Amazing Pace: The Story of Olympic Champion Michael Phelps from Sydney to Athens to Beijing

by Paul McMullen

A vibrant portrait of American swimmer Michael Phelps—the dominant athlete at the 2004 Olympics—who has relentlessly pushed himself, promoted his sport, and appears poised to ultimately accumulate the most gold medals in Olympic history

Before he was old enough to have a driver's license, Michael Phelps had a world record. Before he ever took a college class or turned 20, he had earned distinction by winning 8 medals—6 gold and 2 bronze—at the Athens Olympics, the most in non-boycotted Games. Along the way, he captivated an American television audience and confounded the critics who questioned his ambition.

Amazing Pace :
• provides the most revealing look yet at a young man who became a world-class athlete before he had the chance to grow up—by respected Baltimore Sun journalist Paul McMullen, who followed Phelps's rise from an obscure 14-year-old to the most scrutinized competitor at the world's biggest sporting event
• details the plotting of his career, from turning professional at age 16, to the management of the first crises he encountered

Paul McMullen's 5 years of observation add dramatic context to the life of a young athlete whose rise to prominence coincided with the tumult of the first Summer Olympics after 9/11. No Olympian has ever earned 10 gold medals in a career, but Michael Phelps is on pace to achieve that milestone at the 2008 Games in Beijing, China.

Genres: Biography, Sports, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published August 8, 2006

Reviews

[Dalton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The amazing pace was differently an interesting book. It was written like michael wrote it himself, following his life from month to month during his late teen and early 20’s. I found it interesting because it talked about his daily life day to day for the last couple of years, and what his workouts where and I realized how hard he had to train to achieve the goals he has broken today. the least interesting part would have to be when it talked about school and how he wasn’t very good in school and he had to work a lot harder to get the same amount of work done as someone who doesn't struggle. It talks about how he has ADHD and how it has even affected his swimming before. He would get kicked out of practice for not following directions and had to wait for his mom for a whole hour because pratice had just started. Another thing the book did that I didn't like was the author used a lot of big words that michael phelps would never use. it made parts of the book harder to read because the words would come out of no where and it wouldn't make sense with the rest of the story. The major theme I feel like is that if you put your mind to something you can accomplish anything. Because Michael phelps never expected to be this good at swimming but he kept training his stroke improved and by the time he was 14 he was setting world records at the olympics. Even with his ADHD Michael was able to accomplish so much. He is a 8 medial olympian at the age of 29. This book made me think that I can do so much with my life. I can try and improve for high school swimming and that I can still get a good job when I'm older if I just keep working on my grades to keep them up. Its inspiring to show how anyone can become famous and if they just try enough they can achieve their goals. This book was a great motivator to try harder in life. I highly suggest that you read this book. It is worth your time. If you do any swimming whatsoever this book will motivate you to want to try harder and go as far as you can in swimming.