Besting Mark Spitz’s record after it stood for decades is newsworthy in and of itself. I was a teenager when Mark Spitz came home with a chestful of gold medals all in the same year, and broke a record that had previously stood nowhere near the 7 medals he won.

For some time afterwards, men mimicked his appearance, and Mark won many endorsements becoming one of the wealthiest amateur athletes ever. It isn’t easy to turn swimming medals into professional sports, though, so his earnings still did not rival those of a football or basketball star in the USA.

Michael Phelps is different in many ways. A more ordinary looking man, he is unlikely to be starting a trend based on his physical appearance. Still, he is earning huge fees as an endorser of products. From what he has said in interviews, it may also be likely that he’ll go back and take another crack at the Olympics in 2012. Who knows? Perhaps he can beat the record he now has as well.