To Phelps, Lil' Wayne is music of champions

0 Comments | USA TODAY, August, 2008 | by Steve Wieberg

Something in the words and music of an R-rated rapper from NewOrleans apparently speaks to the American demigod from Baltimore.

If the end of every race finds Michael Phelps gazing up at the scoreboard, thrusting a finger skyward celebrating another world record, the lasting prerace image is him walking onto the Water Cube deck drawing last-minute inspiration from ... Lil' Wayne on his iPod.

Phelps identified him as his artist of choice after qualifying for the 200-meter individual medley final, the sixth of his eight events in Beijing. Earlier, on The Today Show on NBC, he expressed specific fondness for Lil' Wayne's I'm Me, off the rapper's five-track album The Leak.

From some of the (less explicit) lyrics, the connection is clear:

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