Michael Phelps: The Most Decorated Olympic Athlete

On July thirty first, twenty and twelve, US swimmer Michael Phelps wins a silver medal in the two hundred meter butterfly and a gold in the four by two hundred freestyle relay, giving him nineteen total Olympic medals, passing Larissa Latanina for the most Olympic medals by any person all time. And today we're going to dive into how Michael Phelps was able to accomplish all his Olympic success on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Rees, your guide to wrap a deep dive into sports history every day. In the trivia question for today's episode is how many Guinness World Records does Michael Phelps still hold as of July thirty first, two thousand and twenty four now. Michael was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and was the youngest of three kids. His mother was a middle school principal and his father was a retired Maryland State trooper who was able to play college football and try out for the Washington Commandadors back in the seventies. And since Michael was the youngest, he always looked to his sisters at what they were doing and tried to follow in their footsteps, and his sisters were good swimmers, so Michael jumped in the pool at age seven, and his parents loved the idea so he could get out some of his pent up energy as he would later be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder, better known as ADHD. But it didn't take long for him to reach the national stage when at ten years old, he set the nation record for his age group in the one hundred meter butterfly and he began then to train at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club under coach Bobby Bowen, and Bobby would be in Phelps's life throughout his career. Bobby Bowen was a swimmer at Florida State back in the eighties but was starting to make a name for himself as a swimming coach and was a type of coach that was a no nonsense drill sergeant, which was exactly what Phelps needed. And throughout Bobby Bowman's career he would accept different jobs, whether either University of Michigan or Arizona State, and everywhere Bob went, so did Phelps, following him so he could train for everything he did, and it didn't take long for Phelps to make it to the Olympics. He qualified for the Olympics at age fifteen for the two thousand Summer Olympics and was the youngest male swimmer since Ralph Flanagan in nineteen thirty two, and he qualified for the two hundred meter butterfly, but was only able to finish fifth in his very first Olympic race, which quite honestly is impressive for any fifteen year old to compete on the world's biggest stage for swimming, going against grown men. But it didn't take long for him after the Olympics to make a name for himself, becoming the youngest world record holder in swimming in the two hundred meter butterfly that following year at the two thousand and one World of Championships at just fifteen years and nine months, And this is where things really started to take off. He started to expand his swimming to not just the butterfly, starting to do medallee's and freestyle, winning multiple medals at the two thousand and two Pan Pacific Championships, at the two thousand and three World Championships, and qualified for the two thousand and four Summer Olympics, where he was able to qualify for six different events, the two hundred and four hundred individual medley, and if you don't know what the medley is, it's a combination of all the major swimming strokes in one event, which are the butterfly, the backstroke, the breaststroke, and the freestyle. He also qualified for the one hundred and two hundred meter butterfly, the two hundred meter freestyle in the two hundred meter backstroke. Where the world finally knew who Michael Phelps was at the two thousand and four Olympics held in Athens, Greece, where the very first Olympics was held, which recovered in a previous episode, as Phelps would go on to in eight different events and three of those would be relay races that he was added on to as well, and he would go on to have the second greatest Olympics by an individual swimmer in terms of gold medals, behind Mark Spitz who won seven gold medals at the nineteen seventy two Summer Olympics held in Munich, and he was doing all this at the age of nineteen. He set Olympic records in the one hundred and two hundred meter butterfly and the two hundred meter medley. He set world records in the four hundred meter medley, now the one hundred meter medley. Traditionally, you get entered into this race by finishing the highest in the individual medley race. So you've first in the freestyle for your country, You're gonna race in the medley relay for your country, and the same for the butterfly, the backslow, and the breaststroke. So Phelps won the one hundred meter butterfly, beating his teammate Ian Crocker by just zero point zero four seconds. And because this, Crocker wouldn't have the chance to get a gold medal at this Olympics, So despite swimming being largely individualized, Phelps did something for a teammate. He gave up his spot in the medley so that Ian Crocker would have a chance to get a gold medal as well, which he did, and since Phelps already raced for the four by one hundred meters medley, he was also awarded a gold medal for this team. So in all told, he won six gold medals in two bronze, giving him a total of eight Olympic medals all before he could legally take a drink in America. This led him to be named Swimmer of the Year and becoming a celebrity in America something we have not ever seen before in this sport of swimming, which one of his idols growing up was Michael Jordan, who changed the sport of basketball, and he wanted to do the same for swimming, and he was starting to do that, and it became known heading into the two thousand and eight Summer Olympics that he was attempting to break mart Spicks seven gold medals record, and he qualified in six different events, the two hundred meter freestyle, the one hundred and two hundred meter butterfly, the two hundred and four hundred meter medley, and all those qualified him for relays in the four by one freestyle, the four by two freestyle, and the four by one medley. And when he came in to the Olympics, he was arguably the most famous athlete outside of the professional athletes in basketball to be there at Beijing. At the two thousand and eight Beijing Olympics, he would set a world record in every single event he raced in except for one, the one hundred meter butterfly, he only set the Olympic record in the first race he got his gold medal in was the four hundred meter individual medley, which he beat his own world record by two seconds, and in just his third race, he became the fifth Olympic athlete in modern history to win nine gold medals, joining Mark Spitz, Lazaria Latvia, Pavo Lamari, and Carl Lewis. And he wasn't done, as he kept winning and winning and winning until he gave him to his seventh and arguably the most exciting medal he won. Going against Serbia swimmer Maldred Milo Cavic in the one hundred meter butterfly, Phelps was able to win by just point zero one seconds. Unless you watch this race on slow mo, you can't tell who wins. It is one of the closest finishes ever in swimming history, and it was this one that gave him the tie for Mark Spitz record of seven gold medals, and on August seventeenth, running the four by one hundred meter relay, him and his team were able to set the world record and break Mark Spitz record for gold medals in a single Olympic game with a total of eight. Now following this dominating performance. At this time, performing and enhancing drugs were still common in sports, and many thought Phelps had to be taking something to have a dominant performance like that. They thought it was too good to be true. But Phelps passed nine different tests that were administered to him during the Olympics, and the reason why he was so dominant was his body makeup. He has the absolute perfect body for a swimmer. His wingspan is longer than his height, which is six', four and his wings spand is six.' eight the, average person your wingspan is the size of. Your height his is longer and his torso is longer than, his legs which allows him to have more movement in his, upper body allowing for a. Stronger stroke and he has larger than, average feet which seems like he has flippers compared to an average. Person's feet and because of his, body makeup he got into the. Perfect sport and sometimes that's all you need to do is have that perfect sport for, just yourself and he was able to find that. In swimming and if you didn't Know Who michael phelps was after the two thousand And, four olympics everyone knew who. He was after the two thousand and eight and he wasn't. Done swimming part of the reason why he was able to win so many medals is because he was so young when. He started he made His first olympics, at fifteen won his first gold, at nineteen and was only twenty three years old when he Broke mart, Spit's record so when it came to the Twenty, twelve games he was still ready, to swim and though he qualified for the same eight races he did At The, beijing olympics At The london olympics he only raced in six events, as honestly it became harder for him to train like he had. Done before he was more of. A celebrity he had, more endorsements he had more commitments outside of the pool than he, did previously which made it more of a challenge for him. To compete that doesn't mean he still wasn't one of the greatest Swimmers, in london as he won gold in four, different events the one hundred, meter butterfly the two hundred, meter medley in the two by four freestyle and four by, one medley also winning silver in the two hundred, meter butterfly in the four by one freestyle relay and At The london Olympics on july. Thirty first on, this day he won two, gold medals which tied him and broke the Record Of, lasera latiana A former soviet gymnast who in Three different olympics won a total of fourteen individual medals and four, team medals which in nineteen sixty four made her the Most decorated olympian there ever Was Until michael phelps when he got His nineteenth, olympic medal and she was even present at the race and asked if she could present the Medal, to phelps although that was against the rules and she was, not allowed but she Did say phelps was more than deserving of. The record and when he was all done at the Twenty, twelve olympics he had a total twenty two, overall medals and shortly After these olympics he stated that he, was, Done finished. He's retired he wants to get away from the sport and do other, things outside do more with. His life but sometimes when you've been doing something your, whole life it becomes hard to step away, from it and that's exactly. What happened and by this time him and His Coach, bob bowen who he had followed and been around his entire, racing career had fizzled their relationship And now phelps was racing. For himself he wanted to see if he could do it on, his own do It, without bowman so maybe he could enjoy it just a little bit more than he. Was before and he came back with, the vengeance competing in six different events At The, rio games where he Was the american flag bearer for the opening ceremonies and was voted a captain OF the us swim team and WAS a us delegate For. The olympics it seemed to be he was more Enjoying this olympics, than before and because, of that he was able to win five more gold medals in, one silver all at the age of, thirty one which is older than the Average, swimming olympian and this would be His final olympics for real, this time and he Finished his olympic career with twenty, eight medals ten more than the, previous record by far the Most decorated, olympian ever arguably The best olympian that there. Ever was as of, this recording he still Holds Twenty Guinness. World records Was This world swimmer Of the year seven years as well as Being Sports illusperated sportsman Of the year in two thousand. And eight he accomplished. A lot we may never see his record for total medals one ever, be broken but but we can enjoy the ride he took us on throughout Four. DIFFERENT olympics i want to thank you for Listening To Today's Daily. Sports history if you, like this please share on, your socials texted to, a friend shout it from. The rooftops go Listen To Daily sports history and come back tomorrow For More Daily. Sports history in answer today's, trivia question How Many Guinness world Records Does michael phelps still own to? This day and the answer Is twenty The Pint, paint fine the ten