I am one of the millions of Americans who is in amazement at what Michael Phelps achieved in his career. I just read an interview of his - so cool to know that a little 9 year old had a dream and that a life of dedication, hard work, tenacity (and, ok a TON of raw talent) made it come true. Inspirational...

from the interview:..... Cannon also asked Phelps what has driven him over the years to work as hard as he has to achieve his record-shattering success.

"I hate to lose, number one," the 31-year-old icon said, smiling. "My biggest thing is, I started goal setting when I was nine years old, and I literally dreamt for the stars and dreamt for the biggest possible thing I could think of: I wanted to change the sport of swimming and I wanted to do something nobody had ever done before."