Did Michael Phelps Really Win That 7th Gold,
Or Was This a Conspiracy of Olympic Proportions?

When we say that our basic emotions and experiences are predetermined, we mean it in the sense that we no longer have a say in what we feel and experience in much of our lives. When Princes Diana died, millions of us around the world cried even though we never knew her as a person. We did not mourn the loss of Diana Spencer, we mourned the loss of the 'People's Princess', and the public image, the myth, the brand, the story behind her. In a similar way, we are drawn to Michael Phelps not because we care about the sport of swimming, but because NBC told us that his quest is an important and historical one. We care about Michael Phelps not because we care about the man himself, but because Bob Costas told us that it's important to dream, and dream big, even if you are a scrawny prepubescent kid of divorced parents who's bouncing off the walls due to ADHD. So let's not confuse the issue here. We are not drawn to Phelps per se, but to the official 'story' surrounding his now international celebrity. Even though most of us admire his achievements as an athlete, we only care about it in the context of his success at the world's biggest stage; his planetary glory, his larger than life fame, his financial gains. That he is an American, also helps to the umpth degree. It helps us to identify with him on the most basic level. He's the guy who grew up among us, so he is like us, and therefore one day we can be like him. Be like Mike.

We - at 100thofasecond.com - are here not to seek the absolute truth, because the 'truth' as a concept can be very subjective, shifty and elusive. We are here to probe, ask questions, and/or connect the missing dots that are largely absent not only from the mainstream media landscape in the U.S., but from the U.S. public sphere at large. We know that if somehow the roles were reversed, and if by some sheer miracle the other swimmer (Cavic) was declared winner that day by only the 100th of a second while everyone thought that Phelps won, all while FINA refused to release the high-speed video of the controversial finish -- we are certain that that issue would have been on a forefront of all relevant media outlets in the country for weeks. There is no doubt that such scenario would be met with an absolute outrage in the U.S., including demands for congressional investigations and what not. But that is not our point. We can question whether Phelps' relationship with those that depend on him (Omega, FINA, NBC...) made any difference in the Water Cube that day, but we can't question that they are all have vested interests in one another. Just like Phelps' depends on his lofty income from those entities, they too are all riding on the back of Phelps' success. It just so it happens that Phelps is the (sports) marketing God du jour, but such relationships are not unique to Phelps or to those entities. Today Phelps, tomorrow someone else. In either case, it is important to remember this, and to continue to probe, ask questions, and connect those missing dots, because the concept of any democratic society rests precisely on those premises - premises that are increasingly in short supply in the viewpoints and thinking processes of the average American citizenry as a whole.

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