Aurora boy beats Michael Phelps by a pool length

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

It should be no surprise Logan Mitzel is a fan of Michael Phelps: The Olympic icon and the 11-year-old Aurora boy not only share a love of swimming, both know a thing or two about setting records.

I don’t have to go into detail about Phelps and his 14 gold medals. But you might have to be reminded of Logan’s accomplishments. He’s a sixth-grader battling Duchenne’s — a fatal form of muscular dystrophy — who, along with his mother Sophie, has been the driving force behind a fundraiser at St. Paul Lutheran School that has raised more money for MDA than another other school in the nation.

And they’ve done it three years in a row.

“He’s amazing,” said his father Scott. “Life throws so much at him and he knows how to roll with it.”

Logan, who will turn 12 around this year’s March 11 Hop-a-thon at St. Paul’s, also shares Phelps’ love of swimming. That’s because the disease that causes his muscle to break down has gradually robbed him of his ability to walk, or even stand.

But put him in the water “and he’s free again,” said his dad. Which is one reason Logan set another record last year — this one personal — by swimming 77 consecutive days.

It’s no wonder then, that during the 2008 Summer Olympics, Logan was glued to the TV, not only watching Phelps rack up his gold medals, but also imitating the swimmer’s moves on his family room floor.

Nor was it a surprise that, when his mom began talking to him about the Make a Wish Foundation last summer, Logan bypassed all mention of Disney World — and asked if he could meet his Olympic hero.

Still, when Make a Wish coordinator Rich Suddoth heard about the request, he was concerned. In his 12 years of volunteering with the organization, the North Aurora man had received only three favors involving celebrities. And they can be “very challenging,” Suddoth told me, because when you are at the beck and call of superstars, “you never know” how they will respond.

But things fell into place as 2010 wound down, and on Jan. 27, the family was flown to Phelps’ hometown of Baltimore to meet the sports legend. Only the bittersweet trip did not include Logan’s mom Sophie or longtime family friend “Grandpa Tom” Williams, who were both killed in a car accident last October.

Still, the experience was “an incredible thrill” for his son, said Scott Mitzel. Make a Wish arranged for Scott, Logan and big brother Lucas, to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe and attend a dolphin show at the National Aquarium. But the highlight was on day three, when a limo dropped them off at Meadowbrook Aquatic Center, the training ground for Michael Phelps.

It wasn’t just a quick meet and greet.

Phelps invited the Mitzels to watch him during his 90-minute training session. When he was finished, he asked Logan and his big brother to join him in the water. There, for the next hour, the Olympic champion clowned around with the two brothers. According to Scott, the trio talked, laughed, did flips, and at one point, Phelps even put Logan on his back and carted him around the pool.

Then, after some serious negotiations, the two swimmers raced.

In the end, it wasn’t even close: Logan beat Phelps by a pool length. Of course, the gold medalist had to swim seven laps for every one of Logan’s. And Scott is convinced the host wasn’t “quite” giving his all.

After the race, Phelps took Logan into the pro shop and bought him a shirt, hat and water bottle — autographed by the Olympian. He also handed his new friend the goggles and swim cap he’d used in training that day.

Phelps received a gift, too. Logan gave the world-class swimmer the T-shirt he and his late mother had designed for their record-setting fundraisers at St. Paul’s.

Praying for a cure ... for Logan and MDA.

Phelps asked the young champ to autograph it. By all accounts, it was a moment worth its weight in gold.