“It has been an amazing, amazing, amazing week. Crazy week. Can’t believe some of it but, um, pretty exciting. Yes, I am not done, I have one more race…”

HOT WATER follows Michael Phelps’ trauma of emergence, and investigates the possibilities and threats buried in a simple reality:

Everyone is beatable, even the greatest Olympian in human history. So what could Michael Phelps do to make sure he won?

“Michael Phelps despised the image of perfection his success had created…”

Michael Phelps is living proof that dreams can and do come true if you work hard and for long enough. Water is an important analogy in HOT WATER illustrating the power of “Phelpsian” persistence. Weakness properly moulded can become a substance capable of slicing through the hardest rock.

The signature event of the Rio Olympics was undoubtedly the epic re-match between an Olympic icon and the man who foiled his golden dream in London, Le Clos. The 200 meter fly is Phelps’ favorite event. Phelps is Le Clos’ idol. Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, came out of retirement to settle unfinished business. In 2016 fire and gasoline would come together in an explosive finale.

The author analyses the 200 fly race step by step, meter by meter, uncovering a steaming cauldron of insights. Le Clos’ loss to the Phelps was devastating, especially after the Muhammed Ali vs Fraser build-up, and the shadow boxing in the ready room. But what led up to it, and what happened afterwards?

“If losing comes with a bitterness like death, winning comes with an orgiastic ecstasy. But to get there we must deny some essential part of ourselves. What makes losing so hard is when we work, we have denied ourselves and then failed to win anyway, and that’s another denial. The winner makes sacrifices but they’re worth it, because he wins. Are the loser’s sacrifices not a double dose of death with losing at the end of it all?”

As a photojournalist, Nick van der Leek is closer to the psychologies underlying this narrative [including #PhelpsFace and #LochteGate] than most, having interviewed multiple world champion athletes including Chad le Clos and his father Bert. Being a state swimmer himself in butterfly and freestyle, the author is also clearly familiar with the changing nuances of the latest swimming techniques and training technologies.

“Authenticity is authenticity on Everest, in a courtroom, in a swimming pool, when you go to work, when you pay your taxes. Time and time again we find in true crime that what may seem worlds apart invariably isn’t. The search for justice in the courtroom is not so different from the search for justice in a swimming pool, and on a podium.”

The core mantra of HOT WATER, South African photojournalist Nick van der Leek’s 50th book:

Challenge yourself to dream big. Keep challenging yourself.

“In HOT WATER I’ve tried to guide the reader into a world they’re probably unfamiliar with. The goal is to inspire and invigorate ourselves, to fill up on the magic potion that fuels the Olympic flame in these incredible athletes. We do that by intimately following their journeys, and finding in spite of those images of perfection, flawed people just like us. And yet what these ordinary people have done is absolutely extraordinary. Yet we can’t help wondering – what could I do?”