Towson High Grad Michael Phelps Makes Time to Partner with Lansdowne School

Michael Phelps has plenty on his mind these days.

Just 18, the Towson High graduate and world champion swimmer must devote hours each day to swimming, helping to coach the Loyola College aquatics team, swimming, talking with reporters, swimming, juggling the demands of sponsors like Visa and Speedo (he recently flew to Malibu to tape a Super Bowl commercial), and swimming.

And then there is the Olympics thing to prepare for. More swimming.

But for Michael Phelps, some commitments are special. And for the students at Riverview Elementary School, the feeling is mutual. So it was that on February 20, 2004, the world’s best swimmer finished his morning practice, tossed a loose-fitting royal blue sweat suit over his 6-foot, 4-inch, 165-pound frame, and drove to the Lansdowne school to exhort the school’s students to read and to relax as they readied to take the Maryland School Assessment tests.

“It is important for me to be here,” said Phelps. “I’ve come to realize that anything I can do to help these kids is worthwhile. If the little things I say to them can help them get excited about reading and learning, then I want to help.”

He says these words with the same casual good nature that seems unusual for a world class swimmer, a teenager poised to become perhaps the greatest swimmer of a generation, if not of all time.

Already, he holds four world records, though there was that meet where he became the first man in history to break five world records at one event. His every moment, from the massive breakfasts he inhales at Pete’s Grille on Greenmount Avenue to the details of his music preferences, are recorded for fans each day on the internet. In February, he became the first swimmer ever to grace the cover of ESPN The Magazine, a national sports periodical.

Yet popping in on classroom after classroom with Riverview Principal Mick Small, Phelps is amiable, approachable, and down to earth. He patiently answers the same questions over and over again, always with a smile, and offers simple words of advice to third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders preparing to take the MSA tests:

Relax. Stay positive. Have fun. Always look to the bright side of things.

In his wake, a gaggle of Washington and Baltimore TV and print reporters whisper their admiration and surprise that Phelps is so laid back. “It’s amazing. He doesn’t even have any handlers here with him,” says Ron Matz, a reporter with WJZ-TV.

Michael Phelps just shrugs when he hears things like that. “I don’t consider myself to be famous or anything,” he says.

Surely much of this grounded persona can be attributed to Phelps’ mother, Deborah, who is an administrator in the school system’s Southwest Area office. It was her influence as an educator, Michael said, that prompted him to partner with Riverview Elementary.

“I’ve been around her classes and schools and I’ve seen how important (teaching) is,” he says. Besides, “you come to a place like this and it makes you smile.”

Erica Coco was smiling, too. As Riverview’s reading specialist, she had helped to develop the campaign using Phelps to encourage the school’s students to read. The school’s goal is 25,000 reading “experiences” this school year; by February, students were already reading past 18,000 books, magazines, and other such readings.

“We’re so fortunate to have somebody like Michael who is so motivating for our children,” Coco said. “When they go home they have so many options – the TV, video games. But we’re finding that for many (students), they are picking up a book instead.”

In the hall up ahead, Michael Phelps has encountered several starry-eyed third-graders. They exchange questions and answers, and one precocious child opines that “you look like you’re 30 years old” to Phelps.

The athlete grins and moves on into another classroom, where he’s greeted by oohs and quiet cheers and more questions.

“What is your best time in a race?”
“Why do you like swimming?”
“Do have have a pet?”

Phelps, who earlier had been interviewed by Principal Small via the school’s closed circuit television system, answers them all. He talks about his love of swimming, the feeling he gets when he finishes a race and sees a world record time, and how one of his sponsors has promised him a $1 million check if he should win seven or more gold medals at this year’s summer Olympics in Athens.

“I hope each of you can develop a passion and a persistence about learning,” he tells students. “Grab every opportunity you can to move forward.”

Chris D. absorbs every word. As Phelps moves on down the hall, the fifth-grader has been inspired by his hero. “Ever since he started coming to our school, I’ve been swimming more and more,” says 10-year-old Chris. “I’m swimming more than I do anything else now. The only sports I do now are basketball and swimming.”

For Michael Phelps, some commitments are special.

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Story and Photos by Charles Herndon Communications Officer