At age seven, Phelps was still "a little scared" to put his head underwater, so his instructors allowed him to float around on his back.
Not surprisingly, the first stroke he mastered was the backstroke. He launched his swimming career at the Loyola High School pool. The coach immediately recognized Phelps' talents and fierce sense of competition and began an intense training regime together. By , Phelps had made the U.
National B Team. 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.
At the age of 15, Phelps became the youngest American male swimmer to compete at an Olympic Games in 68 years. While he didn't win a medal at the Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, he would soon become a major force in competitive swimming. In the spring of , Phelps set the world record in the meter butterfly, becoming the youngest male swimmer in history at 15 years and 9 months to ever set a world swimming record.
Phelps then broke his own record at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, with a time of , earning his first international medal. Phelps continued to set new marks at the U. Summer Nationals in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, establishing a new world record for the meter individual medley, and U. The following year, at the same event, he broke his own world record in the meter individual medley with a time of Shortly after graduating from Towson in , year-old Phelps set five world records, including the meter individual medley at the World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, with a time of Then during the U.
Michael Phelps competing in the final heat for the Men's Meter Butterfly during day seven of the U. Phelps became a superstar at the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, winning eight medals including six gold , tying with Soviet gymnast Aleksandr Dityatin for the most medals in a single Olympic Games. Phelps scored the first of six gold medals on August 14, when he broke his own world record in the meter individual medley, shaving 0.
He also won gold in the meter butterfly, meter butterfly, meter individual medley, 4-bymeter freestyle relay and 4-bymeter medley relay. The two events in Athens, in which Phelps took bronze medals, were meter freestyle and the 4-bymeter freestyle relay. At the Olympic Games in Beijing, China, Phelps won his 14th career gold medal, the most gold won by any Olympian — surpassing swimmer Mark Spitz's record of seven golds. He also set the record for the most gold medals won in a single Olympics by winning eight gold medals, in the 4-bymeter medley relay, 4-bymeter freestyle relay, meter freestyle, meter butterfly, 4-bymeter freestyle relay, meter individual medley and meter butterfly.
Every gold medal performance set a new world record, except the meter butterfly, which set an Olympic record. At the Olympic Games, held in London, Phelps' Olympic medal count increased to 22, setting a new record for most Olympic medals beating gymnast Larisa Latynina's prior record of He won four gold medals, in the 4-bymeter freestyle relay, meter individual medley, meter butterfly and 4-bymeter medley relay; and two silver medals, in the 4-bymeter freestyle relay and meter butterfly.
After the London Olympics in , Phelps announced he was retiring from swimming. However, he gave some indication of a possible return in July and would not rule out a possible Olympic bid for the summer games. In April , Phelps put the retirement rumors to rest and announced plans to compete at the Mesa Grand Prix in Arizona. Meanwhile, the sports world continued to speculate whether Phelps would compete in the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. His longtime coach Bowman told the Washington Post :.
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. On June 29, , Phelps celebrated a huge comeback when he became the first American male swimmer to earn a spot on five Olympic teams. His then-girlfriend Nicole Johnson, their baby, Boomer, and Phelps' mother Debbie watched the Olympic legend break history from the stands in Rio. On August 7, , Phelps clinched his 19th Olympic gold medal in Rio swimming the second leg of the men's freestyle relay.
He went on to win gold in both the meter butterfly and in the 4xmeter freestyle relay along with Conor Dwyer, Townley Haas and Ryan Lochte. Phelps went on to compete in the 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. At the Tokyo Olympic Games, many decorated athletes will be returning for their second or third Olympics looking to add to their medal haul. Phenoms like swimmer Katie Ledecky and gymnast Simone Biles return after collecting five medals each at the Rio Games but still have an uphill climb to reach the echelon of athletes with the most Olympic medals.
The most decorated Olympic athletes of all time tend to compete in disciplines with multiple events, including individual and team opportunities to win medals — like swimming, gymnastics and track and field. The Olympian with the most medals of all time is Michael Phelps. The swimming superstar won 28 medals between and , ten more than the previous record of Since the games in Athens, the number of countries and athletes participating in the Olympics has ballooned in size lowering the number of medals per athlete for each country.
Phelps started slow at his first Olympics in at the age of 15, finishing fifth in his only event, the m butterfly. Four years later in Athens, he entered eight events and came away with medals in every single one, then one-upped himself at the Beijing Olympics by finishing first in all eight events. Patel, who qualified via the universality quota and who was racing at her first Olympics, swam a time of All the emotions piled up and I was overwhelmed," the year old said after her race.
The universality quota allows one female and male participant each from a country to take part in the Olympics, if no other swimmer of the same gender qualifies for the competition through the normal process.
Nataraj placed fifth in his heat in a time of Maybe I let the pressure get to me.
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