‘He became a mythical being’

something like that.”

The first sign that Beijing would not be so easy came that winter, when Phelps broke his wrist in a freak accident.

He and Bowman panicked at first, but a surgeon at Michigan, where he was training, offered two choices: have the bone fixed immediately and stay out of the pool for two weeks or wear a cast for six weeks.

He chose surgery and hit the water again as soon as his stitches healed.

Ten months later, with the world tuned in to his attempt at history, Phelps began his Olympics as planned, with a smashing victory in the 400meter individual medley. His time of 4 minutes, 3.84 seconds remains the fastest in history by more than a second. second, in the 200-meter freestyle, the lone individual race he did not win in Athens.

But his next difficult moment lurked right around the corner, on day four.

Phelps owned the 200-meter butterfly through most of his career, right up until the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He believed he was primed for a remarkable time in Beijing, one that no one would touch for generations. But as soon as he dived in, his goggles broke and filled with water. He had to swim essentially blind, relying on the sense of internal rhythm he’d built up over a lifetime.

“I thought he was either really tired or he was getting sick,” Bowman recalled. “Because I could tell he wasn’t moving. He should’ve killed those guys.”

Phelps still won comfortably and set yet another world record. But he ripped off his swim cap and flung his busted googles in anger after he touched the wall.

Not long ago, Phelps spoke at an event where the sponsors replayed that 200-meter final. They were surprised to see him shake his head in disappointment as he watched it unfold.

“It still haunts me,” he said, laughing at his perfectionism.

Though Phelps might not agree, NBC commentator and former Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines says the 200 butterfly stands out as the most remarkable swim from that remarkable week.

“I can’t begin to tell you how disorienting that is, to have your goggles fill with water like that,” Gaines said. “Any other mortal would have folded.”

Phelps picked up his fifth gold the same night in the 4x200meter relay and his sixth two nights later in the 200 IM. But his closest call, the race even Bowman thought he’d lost, came on night seven in the 100-meter butterfly.

As the swimmers neared the wall, a tired Phelps appeared unlikely to catch Serbian Milorad Cavic, who’d said it would be better for the sport if Phelps fell short of his quest for eight gold medals. Viewers across the world thought Cavic had thwarted Phelps as they watched in real

A decade later, he and Bowman still have not entirely wrapped their heads around what they accomplished.

“You do have to have all your stars aligned,” Phelps said. “Everything has to fall into place perfectly.”

Said Bowman: “I just think of Michael going through that week in Beijing, and it’s like every important lesson that I felt like I taught him for the 12 years before that, he used. And they all worked.”

The achievement made Phelps famous on a level he’d never conceived, with Spitz and others proclaiming him the greatest Olympian of all time.

For all the world records and unapproachable career totals, Gaines says the eight gold medals will always be the No. 1 hook for people celebrating Phelps.

“If he had won seven golds and one silver, would that have had the same ring?” Gaines said. “He’d still be the greatest Olympian of all time and in my biased opinion, the greatest athlete. But he wouldn’t be Michael Phelps. He became a mythical being that week.” What a thing to live up to. “I remember thinking, ‘Gosh, it would be nice if it could just be done now,’ ” Bowman said with a knowing laugh.

But they did not stop, of course. Phelps was just 23, and his identity and financial future, along with those of the people around him, were tied to Olympic swimming. The next eight years would bring an additional 12 medals and a sweet conclusion in Rio but also the darkest moments of his life, times when he did not like himself or know how to move forward.

“I had already done that one thing you always dream of as a kid. And I’m like, ‘Well, crap, now what do I do?’ ” Phelps recalled of his post-Beijing mindset.

But for all his struggles, which reached a public nadir in the wake of his 2014 drunken-driving arrest, Phelps says he would not alter his story. He sees 2-year-old Boomer running out of the bathroom with a huge grin on his face after a