Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps
Michael Fred Phelps II is an American competition swimmer and the most decorated Olympian of all time, with a total of 22 medals in three Olympiads. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold medals, Olympic gold medals in individual events, and Olympic medals in individual events for a male. In winning eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games, Phelps took the record away from fellow American swimmer Mark Spitzfor the most first-place finishes at any single Olympic...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSwimmer
Date of Birth30 June 1985
CityBaltimore, MD
CountryUnited States of America
I like to get in my own world. When I'm getting ready for a meet, I always have headphones on, listening to rap music to get myself fired up
I've always been fortunate in that I've been able to put myself in my own zone and relax. It comes naturally. I'm lucky to be that way
I wanted to get the fastest time in the world this year, but with everything going on, it's a pretty decent swim, ... I knew I was under world record pace. You could tell by the crowd. You can always tell at these meets when something good is going on because of the crowd.
When we got in the race, we knew what we had to do and knew what we wanted to do. Having three of four guys from the American record 800 free relay is a pretty solid relay, so we thought we could take a crack at the U.S. Open record tonight. We're all a little tired, but that's fifth-fastest American relay ever, so it's not a bad time. We ended tonight on a great note.
I finished my career the way I wanted to.
It doesn't matter what else is going on. When you walk into your arena or your - whatever you excel at, you're there to take care of the job that you have to do.
Coming into tonight, I knew it was going to be a great race, ... In the 400, Laszlo put up a 4:10.1 earlier in the year, and so you expect him to put up a good time in (the 200). I knew Ryan was going to be fast coming off his short course season, and he's improved a lot since Athens, so I just wanted to go out there and relax a bit and go out there and do what I had to do.
This is the first medal I've ever won in an international meet. For it to be gold is incredible. It feels great. I can't explain it.
I'm satisfied in a way because this is an eye opener for me, ... I didn't have the success I've always been able to have. I learned a lot.
I don't like to be second in anything. I was trying, I just wasn't going anywhere.
We're all a little tired.
We wanted to see how close we could get to the world record. We'll take that for right now.
I treat every race the same. We all wanted to swim fast today and give something back to the crowd.
I don't want to be the next Mark Spitz; I want to be the first Michael Phelps