The moment that Michael Phelps passed into Olympic legend was barely a moment at all. No, it was a sliver of time, invisible to the naked eye, and very nearly to the digital one. You didn't have to blink to miss it. You just had to watch.

It was officially listed as one-hundredth of a second, but only because that's the smallest increment of time that swimming recognizes, or at least, that swimming can measure. But that was the difference between Michael Phelps winning eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, and Phelps settling for seven golds and an unthinkable silver. It was the difference between great and greatest.

When Michael Phelps arrived in Beijing, the goal was simple, if daunting: Eight gold medals, or one more than Mark Spitz's record haul in Montreal 32 years earlier. Phelps had managed six golds and two bronzes as a 19-year-old back in 2004. He was, four years later, trying again.

Nobody could touch Phelps in the 400-metre individual medley, which he won on the third day of the Games by more than two seconds. After that, it got hard.

Source: National Post