With Help From His Friends, Phelps Is Two for Two

Michael Phelps can’t win eight gold medals at the Olympics without help from his U.S. swimming teammates. On Monday morning in Beijing, he got an enormous lift from teammate Jason Lezak, who overcame a 0.59 second gap in the final leg of the 4 x 100 meter relay to edge France’s Alain Bernard by less than a hand. Michael Phelps, right, and his teammate Garret Weber-Gale celebrate the comeback victory. (AP Photo) “It is all very nice to talk about Phelps and his eight gold medals, but this quest is not fully under his own control,” Filip Bondy writes in the New York Daily News. “Five of his eight events are self-serve deals at these Olympics, but three are relays with willing and able teammates. The great swim god occasionally must recruit mere mortals for his crusade.” Mr. Bondy is deliberately exaggerating with that... [read full story]