My Sportsman Choice: Michael Phelps

By Frank Deford

Michael Phelps won eight medals, including six golds, to match Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin's 1980 record for the most medals at one Games. Peter Read Miller/SI  Chris Stone: Red Sox Nation, you've earned this one  Paul Zimmerman: Boy Wonder brought Boston a title  B.J. Schecter: Red Sox captured Boston's heart  Richard Deitsch: The Babe had a big presence in '04  Rick Reilly: Big Papi did it all for the world champs  Jeffri Chadiha: A reward for reversing The Curse  Lisa Altobelli: Ramirez never took anything seriously  • Sportsman of the Year archive

There are only three bona fide choices for the Sportsman of the Year, 2004, and two of them are editorially impractical, so there is really only one logical choice. He's the obvious one, anyway, and the only reason not to select Michael Phelps would be to play it cute, so that everyone would be surprised.

The two other possibilities would be Michael Schumacher and Diana Taurasi. Schumacher so absolutely dominated Formula One racing this year that he single-handedly diminished interest in his sport. He was too good. Roger Federer in tennis and Vijay Singh in golf might have had spectacular years in their individual sports, but what they accomplished pales before the command that Schumacher exerted over his endeavor.

But let's face it. Schumacher is a European, and Sports Illustrated is an American magazine. He's somebody else's Sportsman of the Year. Besides, if any American publication is going to celebrate a race driver it dang well better be a good old 'Mercan Nascar hero.

Diana Taurasi concluded the most incomparable career that any major-sport college athlete has enjoyed since, probably, Bill Walton at UCLA a generation ago. She was not only the best female player in college (ever?), but she became one of those rare team players who could improve everyone else on the team. She didn't "carry" UConn; she inspired victory. She truly embodies the essence of sports(wo)man.

But let's face it. Women's basketball is a third-tier sport, and Taurasi's achievement in college is somewhat blurred by the fact that she kept on playing after UConn won. She became Rookie of the Year in the WNBA and was a valued part of the U.S. Olympic team. It all seems as if her college heroics took place in some other year. It would be nice to choose her. No athlete has been chosen Sportsman for college play in 40 years, but even if Taurasi is the team-sport Sportsman of the Year, circumstances edge her out.

Besides, Michael Phelps is head and shoulders over everyone else. He not only accomplished everything he was reasonably expected to, but he did it with grace and elan and with a maturity beyond his young age. Moreover, it wasn't just that he tied the all-time Olympic record for most medals (and most of them gold). He chose to race in the 200-meter freestyle for the absolute sport of it, knowing it was not his best event and that he was likely to lose. Then he gave up his place on a relay team so that a teammate he had beaten could win a gold. Is that not the quintessential sportsman?

And while it is a bit much to say that Phelps saved the Olympics, his performance in the first week rescued the Games from all the negative run-up that dealt with drugs and Athens' preparedness. It isn't every year that one athlete stands out in so many ways -- performance, gallantry, charm and significance -- as Michael Phelps did in 2004. This year there is him and everybody else.

Sports Illustrated will announce the 2004 Sportsman of the Year winner on FOX on November 28. Check back every weekday until then to read more Sportsman picks from SI writers.

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