Some thoughts of Michael Phelps Website
Michael Phelps Website
Built with a larger-than-average “wingspan,” a height of 6 foot four inches, and size 14 feet, Phelps was made for swimming. At the Athens Games, he won a total of six gold and two bronze medals. Phelps’s strongest stroke is freestyle, but the 200-meter freestyle gold medal and record that eluded him; Ian Thorpe, record-holder in the event since 2001, cruised to first place in that race. But Phelps bounced back from that loss when he dominated the 2007 World Championships, breaking Thorpe’s record and setting five world records, four individual and one relay event: the 200m free, 200m fly, 200m IM, 400m IM and 4×200m free. 3
Four months later, he won his first world championship, setting another world record in the 200 butterfly. Phelps caused a sensation at the 2003 World Championships. Not only did he earn four gold medals and two silver medals, but he set four world records. In 2004, he became the first swimmer to qualify for the Olympics in six individual events. He decided not to compete in the 200m backstroke). 2
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All for one and one for all, so to speak. And in the Olympic world of Phelps, a second gold medal and a seismic step toward what would be a record eight. 6
Michael Phelps was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1985. His findingDulcinea birthday profile notes that he started swimming at age seven at the North Baltimore Athletic Club. He’s been coached by Bob Bowman since the age of 12 and made his first appearance at the U.S. Olympic Trials at the age of 15, finishing second in the 200-meter butterfly. He only finished fifth in that event at the Sydney Olympics, but five months after the Games, he broke the world record in the event. It was the first of many. 1
In the 100m butterfly, he barely out touched teammate Ian Crocker for his seventh medal. Finally, Phelps gained a gold medal in the 4×100m medley relay by swimming the preliminary heats. By so doing, he joined gymnast Aleksandr Dityatin as the only athletes to earn eight medals at a single Olympics. 5
Those setbacks included his first-ever U.S. national championships, in the summer of 1999. He finished in last place in the 200-meter butterfly. He bounced back at the 2000 U.S. spring nationals to take a third place finish, and then became a surprise qualifier for the Sydney Olympics later that year. When he arrived with the rest of the U.S. swim team, he was the youngest American male swimmer to enter an Olympic contest since 1932. He had qualified for just one event, the 200-meter butterfly, and finished in fifth place. 7
Yes, Phelps is aware — everyone is aware — that the Olympic record for most gold medals in a single Olympics (seven) was set by American swimmer Mark Spitz in 1972. And Phelps fell one gold medal short of that four years ago in Athens. 4
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