At the World Championships in Rome, facing rumors that he was out of shape and out of mind, Phelps lost his first race in four years to relative newcomer, Paul Biedermann, which prompted controversy regarding the potential unfair advantage Biedermann might have gained from his full polyurethane suit, the Arena X-Glide.
Despite controversy and public doubt, Phelps returned from Rome with a total of six international meet medals. His motivation began to waver, which showed in his performance during off-season meets.
He had long since stated that he did not want to swim past the age of 30, and that the Olympics Games would be his last. With help from his mother, from a friend on the Baltimore Ravens football team, and from the ever-persistent Coach Bowman, Phelps pushed aside his reluctance, just as 7 year-old Phelps did twenty years before when he overcame the fear of submerging his face.
He used the World Championships in Shanghai to bolster his confidence and prime his skills. Two silver medals earned behind underdog Ryan Lochte, and third place in the 4 x freestyle relay caused concern.
However, Phelps also gathered four gold medals, including his fifth meter butterfly championship, and steadied his focus on London. His first event, the I. He did not medal, touching fourth, while longtime rival and friend, Ryan Lochte, rejoiced in first. Despite this, Phelps finished out the meet with another six medals, for a total of 22 Olympic medals — three more than the number held by Russian gymnast Larissa Latynina.
Latynina joined him in a Louis Vuitton fashion shoot that was released shortly after the Olympics ended. Phelps then retired, having collected a total of 71 medals in major long-course competition. At that point he held six long-course world records, including that of his signature event, the fly.
During his quasi-retirement, Phelps focused on the Michael Phelps Foundation, which he founded with Bowman after his success in Beijing. He continues to support youth interest in the sport of swimming and promotes the importance of a healthy lifestyle. For a time, he traveled around the world attending golf competitions, and was even on a golfing television show. But he never strayed too far from swimming — making an appearance in the stands at the World Championships in Barcelona, and joining his old training crew at the NBAC to stay in shape, stirring fans into a frenzy at the possibility of a return to competition.
Even rival Ryan Lochte stated in multiple interviews that he knew Phelps would be back. Phelps accompanied the NBAC to the Minneapolis Grand Prix in November , which was held the same weekend that his re-entry to the drug testing program was publicized in U.
Anti-Doping Agency quarterly reports. Though he had not swum competitively since the summer of , Phelps reentered the U. Michael Phelps in Mesa, Arizona. His first race was the meter butterfly, an event in which he holds the world record. He seeded into finals first, with Ryan Lochte coming off a knee injury at his side. Though Lochte prevailed in the final, Phelps was a close second and participated in the post-race interview, telling fans that he was just having fun, and joking with his rival about being behind at the wall.
He came in seventh in his first event, the meter freestyle, only medalling in the fly and individual medley — both silver. However, second place finishes were all he needed to secure a spot at Pan Pacific Championships later that month. Phelps fared better in the international spotlight, collecting five medals despite the rain in Gold Coast, Australia. He reclaimed his hold on the fly, helped both the 4 x free relay and the medley relay to victory, and took second in the individual medley and 4 x free relay.
He remarked that he and Bowman had begun looking ahead at long-term goals, mentioning the World Championships. Phelps was back. The triumphant return suffered a jarring interruption in the fall, when Phelps faced his second DUI arrest in Baltimore. Joseph Schooling of Singapore, a year-old swimmer who idolized Phelps when he was boy, won the gold. In another emotional victory, Phelps took gold again in his final Olympic race, helping the U.
Upon finishing, the most decorated Olympian in history received a standing ovation from the crowd. In a huddle with his teammates following the race, Phelps felt the emotion of the moment, according to the New York Times. Phelps has accumulated a total of 28 medals at the Olympic Summer Games in Athens, Beijing, London and Rio — 23 gold, three silver and two bronze — setting the record for the most medal wins by any Olympic athlete. At the Olympic Games, he won one silver and five gold medals, becoming the oldest individual gold medalist in Olympic swimming history, as well as the first swimmer to win four consecutive golds in the same event, the meter individual medley.
Phelps has set 39 world records, the most of all time. And 24 years in the sport. I'm happy with how things finished," he said. I'm happy about it. I'm in a better state of mind this time than I was four years ago. Phelps is just under 6 feet, 4 inches tall. He has a disproportionately large wingspan, reaching a bit less than 6 feet 7 inches from fingertip to fingertip, and a torso with measurements that are more common in a man who measures 6 feet 8 inches tall.
When he broke the world record in the meter butterfly at the World Championships, Phelps swam at an astonishingly speedy or at least by human standards 5. During an interview in the midst of the Beijing Summer Olympics, Phelps told NBC that he ate 12, calories per day to fuel his five-hour, six-days-per-week training leading up to the Games. His diet reportedly consisted of hefty choices like two pounds of pasta and entire pizzas. The stories were just ridiculous. I was probably eating anywhere between like 8 to 10 [thousand] probably at my peak where I was really growing.
Just weeks following his triumph in the Summer Olympics in Athens, Phelps was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in Salisbury, Maryland, after cruising through a stop sign. Michael called it an "isolated incident," but admitted to letting himself and his family down. In the fall of , Phelps was arrested again in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland in September for driving under the influence, speeding and crossing double lines.
He took to Twitter to discuss this incident, writing "I understand the severity of my actions and take full responsibility. In January , Phelps delivered an eye-opening account of his battles with depression at the fourth annual conference of the Kennedy Forum, a behavioral health advocacy group. 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. He said the "hardest fall" came after the Olympics when he found himself sitting in his room alone for three to five days, not eating and barely sleeping: "I didn't want to be in the sport anymore," he recalled.
The experience prompted him to seek help, and Phelps said he came to realize that "it's OK to not be OK," though he acknowledged there was still a stigma associated with mental illness.
He estimated that as many as 90 percent of Olympic athletes go through a post-Games depression, and called on the U. Olympic Committee to do more to help. Records are meant to be broken, goes the cliche. Safe to say, he will be lonely at the top for some years, perhaps even decades to come.
Share your perspective on this article with a post on ScrollStack, and send it to your followers. Kerri Strug. Gabby Douglas. From endorsement deals to movies, so many Olympic champions have channeled their fame into lucrative careers and nonprofit work to help promote the love of sports to the next generation.
Michael Phelps' 28 medals spanning five Games is unrivaled, and no other Olympic athlete comes close to his 23 gold medals.
The swimmer made his mark on the Games starting over 20 years ago at the Sydney Olympics, when, at 15 years old, he became the youngest man on U. Olympic swim team in 68 years. Phelps' last Olympic appearance was at the Rio Games, and since hanging up his swimming hat, he's been focusing on his own brand of swimwear and training gear. The first Phelps product launched in , and the brand was relaunched in July In addition to his business, Phelps is engaged in a variety of philanthropy.
In , Phelps revealed he struggled with ADHD and depression and now works as a mental health advocate. Hailed as the greatest diver of all time, Greg Louganis won a silver medal in the Montreal Games before securing consecutive gold medals in springboard and platform at the Los Angeles and Seoul games. In , Louganis became one of the first high-profile athletes to come out as gay and HIV positive.
He has since questioned if his sexual orientation and HIV status contributed to a lack of jobs and sponsorships since leaving the sport, R euters reported.
The year-old has spent the last several years as the sports director for the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, according to a interview with People. In , Louganis married his partner, Johnny Chaillot, but announced on his Instagram on June 18 that the couple would end their marriage.
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