When it’s all said and done, Phelps told reporters he looks forward to spending more time with Boomer as he nears the end of his Olympic career.
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Mission accomplished. On Thursday, Phelps broke a 2,168-year-old record, NBC News reported, taking home the most individual event wins since 152 B.C. and earning his 22nd gold medal.
It was the youthful pleasure of swimming which has spurred Phelps on since his comeback after 18 months in retirement post-London 2012. Medals certainly, probably at least one gold.
To underscore the United States’ status as the Olympics undisputed superpower, at the current rate of winning medals (going back to 2000) it will take nearly a century and 21 more Summer Games for the next nation to reach the 1,000 gold plateau, with China finally hitting the mark in 2100. Now that he’s finished his final race in Rio, it’s rumored that the 32-year-old is ready to retire from the sport we know and love him for.
Lochte isn’t always serious, but he knows what a competitor Phelps is.
Michael Phelps is in the last straight, the final 48 hours of a swimming career which has yielded a record 22 Olympic gold medals with two more still possible. Of course, Lochte’s friend, Michael Phelps, has 26 medals.
As stated, though, Phelps has indicated that he’s done after the 2016 Olympics. Talking with him, he’s one of the rookies I’m very close with.
“I just don’t see it happening”, Bowman said Thursday night.
Michael Phelps has said he has become more outspoken at the Rio Olympics as he embraces his role as a mentor to younger team-mates.
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He says: “I have a lot of goals, but I think that I just want to take it day by day”. “That’s the longest continuous competitor I’ve ever had”, Phelps said of the friendly rivalry with Lochte that began in 2004. If anything, that race, the failure to win a medal, it helped motivate me. “I think this is a life anyone can dream of, and I’m definitely living it”.
