Managing Editor
I was watching a baseball game last weekend when a special guest in the broadcast booth completely changed my opinion of him and made me think about what he had to say.
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| Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympic athlete of all-time, winning 28 Olympic medals, including 23 gold medals. COURTESY PHOTO |
I wasn’t aware that Phelps was born in Baltimore and grew up in nearby Towson, Maryland. His mother enrolled him in youth swimming at the age of 7 after his two sisters did well in the sport. He said that he only took swimming lessons initially because his mother, who was a middle school principal, insisted that he do so.
At first, Phelps was just an average swimmer but when his parents divorced when he was 9, swimming became an outlet for him. He struggled in school and by age 11, he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) while in sixth grade.
One of his teachers then turned his life around by telling him that “he would never amount to anything.”
That’s when he poured his heart and soul into swimming and began to train at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club under Coach Bob Bowman, a former collegiate swimmer whose approach to swimming was as Phelps puts it “exactly like a drill sergeant.”
He could not train under Bowman if his grades were poor, so during the school year, Phelps hit the books and then spent hours of training sessions in the pool. His work ethic and desire to win were so strong that he never missed a day of swimming training under Bowman’s direction for more than 20 years.
By age 15 in 2000, Phelps became the youngest swimmer to ever qualify for the U.S. Summer Olympics team. He didn’t win a medal in those games but finished fifth in the 200-meter butterfly. With an eye on the 2004 Olympics, he became the youngest swimmer to set a world record for the 200-meter butterfly during the World Championship Trials for the 2001 World Aquatic Championships at the age of 15 years and 9 months.
During the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, Phelps captured six gold medals in six different events and two bronze medals in two others. In the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China, Phelps competed in eight events and brought home another eight gold medals.
Competitors and doubters in the media suggested that Phelps might be on drugs, and continuing to win gold medals because of steroid use. Phelps responded by passing every drug test that was administered to him throughout his entire career.
He said he never let negative remarks bother him and that he attributes his success to always working harder than anyone else.
“While others were doing something else or celebrating the holidays, I was working and training,” Phelps said. “I never missed a day, and nobody was going to outwork me, and it helped me to achieve what I did.”
In the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England, Phelps won four more gold medals and two silver medals. Following the games, he was ready to retire and done with swimming after racking up 18 gold medals and being honored as the winningest Olympian of all-time.
Yet less than two years later, Phelps decided to unretire, and set out to convince Bowman that he wasn’t trying to show anybody up or to prove anything.
“I wanted to swim for myself and to enjoy the journey,” he told the Orioles broadcasters.
At the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Phelps was the U.S. flag bearer for the Opening Ceremonies and then shattered his incredible Olympic medal total by winning five more gold medals and a silver medal, before retiring from competitive swimming for good.
Now married and the father of four children, Phelps lives in Paradise Valley, Arizona where he volunteers as an assistant coach under Bowman for the Arizona State Swimming Team. Now 39, he covered the recent Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France as a broadcaster for NBC Sports.
In retirement, he founded the Michael Phelps Foundation, the Michael Phelps Swim School, and helped to develop a national pilot swimming program for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. He says his goal is to teach children the importance of being active and healthy by focusing on swimming.
During his career in competitive swimming, Phelps established 39 world records, and he amassed a total of 28 Olympic medals, with 23 of them being gold medals, which is the most ever for an Olympic athlete.
He said that his teacher’s comment inspired him all those years ago and that he believes his dedication to training propelled him to his monumental accomplishments in swimming.
Until Sunday’s baseball game, I never knew what made Phelps the fantastic swimmer that he was and I came away from listening to him with a greater appreciation of what it takes to reach the pinnacle of Olympic success and then stay at the top after getting there. <
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