Should Michael Phelps' Speedo Be Branded With An Asterisk?

Last night Michael Phelps continued his incredible streak into Olympic and possibly sports history as he won his two races of the night. With three more races to go, Phelps is inching ever so close to breaking Spitz' record. Soon all the pundits from across the land will awaken from their hibernation to unleash a full-on debate as to whether or not Phelps is the greatest Olympic athlete ever, and/or the greatest athlete period.

But before he's even made it to the final leg of his epic journey, many are asking if his legacy deserves an asterisk. In this 24-hour sports media generation that we're in, everything is being labeled with a proverbial star, if there's any question to the merit of the achievement. Guilty before proven innocent is the mantra of the day. So, with the ho-hum proceedings of world records being broken in swimming, Phelps' achievements are in doubt.

The LZR Speedo racer is a breakthrough in swimming technology that hasn't been seen since some cross-dressing swimmer took a lady Bic to his legs, and  then proceeded to beat all of his hairy competitors. World records are being broken in every race, sometimes by a few seconds. In last night's 200m Freestyle Relay, where Phelps won his fifth gold, the U.S. men broke the world record by about three seconds. The collective reaction? A big fat yawn.

In a sport that's often measured in hundredths of a second, a world record being broken by three seconds should be one of the greatest shows of athleticism in all of sports. But the LZR suit, deeper pools, and a change in the way swimmers are allowed to perform strokes, has set a precedent for speed that is just now catching up to the record books. The timing just happened to coincide with the 2008 Olympics, causing all the World Records to fall faster than a drunk Lindsay Lohan in heels.

So unless Speedo learns how to harness the power of the sun and create a exoskeleton that molds to your skin, streamlines your muscle production, gives you three nitro boosts per race, and cures your cancer, then 2012 won't be singing the same tune. World Records won't fall at nearly the rate they are now, because the technology would have already caught up.

But it's not rainy 2012 in London, it's smoggy 2008 in Beijing, and this is Michael Phelps' year. But the question people are asking is; should Phelps' achievements be marred with an asterisk because of the overall increased speed of the sport? I think the answer should without a doubt be no.

First off, he isn't using a substance that's either illegal or a competitive advantage; any swimmer can use the LZR if they want, and most of them do. So Barry Bonds he is not. The fact that all the other competitors have the exact same advantages, completely erases the argument in my mind. When the three-point line was instituted in basketball, did anybody question the scoring records that consequently fell in the years that followed?

But of course basketball is a team sport, so it's hard to give a straight line comparison. So I turn to an athlete who's achievements are right on par with those of Phelps; Tiger Woods. When Tiger was smashing tournament records in 2000, was anybody questioning whether the improved club technology and his game-changing workout regiment, should render his accomplishments as less than? Of course not.

And like swimming will do in the following years, golf adapted to Tiger and the new technology, making it more difficult for the records to be smashed. Did that change Tiger's winning ways? No, and neither will it Phelps. Because as the years go by, the margins of victory will fade away into the annals of Wikipedia, but the win itself will always live on.