From Bored to Bedazzled, In Eight Races
My favorite venue at the Summer Olympics in Beijing was the Water Cube, especially at night, when its lights bathed the pathways in soft but colorful purple hues. But stuck inside for nine days, with hundreds of reporters crammed in the bowels of the building, it lost all charm. That was the prospect we all faced if Michael Phelps succeeded in his audacious chase of a record eight Olympic gold medals. Frankly, swimming has never been the sexiest of sports—and even less so now, with the athletes encased in those full-body Speedos. While Phelps may have been the greatest swimming machine in history, he remained a bland, though courteous, young man whose interview range didn't extend much beyond his eating and sleeping habits or, if he stretched, videogames.
So, to be honest, many of us on press row were hoping for an early loss to put an end to the Phelps Watch and spring us from the pool. There were other, more intriguing athletes beckoning—Kobe & Co. on the basketball court, balletic Nastia Liukin and bouncing Shawn Johnson in the gymnasium, Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh on the sand—as well as Great Walls to mount, ornamental chopsticks to haggle over and crispy ducks to devour.
But very quickly the Phelps story became more compelling than I ever could have imagined. In just his second final, the 4 x 100 freestyle relay, the United States appeared headed for silver (and me for the great outdoors)—until Jason Lezak did the impossible, swimming the fastest relay leg in history to catch the French from almost a full body length behind. Phelps had been conspicuously contained up to that point, as if he couldn't afford to squander a drop of energy on emotion. But he was jubilant in victory. There was a kismet quality in that moment, and notions of destiny are very seductive. As the week played out in serial fashion and Phelps delivered one electrifying swim after another, we were hooked. And we found ourselves pulling—I might even have been praying—for Phelps to prevail.
His seventh gold, featuring his own miracle finish to win the 100-meter butterfly by 0.01 seconds, left me awash in sweat and tears. And when it was finally over, with Phelps draped in eight gold medals, I couldn't find a trace of that callow young man—rather, a gracious champion who, like all of us, was overwhelmed by the magnitude of his achievement. And even amid the hordes in the Water Cube, I just felt privileged to be there, a witness to history.
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Mark Starr was named a senior editor in March 1998. He continues to serve as Newsweek's Boston bureau chief, where he has been headquartered since 1985. Starr has also held the title national sports correspondent since 1992. Before moving to Boston, he spent four years as a general editor in National Affairs.
Starr has covered eight Olympics, beginning with the Winter Games in Albertville and the Summer Games in Barcelona back in 1992. Before the Salt Lake Olympics, he wrote a cover story on American skating queen Michelle Kwan and, during the Games, covered both figure skating's judging scandal and Sarah Hughes' upset gold medal. In December 2001, Starr profiled Hughes in Newsweek's year-end issue as the "Athlete to Watch" in 2002, calling her a strong upset possibility in Salt Lake.
He was also prominently involved in four cover stories on the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding saga, which climaxed on the ice in Lillehamer, Norway in 1994. Starr has also covered three World Cups, writing cover stories on the shocking French men's home triumph in 1998 as well as America's "girls of summer," after they beat the Chinese in a thrilling Rose Bowl shootout in 1999. Starr has always been interested in women's sports. In 1996, he wrote on the U.S. women's basketball team hopes for an Olympic gold medal to jump-start a pro league. A year earlier Starr sailed with the women of America3 before its America's Cup challenge in San Diego.
Starr was a major contributor to Newsweek's special issue on the retirement of Michael Jordan, "The Greatest Ever" (October/November 1993) and the March 20, 1995, cover story on Jordan's first return to basketball, "Hoop Dreams." Starr has profiled a wide range of top personalities and performers in all sports including basketball's Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, baseball's Pedro Martinez, NFL coaches Steve Spurrier and Bill Parcells, skating star Tara Lipinski, tennis' Martina Hingis, boxing champ Evander Holyfield, track stars Marion Jones, Michael Johnson and Carl Lewis, soccer superstars Roberto Baggio and Mia Hamm, Olympic gymnast Shannon Miller, speedskating queen Bonnie Blair and golfer David Duval.
Starr has also covered some of the more dramatic political stories out of Massachusetts, including John Silber's longshot bid to capture the State House, congressman Barney Frank's revelation that he was gay and Michael Dukakis's 1988 campaign for the presidency. Starr rode the Dukakis "bus" from New Hampshire until the November election.
Prior to Newsweek, Starr covered Central America for the Chicago Tribune during the Sandinista revolution of the late '70s. He was also a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury-News.
Starr, a native of Boston, holds a B.A. from Cornell University and an M.A. in journalism from Stanford.
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