The Republic of Michael Phelps !!!!

Beijing 2008 has been witness to some amazing feats of sporting excellence that one can only dream of. The Chinese, after displaying their engineering prowess in setting up what is being hailed as the most spectacular Olympics ever, seem all set to top the medals tally as well. But had it not been for some super humans, the event might have not been as lip-smacking as they are now...

Consider these facts...

• If Michael Phelps was a nation by himself, he would currently be ranked no.5 on the medals tally. His haul if 8 golds is bettered only by China, US, GBR and Germany. Phelps overall tally of medals is the same as India in its 108 years of participation at the Olympics, although he can safely claim to have won more golds than India. And is it even worth mentioning here that he won 7 of his 8 golds with WR times (one with OR) considering that he already has 32 to his name and he's still 23?

• Usain 'The Lightning' Bolt won the most watched event of the Olympics with a WR time of 9.69 sec. He was seen glancing back about 15m from the finish line and then arrogantly thumping his chest before smashing his own WR and his competitors' dreams. Video footage showed he had an untied shoelace which could have probably messed up his run. Imagine him not looking back just before the finish and sticking out his neck at the finish line. Who knows the WR time might have been chopped off by another tenth of a second. Who knows...

• 41 year old Dara Torres, mother of a 2 year old, competed in her 5th Olympics and even more amazingly has won at least one medal at each of the five. She competed for the 1st time in Los Angeles,1984 when i was not even born. This woman of steel has won silver medals in all of three events she competed in at Beijing at times even beating some kids less than half her age.

• Rafael Nadal just added another feather to his already fluffy cap by winning the gold medal and in the process becoming the first top 5 ranked player ever to win at the Olympics. He also succeeds the illustrious Roger Federer as the world no.1 after holding the no.2 position for 158 weeks.

• Abhinav Bindra became the 1st ever Indian individual Olympic gold medallist by winning the 10m Air Rifle event and also winning a gold medal for India after 28 years.

I listed here events that i closely followed. There might surely be other feats being achieved that i don't know of much as they are not as highly publicized by the media as these. The Olympics are not over yet. Who knows the Indian boxers bring home more glory as they all look in supreme form. One thing's for sure though. The limits to human endurance as displayed by these athletes are simply mind-boggling and they sure inspire a lot of other sportspersons to go for that little extra that makes one not just a winner, but a great one.