RIO DE JANEIRO — It happened so fast, the moment the boy and the legend nearly touched.
It was two days before the opening ceremony, and the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic team walked into an elevator in the Team USA high-rise in the athletes village. The boy lifted his sleepy brown eyes, and there he was: Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian in history.
The boy was thunderstruck. He giddily nudged one of his teammates on the table tennis squad and whispered, “Should I ask him for a picture?” But then, like a streaking comet, the legend was gone, striding out of the elevator and into the Brazilian afternoon.