I’ve been away on vacation and only started watching the Olympics yesterday, but I didn’t miss a wonderful interview with Michael Phelps and his mother done by David Costas. Michael won 8 gold medals in swimming at the Beijing Olympics – a new world record, bringing his career total to 14 Olympic medals. This is the single greatest Olympic performance in history.

So besides his incredible talent as a swimmer, what is so special about this young man who appears somewhat oblivious and a tad uninterested in his new stardom? Well, Michael Phelps was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) as a child, a disorder frequently accompanied by multiple challenges and hardships, particularly in school. According to his mother, swimming was a great outlet for his energy, and she made the effort to get him to swimming and keep him involved in it. By the age of ten he was nationally ranked. So instead of hearing how ADHD held him back from succeeding in life, we learn how he overcame it and went on to graduate from High School and attend the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. ADHD did not prevent him from completing university as well as focusing on swimming and becoming the most successful swimmer in world history.

And there were other hardships along the way. His parents were divorced in 1994 when he was nine years old, and Michael talks about being bullied in school and on the school bus. He got revenge by becoming the number one swimmer of the world and the U.S. hero of the 2008 Olympics. He says he has not forgotten his tormentors and does not give them the time of day when they try to contact him now.

But children rarely overcome obstacles without the love and support of a dedicated adult, and in Michael’s case it was his mother, Debbie, a middle school principal and divorced mother of three. Debbie's focus was not on what Michael couldn’t do, only on what he could do. She did not let other people define her child nor limit his possibilities. Her belief in her son and unwavering commitment as a parent helped facilitate his success. The affection between mother and son is moving, and they obviously have a lot of respect for each other.

At the end of the interview, Debbie bent over and kissed Michael on the cheek. To the rest of the world he may be an Olympic hero, but to his mother he is first and foremost the son she adores. Bless them both.

Image Credit:flickr