I forgot to blog about running into him a while back when he was in town on a rare visit home in between trials and training. I was running errands on a Saturday getting ready for a party at a friend's house later that day and I stopped in to Whole Foods in Mt. Washington.
And there he was, all 6'4" of human perfection. He had just come from the Meadowbrook Swim Club across the street, where he swam enough laps in that pool while he was growing up to circle the globe a few times. I think he had appeared at some pre-Olympic pep rally for his old swim team and was signing autographs. At Whole Foods, his hair was still wet, tucked under a baseball cap with a T-shirt, soccer shorts and flip flops. There is not a molecule of fat on the guy, it is all sinew and muscle.
There are probably only a few hundred people on earth in as perfect physical shape as this guy is at this moment, and most of them will be in Beijing in about 40 days. It's stunning. And yes, I stared. How could you not?
Today is his 22nd birthday - happy birthday Michael.
Was he drunk? I understand he's a fan of the sauce.