Phelps claims his place in history

Think America and swimming and the mind wanders from Baywatch and beach babes to California beaches and the birthplace of Olympic legend Mark Spitz, he of the moustache and seven gold medals in a sport for the landed and loaded with ocean views and time and talent to spare.

Think again. Try a working-class world away, Baltimore, Babe Ruth, broken home, burning ambition, back-breaking regime, a boy with a breathtaking talent. Think big. Think Michael Fred Phelps. Not seven laurels, but eight. No limits.

"You can't put a limit on anything," says the 23-year-old born in Towson, Maryland, and sporting a 6ft 7in armspan to outstretch his 6ft 5in height. He is a medal-winning machine who broke the mould.

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• Michael Phelps

"The more you dream, the farther you get.”

Setting limits such as eight gold medals is not enough for Superfish. “If that sort of stuff is my goal, then that's where the line is drawn. I can only imagine. If you don't, you sell yourself short and you never reach your potential."

Marketeers, merchandisers and the men from NBC-TV with 793 million of their dollars in a Swiss vault marked IOC have flocked to claim a part of Phelps. They even switched the swim programme at the Water Cube so that finals were held in the morning. All the better for US prime time advertising revenue and audience figures.

That his size 15 feet are firmly on the ground is no surprise. Born in the blue-collar milltown of Towson on the north-east coast of Maryland, where dreams are made on football fields not in water, the third and youngest child of Fred, a state trooper, and Debbie, a school administrator and teacher. He followed his sisters, Hilary and Whitney, to the North Baltimore Aquatics club headed by coach Bowman.

Whitney, whose own international career was cut short by a back injury, would later refer to swimming as a refuge from the domestic maelstrom. "I didn't have to listen to people yelling or bickering and complaining. It was my escape," said Whitney. "I took a lot of anger and beat it out, just me and the bottom of the pool". Separated and reconciled before Michael was born, Fred and Debbie made the final split just as their seven-year-old son started to swim competitively.

Phelps had a stand-up row with Fred that created a months-long rift between father and son in 2003. Three days after Phelps's high-school graduation ceremony, Fred visited the family's townhouse in Baltimore and was told by the swimmer that his two complimentary tickets to the world championships in Barcelona would go to his mother and sister Hilary. Fred walked out and missed his son's graduation party. They made up just before the Olympic Games in Athens.

It is mother and daughters that you see hanging over the rails accepting flowers from Phelps with each passing gold medal and world record — five down, three to go — at the Water Cube. The tears that flow are not just for what is unfolding before their eyes but because they know what went into making it all possible. “In kindergarten I was told by his teacher, ‘Michael can’t sit still, Michael can’t be quiet, Michael can’t focus,’ ” recalls Debbie, a teacher for 22 years. “I said, maybe he’s bored.” The teacher said that was impossible. “He’s not gifted,” came back the reply. “Your son will never be able to focus on anything.”

Phelps was diagnosed with ADHD — attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. He was put on permanent medication but after two years, he had had enough. His mother, speaking at the hospitality lounge set up by Speedo — the sponsor who will pay $1m to Phelps should he match Spitz’s seven gold medals — recalled: “Out of the blue, he said to me: ‘I don’t want to do this anymore, Mom. My buddies don’t do it. I can do this on my own.’ ”