps was 10 years old. He knew how tired Phelps was. And he knew the speed of Serbia's Milorad Cavic, the man who could spike history.

Phelps responded as Bowman knew he would. And still he needed the instincts of a champion to take an extra half-stroke while Cavic was gliding the wall to touch home one-hundredth of a second in front.

With that win, Mark Spitz had been matched and barring a relay disqualification, it was certain that he would be surpassed and erased from at least one page of the Olympic record books.

So it proved. The US men's 4x100m medley relay squad claimed their predicted gold on Sunday morning, Phelps climbed on to the top step of the medal podium for the eighth time in eight days and Bowman roared in relief.

'I wasn't going to tell Michael it would be good for him to lose, but then I said to myself: "This race is going to be very tight, so I'm going to use everything I've got." Maybe it was worth a hundredth of a second.'

Making a splash: Phelps (right) is jubilant after pipping Serbian Cavic (right) in the 100m butterfly

Phelps needed that one-hundredth of a second. He needed the warped imagination of his coach. He needed compatriot Jason Lezak to swim the anchor leg of his life in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay last Monday to keep the impossible dream alive.

He needed touches of fortune, but most of all he needed himself. He needed the iron will that was forged by a difficult childhood in which he was bullied on the school playground. The iron will that helped him clamber over obstacles formed of words and deeds. He recalled one such yesterday.

Phelps said: 'I was in middle school and I had an English teacher tell me that I would never be successful. My mum and I still joke about that. It's little things like that that you think back to when you're on the podium. That's maybe why I look emotional up there. It's all the things you go through to get here.'

The 23-year-old from Baltimore is the international face of these Games. He will be the international face of the London Olympics four years hence.

Media circus: Phelps has become the face of the Beijing Games

Yet it is neither fame, nor fortune that feeds an ambition that was humbly expressed when the cameras and microphones pointed at him from every possible angle in the Water Cube press conference room.

No showboating here. No posturing or preening. No individual lap of honour when he and a billion Chinese suddenly shared the same lucky number eight. Phelps was part of a team and  he wasn't about to forsake a camaraderie that he has found in sport and which keeps him in line whenever he strays off beam, as he did shortly after the Athens Games when he was arrested for drink-driving.

A passion that became a vocation now has a mission to fuel it. A mission that will exploit each and every one of the eight gold medals he can hang around his neck at mealtimes, or while he lounges on the sofa, or even in the bath if he chooses.

Magic eight: Phelps celebrates his record gold haul

'Being able to accomplish everything you've ever dreamed of is fun,' he said. 'I'm lucky to have everything that I have. Lucky to have the talent, lucky that I have the drive, lucky that I have the excitement about the sport. I'm fortunate for every quality and I wouldn't trade any of it in.

'But I don't want this sport to be an every-four-year sport. I want to help more people get involved in the sport. Swimming has changed my life and I feel honoured to be able to help it.

'I've heard about all the excitement at home. The announcement about one of my golds at Yankee Stadium and I heard that when people are out to eat in a restaurant, there's swimming on the TV.

'That's great and the goal that I'm working towards is in progress. But it's going to take some time for me to really get the sport where I want it.'

A worthy crusade. A humble champion, as all of the truly great are. But even as a psychological tool, how could Bob Bowman have said such a thing?