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Australian swimmer Matt Cowdrey will emulate American Michael Phelps to win eight gold medals at the 2008 Paralympic Games. |
Australian swimmer Matt Cowdrey will try and reprise American Michael Phelps' Herculean Olympic effort by winning eight gold medals at the 2008 Paralympic Games.
At the 2004 event in Athens, Cowdrey won three gold, two silver and two bronze medals, finishing the meet with two world and Paralympic records, all at the tender age of 15.
Now, the 19-year-old has his first crack at Paralympic gold in the 100m butterfly, with the 50m, 100m, 400m freestyles, 100m backstroke, 200m individual medley and both men's relays to follow.
The South Australian, who was born without a lower left arm, could potentially match Phelps as long as he can overcome a bout of illness suffered earlier in the week - and distraction of inevitable comparisons.
"Michael Phelps was swimming at the Olympics," Cowdrey said earlier this week, parrying away any similarities.
"My name is Matt Cowdrey and I'm swimming at the Paralympics. I just had a tummy bug. It's all been taken care of, we jumped on it very early, everything is fine. I just need to be fresh every day and I'll do whatever it takes to be fresh. I'm just going to go out and swim as hard as I can in every race I have. It's too hard to put any figure on the medals.
"There's no pressure. Michael Phelps, I don't think it's a comparison you can make. I'll just go out there and be my own person."
Like Phelps, Cowdrey's training has been meticulously calculated.
He and other members of the Australian Paralympic swimming team are wearing pedometers around the Paralympic Village and to competition venues to alert them should they exceed a certain amount of steps per day, in a bid to conserve as much energy as possible for racing.
Cowdrey's daily limit, which was determined after how far he usually walked at home was measured before the Games, is 18,000 steps.
A multiple world-record holder, the teenage swimmer has become one of the top amputee athletes in the world.
He started swimming at the age of five and quickly stamped his mark on his S9 classification, breaking his first Australian open record at age 11 and world record at 13.
His amazing achievements in Athens were recognized when he was named the Australian Swimmer of the Year with a Disability and the Junior Male Paralympian of the Year.
Cowdrey was the only Australian male swimmer (able-bodied or EAD) to win individual gold at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Following this, he produced a phenomenal performance at his first World Championships, winning an incredible five gold, two silver and one bronze.
(China Daily September 7, 2008)