Two gold medals into the Beijing Olympics for me and it was already shaping up to be a great adventure. I don’t think there would be a tougher race than my third one though, the 200 freestyle. This was the same race that keep my from my eight gold medals four years ago in Athens. A guy by the name of Ian Thorpe managed to grab gold, while I settled for bronze. That loss drove me to train harder than before. I did not like losing like most people, but something about that race made me more determined than any other loss before it. Ian and I never raced again after that race in Athens. Ian retired from swimming because he was no longer motivated to swim. I wasn’t going to let that stop me from my goals. I was still determined to redeem myself in this race and get that third gold medal. After the beep sounded, I swam out to an early lead. I hit the 100 wall in 50.29 seconds. After three turns, I was almost two full seconds ahead of Peter Vanderkaay. I took that lead with me all the way home to the finish. I finished in world record time also: 1:42.96. The guy that got second, Park Tae-Hwan of South Korea, finished 1.89 seconds behind me. That was the biggest margain of victory in the 200 free in Olympic history. Three for three.
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