Indian Sceintist Explains PHELPS phenomenon

WASHINGTON: Billion-plus strong India might not have medalled a lot in the 108-year old modern Olympics history, but - no surprise here - it’s an Indian scientist who has been inquiring into the ease with which American swimmer Michael Phelps is winning so many Gold medals.

IIT Kanpur alum and George Washington University researcher Rajat Mittal has spent the past five years studying Phelps and his dolphin kick - also known as the 'Berkoff Blastoff' after the Harvard backstroker who used it the first time at the Olympics 20 years ago.

It all began when Mittal, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, got involved in a US Navy project to study dolphins, thought to be the ultimate swimmers. ''We were asked to understand how fish swim so efficiently,'' Mittal recalled in an interview Wednesday, ''and it seemed like a natural extension to apply this to human swimming.''

In collaboration with USA Swimming, Mittal and his colleagues began studying 50 American swimmers, eventually finding that of all of them, Phelps was able to use his body ''in a way that is very, very different from the other athletes...much closer to dolphins than we have seen for any other swimmer.''

And just how does he do that? Phelps is able to straighten his massive size 14 feet to a greater angle (about 15 degrees) than any other swimmer, to reduce resistance. ''Almost 90 percent of all the thrust is coming from the foot,'' Mittal explained. ''And the flatter and bigger your foot is, you essentially have a bigger paddle. Michael's foot size and the angle he generates with it plays a big role in his ability to swim very well.''

So never again laugh at someone with big, flat feet. There’s gold in them!

But foot-size isn’t the only reason behind the Phelps phenomenon. Studies show that his powerful lungs can hold out longer underwater than most swimmers, eliminating the splash and drag that would result if he surfaced early. ''If the body is moving on the surface, it creates waves,'' Mittal explained. ''So if you can move underwater instead you can actually eliminate some resistance.''

The Harvard swimmer David Bergkoff figured this out first 20 years ago, using it effectively at the start and the turns to win four Olympic medals, even as other swimmers copied the technique. Swimming officials eventually imposed a limit of 15 meters underwater, a threshold Phelps exploits faster and better than anyone else.

Mittal returned to his Virginia home only last week from a visit to his hometown New Delhi - when he said his daughter Raina told him that India had won its first individual gold. ''I hope it’s the first of many,'' he said sombrely when reminded of the irony of a researcher from India - with such a Gold drought - studying Phelps' gold medal haul.

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