www.nbcolympics.com/swimming/news/newsid=229918.html?GT1=39003Phelps getting celebrity treatment
Swimming superstar looking forward to some down time
By The Associated Press
Posted Monday, August 18, 2008 3:01 AM ET
BEIJING (AP) -- Hey MJ, MP wants to meet you. And you, too, Tiger.
Michael Phelps singled out retired basketball superstar Michael Jordan and golfer Tiger Woods as the two people he'd most like to hang with.
"What he did in the sport of basketball, I'm trying to do in the sport of swimming," Phelps said about his idol Jordan.
Snagging introductions shouldn't be a problem for the man who dominated the Beijing Olympics, winning a historic eight gold medals and setting seven world records in the pool.
The trio could compare their hardware collections, although Phelps' medals are a lot more portable. He held them all at once for the first time Monday, something he said was "pretty cool."
It's not that Phelps is new to the celebrity game. He got to meet Muhammad Ali after the 2004 Athens Olympics, when he won six golds and two bronzes. In Beijing, he chatted up President Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The first thing he craved after becoming the greatest Olympian ever?
"A big, fat cheeseburger and some fries," he said, smiling at the memory.
When he returns home to Baltimore, Phelps said "one of his boys" has promised to pull some strings and get him in touch with rapper Young Jeezy, whose hit "Go Getta" filled Phelps' ear buds before his races at the Water Cube.
Since swimming ended Sunday, Phelps estimated 4,000-to-5,000 text messages have flooded his Blackberry. He said Bruce Springsteen performed "Born in the USA" at a weekend concert in Florida in honor of Phelps winning his seventh gold medal, which tied him with Mark Spitz for most golds in a single games.
"Every time I read a text, I'm smiling," he said during a promotional appearance at Prince Jun Palace, where his mother Debbie was close by.
"The person I love the most is sitting in the front row," Phelps said, crediting his mother "for everything she's done."
A crush of photographers had to be held back as Phelps entered the packed room. A flurry of clicking shutters sounded each time he gestured. A Chinese reporter asked Phelps to speak a few words in Mandarin. He declined, explaining that learning the language is "the hardest thing."
Reporters from People magazine, The Hollywood Reporter and "Access Hollywood" were on hand, a sign that the 23-year-old is becoming a pop culture phenomenon.
Phelps can't wait to get home, catch some Baltimore Ravens football games and take it easy until he resumes serious training in January.
He will be in Beijing making sponsor appearances until Thursday, when he'll jet to London to help in the handover of the Summer Games from China to the 2012 host during Sunday's Closing Ceremony.
Phelps is already looking ahead to those Games, where he'd like to try some new, shorter events, like the 100m freestyle and 100 back.
"There's some times I still want to hit before I retire," he said. "That's sort of what's keeping me going."
