Being able to finish how I won is just something very special to me and this is why you are seeing more and more emotion on the medal podium.". Less than one hour after his gold medal victory in the 200-meter butterfly, Phelps swam the lead-off leg of the 4200-meter freestyle relay. He went on that year to win his first international title at the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan. He has won 28 medals across four editions of the Olympics. With the latter win, Phelps captured an unprecedented 19th career Olympic medal, surpassing the record set by Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina. [254][255], On August 13, in the 4 100-meter medley relay, Phelps ended his career with another gold medal, his 23rd at the Olympics and his 28th Olympic medal overall. Phelps has also received the following awards: Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Michael Phelps is an American swimmer who holds the record for the most Olympics medals won by any athlete at 28, including 23 gold medals and 13 individual golds. Michael Phelps of the United States celebrates with his fiancee Nicole Johnson and their son Boomer after finishing first in the final heat for the Men's 200 Meter Individual Medley during Day Six . Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [64], At the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, Phelps competed in six events; the 200- and 400-meter individual medley, the 100- and 200-meter butterfly, the 200-meter freestyle, and the 200-meter backstroke. His four individual swimming gold medals tied a record set by American Mark Spitz at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Astrological Sign: Cancer. For the 2017's Shark Week, Michael Phelps raced several breeds of sharks. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [56] Less than an hour later, Phelps swam the lead-off leg for the 4200-meter freestyle relay. It goes to show you that not only is this guy the greatest swimmer of all time and the greatest Olympian of all time, he's maybe the greatest athlete of all time. There is only so much I can do in a month and then I am going to prepare myself the best that I can. Michael Phelps Team USA Swimming. [3] A street in his hometown of Baltimore was renamed The Michael Phelps Way in 2004. The athletic great described how he would fall into a state of despair after the highs of his Olympic victories, often seeking to medicate himself through drugs or alcohol. [224] He was accompanied by fiance Nicole Johnson and son Boomer. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Article Title: Michael Phelps Biography, Author: Biography.com Editors, Website Name: The Biography.com website, Url: https://www.biography.com/athletes/michael-phelps, Publisher: A&E; Television Networks, Last Updated: July 28, 2021, Original Published Date: April 2, 2014. On Saturday night, the 31-year-old won his record twenty-eight Olympic medal with 23 of them gold. At the 2001 U.S. spring nationals, he became at age 15 the youngest world-record holder in mens swimming when he posted 1 min 54.92 sec in the 200-metre butterfly. [111] In his second event, the 100-meter butterfly, Phelps just edged out Ian Crocker 51.51 (another championship record) to 51.73. Also Known As: Michael Fred Phelps II Age: 37 Years, 37 Year Old Males Family: Spouse/Ex-: Nicole Johnson father: Michael Fred Phelps mother: Deborah 'Debbie' Phelps, Deborah Phelps children: Boomer Robert Phelps Born Country: United States Swimmers American Men Height: 6'4" (193 cm ), 6'4" Males [240] (Federica Pellegrini would be the second swimmer to do so at the 2020 Olympics.) Phelps went on to compete in the 200-meter individual medley, an event dubbed "the Duel in the Pool" because he faced off against friend, teammate and rival Ryan Lochte, the world record holder in the race. [36][37] Phelps served as a volunteer assistant coach at Michigan. When Phelps dived in to swim the 100-meter butterfly leg, the third leg of the 400-meter medley, the United States had been trailing Australia and Japan. The final time of 3:33.48 was a world record. Why did Michael choose swimming? [174] [202] In the 100-meter butterfly, Phelps won his third consecutive title (also winning in 2007 and 2009) and second individual title of the meet with a time of 50.71. My sisters and myself fell in love with the sport, and we decided to swim. [128] By winning seven gold medals, Phelps broke the record of six set by Ian Thorpe at the 2001 World Championships. [118] In his fifth event, the 4100-meter freestyle relay, Phelps, along with Neil Walker, Cullen Jones, and Jason Lezak, won the gold medal with a world-record time 3:12.46. [54] Phelps broke his first world record on July 22 in the semi-finals for the 200-meter butterfly. [27][28] By the age of 10, he held a national record for his age group (in the 100-meter butterfly)[29] and began to train at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club under coach Bob Bowman. [151], After taking a day off from finals (Phelps did swim in qualifying heats), Phelps won his sixth gold of the Beijing Games on August 15 by winning the 200-meter individual medley with a world record time of 1:54.23, finishing ahead of Cseh by over two seconds. I'd like to know how to do that. Coach Bowman was there when Michael made his first Games in the 200 meter butterfly and represented Team USA in Sydney, Australia, and when he became the youngest swimmer ever to break a world record, winning the 200 meter butterfly at the 2001 World Championship Trials. ; Photo: Tom Pennington/Getty Images, Michael Phelps competing in the final of the Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay on day 2 of the Rio Olympic Games at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium on August 7, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. [75], In his first event, the 400-meter individual medley, Phelps won his first Olympic gold medal in the world record time of 4:08.26. However, he gave some indication of a possible return in July 2013 and would not rule out a possible Olympic bid for the 2016 summer games. Everything I've done, I've been able to learn from - mistakes I've made in the pool, mistakes I've made out of the pool. I finished my career the way I wanted to. [246] Both these records were broken by Anthony Ervin three days later. [171], At the 2009 World Aquatics Championships, Phelps won a total of 6 medals, 5 golds and 1 silver. Records are always made to be broken no matter what they are. This gave Phelps an automatic entry into the medley relay, but he deferred and Crocker swam instead. [116] In his third event, the 4200-meter freestyle relay, Phelps, along with Ryan Lochte, Peter Vanderkaay, and Klete Keller, won the gold medal with a time of 7:05.28. [78][79] Crocker's lead-off time of 50.05 was the worst among the field and was blamed on sickness. Not surprisingly, the first stroke he mastered was the backstroke. Swimmer Michael Phelps, the most successful Olympian in history, is to come out of retirement at the age of 28. [66] Two days later, in the 200-meter freestyle, Phelps won with a time of 1:46.27, finishing sixth-tenths of a second ahead of Klete Keller. [200], In his fourth event, the 200-meter individual medley, Phelps again finished second to Lochte in a personal best of 1:54.16, which was 0.16 behind Lochte who swam a new world record. [32] Bowman swam for Florida State University from 1983 to 1985. [68] The following day, Phelps won in the 200-meter butterfly with a time of 1:54.31, three seconds ahead of second-place finisher Tom Malchow. [82][83] Although this race ended the chance to match Spitz's record, Phelps had savored the challenge even though it was not his strongest event, saying "How can I be disappointed? [150] Moreover, Phelps became the first swimmer, male or female, to win three Olympic butterfly titles, after his two titles in the Athens 2004 Olympics. [229], At the US trials in Omaha for the 2016 Summer Olympics, Phelps won the 200 m butterfly (1:54.84), the 200 m individual medley (1:55.91), and the 100 m butterfly (51.00 s) events. [223][224] The relationship between Phelps and coach Bob Bowman had deteriorated in the preparations for London 2012, so Phelps convinced a skeptical Bowman that he "wasn't training for history. Four years later, when he won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games, he broke fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven first-place finishes at any single Olympic Games. Event Time Standard Age Meet Meet Date; Event. In a live video published on his Facebook page in which he answered fan . So once I retire I want to travel and see what places are really about. Phelps followed his coach to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where Bowman coached the Wolverines' swim team, to study sports marketing and management. He tied Spitzs record by winning the 100-metre butterfly final by 0.01 second and broke the mark as a member of the victorious American 4 100-metre medley relay team. Together with Ryan Murphy, Cody Miller, and Nathan Adrian, swimming as the butterfly leg of the medley, they broke the Olympic record,[256] and won the United States' 1001st all time Olympic gold medal, in accordance with the USOC. [169] In his second event, the 200-meter butterfly, Phelps easily won with a time of 1:52.76, 0.88 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. In 2011, Michael Phelps: Push the Limit, an Xbox 360/Kinect game, was released, which promised to bring "the fun, fitness and excitement of head-to-head swimming to your living room. At the age of 10, he held the national record in his age group. [38] After the 2008 Summer Olympics, Bowman returned to Baltimore as CEO at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club. Michael started swimming at age 7. Phelps, the two-time defending Olympic champion, won his heat in 4 minutes, 13.33 seconds with a time that was well off his world record of 4:03.84 set four years earlier in Beijing, when Phelps won a record eight gold medals. [222] Phelps was reportedly motivated by the national team's failure to win the men's 4 100 m freestyle relay since their Beijing 2008 and Rome 2009 titles. Editor's note (8/15/16): U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps won his 23rd gold medal last night during the 400-meter medley relay at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. In his first event, the 200-meter freestyle, Phelps won with a time of 1:44.23. You can't put a limit on anything. [24], Phelps began swimming at the age of seven, partly because of the influence of his sisters and partly to provide him with an outlet for his energy. [113], At the 2006 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Victoria, British Columbia, Phelps won five gold medals and one silver. The team developed a special device to measure each sharks speed using bait. It was the first time Phelps failed to medal in an Olympic event since 2000. As the lead-off leg in the 4100-meter freestyle relay, Phelps set the championship record in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 48.13. He is widely regarded as the greatest swimmer of all time and is often considered to be one of the greatest athletes of all time. At Rio, he won the title that he had lost to Chad le Clos four years earlier in London, edging Masato Sakai by 0.04 s. Phelps stated that winning back this title had been the main goal during his comeback. Phelps reiterated many of those sentiments while appearing on David Axelrods The Axe Filespodcast weeks later. If you want something bad enough, youre not going to give up until you get it. The following year, at the same event, he broke his own world record in the 400-meter individual medley with a time of 4:09.09. The finals of that race featured South Africas Chad le Clos, who had beaten Phelps by five-hundredths of a second in the race at the 2012 Games and who had exchanged verbal barbs with the American over the following four years. Phelps became a superstar at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, winning eight medals (including six gold), tying with Soviet gymnast Aleksandr Dityatin (1980) for the most medals in a single Olympic Games. Phelps's team won the gold medal in a time of 7:02.67. Phelps' inseam was a short 30". [133] In his third event, the 100-meter freestyle, Phelps placed second in his heat with a time of 47.92, ensuring him a spot on the relay. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. [89][90] Traditionally, the American who places highest in an individual event will be automatically given the corresponding leg in the 4100-meter medley relay final. I've accepted defeat, and there's nothing wrong with losing to the greatest swimmer there has ever been. Unlike all six of his previous events in the 2008 Games, Phelps did not set a new world record, leaving intact Ian Crocker's world-record time of 50.40 seconds, set in 2005. ; Photo: Adam Pretty/Getty Images, 10 Things You Might Not Know About Jimmy Butler, Name: Michael Phelps, Birth Year: 1985, Birth date: June 30, 1985, Birth State: Maryland, Birth City: Baltimore, Birth Country: United States. [132] In his second event, the 200-meter freestyle, Phelps won with a time of 1:44.10, ahead of Peter Vanderkaay's time 1:45.85. [60] However, in the final of the 100-meter butterfly, on July 26, Ian Crocker erased Phelps's world record with a time of 50.98, to become the first man under 51 seconds. [189] In the 200-meter backstroke, Phelps finished in 4th place in 1:56.98. "Honestly, my first thought when I saw the shark was, 'There's very little chance for me to beat him,'" Phelps said. However, he subsequently won silver medals in both the 4 100-metre freestyle relay and the 200-metre butterfly and a gold medal in the 4 200-metre freestyle relay. While Phelps did compete at the Mesa Grand Prix, he made a more impressive showing at the Pan Pacific Championships held that summer in Australia, winning three golds and two silvers. His rise to stardom began at the age of just 15 when he took part in the 2000 Summer Olympics and despite winning no medals, showed great potential . In December 2015 at the Winter Nationals in Federal Way, Phelps won titles in the same three events, again in long course, bringing his career total to 62 national titles. [247][248], Also on August 9, Phelps won his 21st gold medal in the 4 200 m freestyle relay together with Conor Dwyer, Townley Haas, and Ryan Lochte. [242] In the ready room prior to the preliminary race, Le Clos's shadow boxing while Phelps "glowered in a corner" spawned the Internet meme with the hashtag #PhelpsFace. Age: 18. In the 100-meter butterfly, Phelps won his 50th national title in 50.65. Thats all I can do. In the beginning. Phelps holds 20 Guinness World Records which predominantly consist of accumulative Guinness World Records ("Guinness mosts", records formulated starting with "most") for total number of accomplishments and victories in swimming such as: most medals, consecutive number of medals, most medals within one tournament, most records in swimming etc. "[160], On August 17, Phelps won his eighth gold medal in the 4100-meter medley relay, breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals won in a single Olympic Games, which had stood since 1972. r = relay lead-off Michael Phelps, the 23-time Olympic gold medal swimmer, announced on Instagram that his father has died. [52] Phelps said he broke the 200-meter individual medley world record after Don Talbot said Phelps was unproven, using his words as motivation. [23] He graduated from Towson High School in 2003. In his second event, the 200-meter freestyle, Phelps won silver for the second consecutive time at a World Aquatics Championships. Phelps, who had announced that he was retiring from the sport after the London Games, captured a gold medal in his final event, the 4 100-medley relay. At the 2008 Games in Beijing, he became the first athlete to win eight gold medals at a single Olympics. [19] Phelps is the youngest of three children. Afterwards, Thorpe said "I'm really proud of him not just because he won eight golds. Phelps is just under 6 feet, 4 inches tall. Michael called it an "isolated incident," but admitted to letting himself and his family down. [284] When Phelps was later asked about the incident by Matt Lauer on the Today Show, he said that he had "let a lot of people in the country down". "People are talking about it and I think this is the only way that it can change.". ", "Usain Bolt vs. Michael Phelps: Who's The Greatest Olympian Of All Time? [53], At the 2003 World Aquatics Championships, Phelps won four gold medals, two silver medals, and broke five world records. He has won 82 medals in major international long course competitions, of which 65 were gold, 14 silver, and three bronze, spanning the Olympics, the World Championships, and the Pan Pacific Championships. [40] There is a popular myth that Phelps ate 12,000 calories every day, but Phelps has stated it has been exaggerated and that he did not eat so much even in his growing days.