Michael Phelps' performances at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics have brought him strong consideration as the greatest ever Olympian. He has surpassed the records of [Mark Spitz] and [Johnny Weissmuller] and is considered the greatest swimmer ever. Phelps swims several strokes, including butterfly and freestyle, but his best events are the individual medleys. By the time he retired at Rio 2106 at the age of 31, Michael Phelps had collected a total of 23 golds, three silvers and two bronzes at the Olympics, a record-breaking haul that looks unlikely to be bettered for many years to come.
Here are some unknown facts about Michael Phelps:
Phelps began swimming at the age of seven.
Phelps started swimming partly because of the influence of his sisters and partly to provide him with an outlet for his energy. After his retirement in 2016 he stated that "The only reason I ever got in the water was my mom wanted me to just learn how to swim. My sisters and myself fell in love with the sport, and we decided to swim.
"When Phelps was in the sixth grade, he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
At the age of 10,he set national record for his age group in the 100-meter fly.
After setting national record, he began to train at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club under coach Bob Bowman.
In 2000,when he qualified at the age of 15 in summer olympics he became the youngest American male swimmer to compete in the Olympics in almost 70 years.
At the World Championship Trials for the 2001 World Aquatics Championships, on March 30, Phelps broke the world record in the 200-meter butterfly to become, at 15 years and 9 months, the youngest male ever to set a swimming world record.
At 2003 Nationals, Phelps won the 200-meter freestyle, 200-meter backstroke, and the 100-meter butterfly. He became the first American swimmer to win three different races in three different strokes at a national championship.
At the 2003 World Aquatics Championships, Phelps won four gold medals, two silver medals, and broke five world records.
At the 2005 World Aquatics Championships, Phelps won a total of six medals, five golds and one silver.
In 2008 summer olympics,Phelps set an Olympic record in the preliminary heats of the 400-meter individual medley.He followed that up in the final by winning the gold medal, as well as breaking his previous world record by nearly two seconds.
On 16 August 2008 , Phelps won his seventh gold medal of the Games in the men’s 100-meter butterfly, setting an Olympic record for the event with a time of 50.58 seconds and edging out his nearest competitor Čavić, by one hundredth (0.01) of a second.
On 17 August 2008, Phelps won his eighth gold medal in the 4×100-meter medley relay, breaking Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals won in a single Olympic Games, which had stood since 1972.
His wingspan is longer than he is tall. When his arms are extended they reach 80 inches (that's 6 feet, 8 inches) tip to tip.
He also has size 14 feet, which are so bendy at the ankle that they're "virtual flippers.”.
And he has a heightened ability to recover from physical exertion, which means racing multiple times in a day is NBD.
Phelps has set 39 world records (29 individual, 10 relay), which is more records than any other swimmer.
He still holds national records for 12 different age-group events.
If Michael Phelps was a country, he'd be ranked 32nd on the all-time medal count. That's all-time, as in everything a country has won in 120 years and 28 Summer Olympics.
His net worth makes him the fifth-richest Olympic athlete ever, and also way higher paid than the richest of Olympic swimmers.
Phelps is married to former Miss California USA Nicole Johnson. They secretly married on June 13, 2016, but the marriage was not publicly reported until four months later.
Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time.
