Over the last nine days, Debbie Phelps has met President Bush and the First Lady. She's had Kobe Bryant and LeBron James blowing her kisses from across a packed arena.
Friends told her the Baltimore Ravens showed her son swimming on the Jumbotron during a preseason game, that Bruce Springsteen dedicated the song Born in the USA to him during a concert.
And she's watched her son, 23-year-old Michael Phelps, win a record eight Olympic gold medals, the single greatest Olympic performance ever. He also has the most career golds of any Olympian, with 14.
"It's just like, 'Wow.' It's so much to embrace, to put your arms around," she says.
Michael Phelps made some of his eight victories in Beijing look easy. He lowered his own world record in his first event, the 400-meter individual medley, by more than a second. He won the 200-meter freestyle by nearly two seconds.