There's an ALIEN in Beijing !

The living legend pictured here cannot be a human. He must be an alien from some other planets, just like his predecessor Mark Spitz, who won 7 Gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Can they really be human when you see their superhuman efforts in the pool, outclassing all other humans, many with better physique than the two "aliens"?
M Phelps' performance at the pool so far, has earned him 6 Gold medals. He won 5 Gold medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics. The total is now officially 11 Golds, making him the most bemedalled athlete in the History of the Olympics. And he has a couple more events to go yet! He has completely overtaken the 4 others who each had 9 Golds in all. Legends such as Carl Lewis, that great USA track and field superstar. Phelps sensational wins have been described widely in the media as," phenomenal, unbelievable, sensational, out of this world...etc". See.."out of this world " has alien connotation, right?
Whether he is an alien or not, many may not know that after his exploits at the last Athen's Games he was hounded by the American media and criticised for not being able to achieve 8 Golds [ he won only 5 Golds]. Can you all believe that? He was the most bemedalled athlete yet he was hounded! How can this be explained? Have they lost their minds?
The answer lies in just one word and that word is...Perspective.
They obviously had a different perspective to...say ours.
Our one and very lonely silver medal came from Uncle TAN HOWE LIANG in weightlifting at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Since then......a BIG,BIG ZERO! NIL! KOSONG! No medal of any colour or type and yet we keep sending participants and contingents, with lots of hopes and promises but in the end....the same old story, the same old boring ending, with no kick or spice. That same story will be invariably told and repeated once every 4 years.
Some of our Sg competitors are still within earshot of achieving something in Beijing. But that also happened in Athens and Sydney as well. And we all knew how it ended too. SIGH!
The Wise Owl here is making a special magical wish for our S'pore challenge in Beijing to have
a different ending. Can it be done? Why not? It's all in the MIND !
We should learn from the Alien.
He gave an interview recently when he was starkly reminded about the media's hounding.
His answer ...he does not give a damn about what they think or write or say.
He only needs to contend with himself!
The Devil or Giant is in his own MIND...not others.
That my friend, is the secret of the Alien's sucess.

More on that 100m Butterfly Final....

These photos came from my own digital camera taken off my TV screen as it happened.

They show the medal presentation ceremony. The Olympic medals were presented to the 3 deserving winners by Ng Ser Miang, Singapore's top IOC official.

Bronze, Silver and finally Gold!

I read the hundreds of remarks and comments on AsiaOne Forum page online regarding Tao Li's remarkable achievements in this same Final. She had finished 5th ,making her the best top 5 swimmers in the world for this event.

Many who commented praised and saluted her. But there are those who continually "rubbed " it into her and our Sg sports people that her achievement, per se S'pore,...leaves little to crow about.

Many of these unhappy people are quite, quite mistaken in their simplistic reasoning. Perhap, they are too inflexible in their world views or have not kept up with the times. We are now in a fast moving, globalised world where many, many nations have opened up their country, with wide open arms, to welcome talent in diverse fields....not only sports. To continually harp on the fact of her past history does great injustice to Tao Li and others like her. She and her family came willingly to our country....NOT AS A TOP CHAMPION in SWIMMING yet. Just one of the hundreds of kids in China who have some talent.

She was moulded here over many years, trained and groomed by our coaches. Many have tried and many have failed, whether from S'pore or China. Only those with the GUTS, PASSION and an -all CONQUERING SPIRIT never quit...despite many failures and setbacks, and unappreciative remarks from a small section of disgruntled public.

That requires loads of RAW COURAGE.

It is different if we were to pay say

$10 million to a former or current foreign world champion to represent us in a sport...hoping for instant Glory.

Then I say it it dumb and I will join in the bandwagon of protest too.

Clearly, Tao Li and others like Li Jiawei, Ronald Susilo and Tang Juihong came here, had to work extremely hard to be where they are today.

No short cut!

ps: Ng Ser Miang presenting the Gold Medal to Libby Trickett the Olympic Champion.