Town Welcomes Home Its Golden Champ

Phelps Is Undisputed Focus Of Adulation at Parade To Honor Md. Olympians

For days, Albert Kirchmayr has been melting, molding and cooling gallons of milk chocolate, all for the glory of Michael Phelps. For as many mornings, Darlene Castle has lain in bed, composing rhyming couplets for her grandkids to chant in praise of Phelps and his eight gold medals from this summer's games.

Others around town have been rehearsing songs and crafting everything from "Will you marry me?" posters to canvas oil paintings detailing step by step Phelps's journey toward the Beijing Olympics. And yesterday, all of them converged on Towson, Md., to try to throw the largest and most extravagant parade ever for the swimmer.

It was a day of glory not only for Phelps, who looked relaxed in a hoodie and sunglasses as he rode in a military Humvee past the throngs of screaming fans, but also for the town he came from. As with any hometown parade, part of it -- the fireworks, crowded streets and adulation -- was about pride in claiming this hero as one of their own, as though to catch reflected glory for everyone around him.

"Towson's pretty much still a small town," said John Cadigan, who manages the pool where Phelps trained. "It's a source of pride, a sense that one of us from little Towson went off into the big world and did something great."

So great was their faith in Phelps that leaders in Baltimore County began planning the parade before the Olympics began. Ostensibly, yesterday's event was for all of Maryland's Olympians -- medalist Katie Hoff, paralympian Jessica Long and others. But listening to the screams and professions of love as Phelps's car passed by, there was no mistaking who the main attraction was.

Teenage girls lined the streets with posters and fake medals around their necks.

Waiting for a glimpse near the front, a particularly ardent bunch of 13-year-olds spent downtime between floats enumerating the various qualities of Phelps.

"There's his abs," said Carey McDonald, wearing a handmade "I [heart] MP" shirt.

"His ears are attractive, too," said Julia Menton, holding a sign that read "Future Mrs. Phelps."

"His face," sighed Abigail Keefe, whose sign read "I'm legal in 4 years."

They had seen him on TV and reveled with him in living-room victory dances after every Beijing race, but this would be their first chance to feast their eyes on the real deal.

The parade, funded by local businesses, brought traffic to a standstill along a 20-block strip while firetrucks, convertibles, floats and marching bands wound their way through downtown, past the schools Phelps attended as a child and into Rogers Forge, the neighborhood where he grew up. Elected officials showed up in force, eager to share a piece of Phelps's spotlight. And as soon as the parade ended, Phelps was whisked off for more hours of festivities and fireworks at Fort McHenry during last night's "Star Spangled Salute to Michael Phelps."