Michael Phelps, the swimmer with 23 Olympic golds, is an evangelist for fair play

PARIS – A river divides genius. On one side of the Seine sits the Louvre. On the other, the Musee d’Orsay, the national museum. Here, you will find Picasso, Rembrandt, Matisse. But on a dusty August afternoon, on a quiet side street in that very precinct, sits another master of an art form.

For him, too, one name suffices.

Phelps.

Michael’s hair is in a tight ponytail and his beard is philosopher long. Throw him a subject, he’ll spit out an answer. Joseph Schooling is “a stud” whom he loves. Dopers shouldn’t get a second chance “because if you’re taking that risk, then you don’t belong here”. Noah Lyles is brave to talk about depression. And every Olympics his legs used to dangle over the bed in the Village.

He still won.

Actually, Phelps’ medal haul makes the French Crown Jewels look like a minor collection. Gymnast Larisa Latynina, swimmers Katie Ledecky, Mark Spitz, Caeleb Dressel, track and field stars Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi have the second-most golds ever. Nine.

Phelps has 23.

Yet he’ll tell you

Schooling’s single one

was “so big, it’s so impressive”.

“To be able to win a gold medal is less than one per cent of one per cent.” It’s that hard. One per cent of humans are top athletes and one per cent of that win gold.

Phelps used to catch fast-breaking swimmers, but not the Singaporean. “I knew he was going to be tough in that race in 2016 and he had so much front-half speed.”

The American, a man who stopped clocks all his life, is sitting in Omega House at a media session. He’s always been an interesting interviewee, showing off his ruthlessness but flavouring it with respect.

He’s pals with Australians Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett, but says “when we’re racing we want to kill somebody. We want to literally beat anybody that is in that pool, no matter where they’re from. If it’s our country or not”.

In a single Games he won eight golds, which is how many the United States have in total in swimming this time. The men’s individual contribution was one. “Something’s got to happen before 2028 because if you have a repeat like this (in Los Angeles), it’s going to be even more embarrassing”.

Phelps’ greatness has been tied with a ribbon of integrity, yet these days rumour hovers over swimming like a stench. As the 2008 Olympics approached, he said, “I subjected myself to do more testing, blood and urine, weekly. Why? For the reason that I could say I’m not cheating and I am clean and here are the results. I did it the clean way. I won 23 Olympic gold medals. It can be done.”

A reporter raised Pan Zhanle’s 100m freestyle world record, but Phelps was fair to the Chinese star. “Until we know the facts, we can’t point fingers. You can’t do that to somebody. I get their country has a microscope on them... but for somebody who hasn’t had that positive test, you can’t point that finger.”

Phelps’ gift to sport was not merely fast times but an openness about his mental health. It’s why he praised Lyles, who tweeted: “I have asthma, allergies, dyslexia, ADD, anxiety, and depression. But I will tell you that what you have does not define what you can become. Why Not You!” Said the swimmer: “Hats off to Noah, being able to open up about that takes a lot.”

He isn’t fully enamoured by the Village’s cardboard beds and says “let’s think about what the athletes need to perform”. But he’s no spoilt American, instead a superstar who always stayed in the Village “because I want to be a part of the Olympic Games”.

Greatness, he believes anyway, is about adapting. “We brought foam egg cartons to put on top of our bed. My ankles were hanging off the bed every single Olympics. We all had three or four fans in our room because it’s typically hot. Every athlete has to deal with certain circumstances.”

He admires France’s Leon Marchand, tutored by his old coach Bob Bowman, and says Bowman and he are always texting about sets. “I have an understanding of what they’re doing every single day. So when I see him do these results, in these times, I’m not surprised. He’s done the work in order to give him a chance.”

Swimming needs new stars and 39-year-olds should confine their competitiveness to the golf course. Still, during the US Olympic trials, when his four-year-old son asked if he could still race those guys, his reply was instructive.

“I said, if I wanted to, I believe I still could,” answered Phelps.

“And then I said to him, but you wouldn’t get to see daddy. Daddy would be at the pool all the time. I wouldn’t take you to school. I wouldn’t pick you up from school. I wouldn’t be making you dinner.”

And his son said, “I don’t want that”.

We had the legend, he just wants his dad.