Michael Phelps Strategy
Michael Phelps - deserve ably - got a lot of press after the Beijing Olympics. His first Olympic gold medal wasn't in Beijing. It was in Athens, four years earlier. The story of that win forms the first chapter of Phelps' obligatory book after all the medals in China.
There's one quote that sticks in my mind, from his father when Michael was seven (Phelps, 22):
If I was playing sports, no matter what it was, my father's direction was simple: Go hard and, remember, good guys finish second. That didn't mean that you were supposed to be a jerk, but it did mean that you were there to compete as hard as you could. The time to be friends was after the race; during it, the idea was to win.
The quote comes from Phelps' description of his first win (of six golds and two bronzes) in Athens, the Games before Beijing, when he won the 400 meter individual medley; four strokes, the equivalent of the swimming decathlon. Through Phelps' whole story, that paragraph proves crucial. Work hard, absolutely. Win when it mattered, too.
Reference
Phelps, Michael with Alan Abrahamson. No Limits. The Will to Succeed. Free Press. 2008.