Amazing Pace

Amazing Pace
by Paul McMullen

Amazing Pace
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Book Summary Information

Author: Paul McMullen
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2006-08-08
ISBN: 1594863261
Number of pages: 264
Publisher: Rodale Books

Book Reviews of Amazing Pace

Book Review: Interesting, But Not "The" Book on Swimming
Summary: 4 Stars

Michael Phelps has always been generous with reporters, so many scattered profiles of him exist. This book nicely brings the information together. And perhaps it can be revised after the 2008 Olympics.

McMullen covered Phelps for the "Baltimore Sun" and seems to have developed good relationships with Phelps and his people. McMullen adopts an upbeat tone: he enjoys Phelps' accomplshments and values the perspectives of Phelps' family and coach. As a local man who was on the story almost fulltime, McMullen knows things that other writers do not, such as Phelps' probable income, the content of arguments between Phelps and his father, the impact of Phelps' sister's swimming career on his own.

McMullen's book complements rather than competes with Phelps' own autobiography, "Beneath the Surface," written with Brian Cazeneuve. Indeed, McMullen strives to fill in background and perspective that the informally told biography leaves out.

Those good things said, the book offers some frustrations. The chief one is McMullen's refusal to narrate chronologically. Each chapter, until the 2004 Olympics, starts with a competition, then circles back to discuss some issue, such as family, professionalism in the Olympics, dietary suuplements (he actually makes supplements almost interesting). The effect is that twice when I resumed reading after a break, I forgot where I was in Phelps' career. Within chapters, I also felt unstuck in time. Chapter 1 starts with a meet in 2003, cycles back to discuss Phelps' parents, then lingers for over a page on the 2000 Olympics. What happened to narrative order?

Two other complaints. McMullen does not demystify the sport. Unlike, for example, John Feinstein who embeds illuminating information in his basketball books without impeding the narrative flow, McMullen leaves complex issues undiscussed. Why do swimmers train as they do? What made Coach Bowman's methods with Phelps successful? How do race strategies differ in various events? Further, McMullen is not very dramatic at describing races, which is sad because Phelps often comes from behind to win.

The book is a fun and fast read. Yet we still need a book that does for Olympic level swimming what Feinstein's "A Season on the Brink" does for college basketball and what H. G. Bissinger's "Friday Night Lights" does for football.

Summary of Amazing Pace

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.

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