Michael Phelps' career

Early years

As a young teenager, Phelps trained at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club under coach Bob Bowman. At the age of 15, Phelps competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, becoming the youngest American male swimmer at an Olympic Games in 68 years. While he did not win a medal, he did make the finals and was fifth in the 200 m Butterfly. Phelps proceeded to make a name for himself in swimming shortly thereafter. Five months after the Sydney Olympics, Phelps broke the world record in the 200 m butterfly to become, at 15 years and 9 months, the youngest man ever to set a swimming world record. He then broke his own record at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan (1:54.58). At the 2002 Summer Nationals in Fort Lauderdale, Phelps also broke the world record for the 400 m individual medley and set American marks in the 100 m butterfly and the 200 m individual medley.

In 2003, Phelps broke his own world record in the 400 m individual medley (4:09.09) and in June, he broke the world record in the 200 m individual medley (1:56.04). Then on July 7, 2004, Phelps broke his own world record again in the 400 m individual medley (4:08.41) during the U.S. trials for the 2004 Summer Olympics.

In 2004, Phelps left North Baltimore Aquatic Club with Bob Bowman to train at the University of Michigan for Club Wolverine.

2000 Sydney Summer Olympic Games

2004 Athens Summer Olympic Games

Phelps' dominance brought comparisons to former swimming great Mark Spitz, who won seven gold medals in the 1972 Summer Olympics, a world record. Phelps tied Mark Spitz's record of four gold medals won in individual events. Phelps had the chance to break Spitz's record of seven total gold medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics by competing in eight swimming events (five of which were individual events): the 200 m freestyle, the 100 m butterfly, the 200 m butterfly, the 200 m individual medley, the 400 m individual medley, the 4x100 m freestyle relay, 4x200 m freestyle relay, and the 4x100 m medley relay. However, his 4x100 m freestyle relay team only won the bronze medal, and he personally placed for bronze in the 200 m freestyle. Thus, he fell short of Spitz's record. However, he did win eight medals in one Olympics, a feat only previously achieved by Alexander Dityatin, a gymnast, in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Phelps would later equal this record (and break Spitz's) with his eight gold medals in the 2008 Olympic Games.

Had he won seven golds in 2004, he would have been eligible for a US$1 million bonus from his sponsor, Speedo. Phelps did, however, earn this $1 million by winning eight golds at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

On August 14, 2004 he won his first Olympic gold, in the 400 m individual medley, setting another new world record (4:08.26). On August 16 he was beaten by the Australian winner Ian Thorpe and the Dutch Pieter van den Hoogenband in 200 m freestyle final, called the race of the century.

On August 20, 2004 in the 100 m butterfly final, Phelps defeated American teammate Ian Crocker (who holds the world record in the event) by just 0.04 seconds. Traditionally, the Olympian who places highest in an individual event will be automatically given the corresponding leg of the 4x100 m medley relay. This gave Phelps an automatic entry into the medley relay but he deferred and Crocker swam instead. The American medley team went on to win the event in world record time, and, since he had raced in a preliminary heat of the medley relay, Phelps was also awarded a gold medal along with the team members that competed in the final.

2004–2008

Phelps swims the 400 IM at the 2008 Missouri GP

Phelps moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan following the 2004 Olympics when his longtime coach at the North Baltimore Athletic Club, Bob Bowman, became head coach of the University of Michigan swimming team. Phelps served as a volunteer assistant coach, but did not swim for the university's team in NCAA competition because of his loss of amateur status, having accepted endorsement money from his sponsors Speedo, Visa, Omega and PowerBar. Instead, he trained with and competed for Club Wolverine, a USA Swimming club affiliated with the university, between 2004 and 2008. The Baltimore Sun said in August 2008 that Phelps earns $5 million annually in endorsements.

He competed in the 2005 World Championships, winning six medals, (five gold and one silver) and breaking one Championship record.

At the 2007 World Championships , Phelps won seven gold medals, tying the record, and broke five world records. The 4x100 m medley relay team he would have competed with in the final received a disqualification for a false start during a changeover in the heats.

He co-founded the "Swim with the Stars" program, along with Ian Crocker and Lenny Krayzelburg, a program which promotes swimming and conducts camps for swimmers of all ages.

2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games

Phelps is representing the United States at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He qualified to compete in three team and five individual events, winning the gold medal in all eight events:

Phelps set an Olympic record in the preliminary heats of the men's 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.

Phelps swam the first leg of the men's 4x100 m freestyle relay in a time of 47.51 seconds (an American record for the 100 m freestyle), and won his second gold medal of the 2008 Olympics, as well as setting his second world record of the Olympics (3:08.24). Teammate Jason Lezak, after beginning his leg more than half a body length behind the French, managed to finish ahead of the second-place French team by eight hundredths of a second. The top five teams in the final finished ahead of the world record of 3:12.23 set the day before by the American B team in a preliminary heat.

For his third race, Phelps broke his previous World Record in the 200-meter freestyle by nearly a second and won his third gold medal. He also set his third world record at the Olympics, 1:42.96, winning by nearly two seconds over silver medalist Park Tae-hwan. Phelps became only the fifth Olympic athlete in recent history to win nine career gold medals, along with Mark Spitz, Larissa Latynina, Paavo Nurmi, and Carl Lewis. Several Olympians in the days before the Olympics' relaunch in 1896 had achieved this honor.

Phelps holds his gold medal on the podium on August 10, 2008. Pictured with Ryan Lochte and Laszlo Cseh

The next day, Phelps participated in two finals. In his first event, the 200-meter butterfly, Phelps made it four gold medals and world records in four events by swimming the final in 1:52.03, defeating silver medalist Laszlo Cseh by almost seven-tenths of a second despite his goggles filling up with water and being unable to "see anything for the last 100 meters." This fourth gold medal was his tenth, and made him the all-time leader for most Olympic gold medals won by an individual in the modern Olympic era.

Less than one hour after his gold medal victory in the 200-meter butterfly, Phelps swam the lead-off leg of the 4 x 200-meter freestyle relay. He won his fifth gold and set his fifth world record as the American team finished first with a time of 6:58.56. The Americans were the first team to break the seven-minute mark in the relay, and broke the previous record, set in Melbourne, Australia, by more than four and a half seconds.

After taking a day off from finals (Phelps did swim in qualifying heats), Phelps won his sixth gold of the Beijing Games on August 15 by winning the 200-meter individual medley with a World Record time of 1:54.23, finishing ahead of Cseh by over two seconds.

On August 16, 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, Serbian-American swimmer Milorad Čavić, by 1/100 of a second. Unlike all six of his previous events in the 2008 Games, Phelps did not set a new world record, leaving Ian Crocker’s world record time of 50.40 seconds, set in 2005, intact. Phelps’s 0.01-second finish ahead of Čavić prompted the Serbian delegation to file a protest; however, subsequent analysis of the video by the FINA panel, which required analyzing frames shot 1/10000 of a second apart, confirmed Phelps’s victory. Phelps’s seventh gold medal of the Games tied Mark Spitz’s record for gold medals won in a single Olympic Games, set in the 1972 Olympics. It was also his fifth individual gold medal in Beijing, tying the record for individual gold medals at a single Games originally set by Eric Heiden in the 1980 Winter Olympics and equaled by Vitaly Scherbo at the 1992 Summer Games. Said Phelps upon setting his seventh-straight Olympic record of the Games in as many events, “Dream as big as you can dream and anything is possible. I am sort of in a dream world. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure it is real.”

On August 17, Phelps won his eighth gold medal in the men's 4 x 100 metre medley relay, breaking Mark Spitz's previous record of seven gold medals achieved in one Olympic Games. Along with teammates Aaron Peirsol, Jason Lezak, and Brendan Hansen, Phelps helped the American team to best the previous world record (also held by the United States, set at the 2004 Athens Games) by 1.34 seconds, setting a new world record of 3:29.34, 0.7 seconds ahead of second-place Australia. Phelps' split of 50.1 seconds was the fastest split in this event in history.

His results in 2008 mean he currently ranks second in total career Olympic medals, after Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina, who won a total of 18 medals (nine gold) spanning three Olympic Games.

Honors and awards

World Swimmer of the Year Award: 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007
American Swimmer of the Year Award: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007
Golden Goggle Male Performance of the Year: 2004, 2006, 2007
Golden Goggle Relay Performance of the Year: 2006, 2007
Golden Goggle Male Athlete of the Year: 2004, 2007
ESPY Best Olympic Performance: 2005
USOC Athlete of the Year Award: 2004
USSA Athlete of the Year Award: 2003
World Championships Swimmer of the Meet: 2003
James E. Sullivan Award: 2003
Teen Choice Awards - Male Athlete: 2005
Laureus World Sports Sportsman of the Year Award (Nominated): 2004, 2005, 2008
USA Olympic Team Member: 2000, 2004, 2008
Holds the record for most Olympic gold-medals: 14
Holds the record for most Olympic gold-medals in individual events: 10
Holds the record for most Olympic gold-medals at a single games: 8
Street in his hometown of Baltimore was re-named 'The Michael Phelps Way': 2004

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.