Michael Phelps: Greatest swimmer, most successful Olympian - Hindustan Times
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Michael Phelps: Greatest swimmer, most successful Olympian

ByHT Correspondent
Jul 26, 2019 02:37 PM IST

Michael Phelps won a record of 28 Olympic medals, which included 23 golds, 13 of which were in individual events. He retired from competitive sport as the most successful Olympian of all time till date.

The boy who grew up to be the world’s greatest swimmer was born on June 30, 1985 in Baltimore, Maryland, to Michael Fred Phelps, a state trooper and Deborah Sue ‘Debbie’ Phelps, a teacher.

This swimmer won a record of 28 Olympic medals, which included 23 golds, 13 of which were in individual events.(Mohit Suneja (Illustration))
This swimmer won a record of 28 Olympic medals, which included 23 golds, 13 of which were in individual events.(Mohit Suneja (Illustration))

The youngest of three children, Michael attended the Towson High School and took up swimming at the age of seven at the behest of his mother and sisters, who wanted him to treat the sport as an outlet for his energy. Soon, Phelps fell in love with swimming and trained hard under coach Bob Bowman. He participated in his first Olympics, the Sydney Games in 2000, at the age of 15, making him the youngest in nearly seven decades to represent US at the biggest multi-sport extravaganza.

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Rise to Glory

Phelps’ first made a splash on the international stage during the trials for the 2001 World Aquatics Championships. Then aged 15 years, 9 months, he broke the 200-metre butterfly world record to become the youngest to have achieved the feat. Soon after, he broke his own record at the World Championship in Fukuoka, Japan, to win his first medal.

In the 2003 World Championship, he won the 200-metre freestyle, 200-metre backstroke and 100-meter butterfly.

At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Phelps won six gold and two bronze medals, which was the second-best performance during a single Olympics, behind Mark Spitz’s tally of seven gold medals achieved in the 1972 Olympics.

Zenith of success

Phelps took his already phenomenal performance some notches higher in the 2007 World Championship in Melbourne where he contested in seven events and won gold medals in each of them with five world records.

The climax of his career was undoubtedly at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where he won eight gold medals, which was a new record for golds won in a single Olympics, thus overtaking Spitz’s previous record of seven golds which he made in1972. Phelps’ career haul of gold medals won in Olympics zoomed to 14, which was at that time the highest.

Last Leg

Phelps continued to hold sway during the 2009 World Championship in Rome, where he bagged five gold and 1 silver medals, and the lone exception to his gold rush occurred when he lost the 200m freestyle to Paul Biedermann. It was the first time in four years that Phelps been pushed to the second spot in an event.

In the 2011 World Championship in Beijing, he bagged four golds.

The next big event, the 2012 London Olympics, witnessed Phelps winning four gold medals and two silvers to swell his Olympic medal to 22. The tally left behind gymnast Larisa Latynina’s previous record of 18 Olympic medals.

During the 2016 Rio Olympics, he bagged 5 golds and a silver, taking his overall Olympic medals tally to 28, of which 23 are golds.

Achievements

In 2003, Phelps won the James E Sullivan Award, that made him the 10th swimmer to be honoured as the country’s top amateur sportsperson.

The international swimming federation, FINA, honoured him with the Swimmer of the Year award in 2012, acknowledging his status as the most decorated Olympian.

He has the highest number of world records (29 individual and 10 relay), surpassing Spitz’s 33 world records (26 individual, 7 in team relays)

Interesting facts

1. While Phelps’ achievements are well known, little is known about his heroic battle against attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) – which poses problems in concentrating. The problem was diagnosed when he was in Grade 6. His mother Debbie, who had taught middle school for two decades, took the lead, along with doctors as well as school authorities, in helping the youngster overcome the challenge.

2. Widely acknowledged as the greatest swimmer till date, Phelps has, along the way, earned nicknames that reflect his mastery over the sport. He is known as ‘The Baltimore Bullet’ and ‘Flying Fish’.’ After the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, a street in Baltimore, his hometown, was named after him.

3. Phelps’ net worth of around $55 million makes him one of the richest Olympians. He has established a foundation that strives to increase awareness of swimming as a sport and focuses on promoting a healthy lifestyle. Its initiatives include the Level Field Fund-Swimming and Caps-for-a-Cause. He is also associated with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

4. Phelps raced varied shark breeds in a special Discovery Channel programme, Shark Week, in July 2017. They did not swim the 100 metres side by side but rather individually in the same open water, with CGI images of the sharks displayed alongside Phelps as he raced. A device measured each shark’s speed and their times were later compared. A hammerhead shark swam at 15 mph and a great white shark was timed at 26 mph. Phelps beat a reef shark by 0.2 seconds, clocking in at 6 mph.

Sources: Wikipedia, Biography.Com

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