On Monday morning, Phelps appeared on the “Today” show in Rio, where he said he was “done” and that 2016 would be his final Olympics.
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Michael Phelps has won so many more medals than any other Olympian that it makes for a pretty boring discussion when he’s compared to individual athletes.
This was how he really wanted to go out.
But don’t expect retirement to mean he’ll be away from the pool. “Being able to cap it off with these Games is just the flawless way to finish”.
The Americans completed a haul of 33 medals in the pool including 16 golds, with Australia and Hungary trailing on three golds each. “It might be once in 10 generations that someone like Michael Phelps comes along”.
Phelps, 31, insists he won’t be back for a sixth Olympics. That set up an eight-gold run in Beijing, a four-gold affair in London and a five-gold finale in Rio.
“I thought the world would just be better off without me”, he said recalling the dark time.
For the future, as well as raising his young family, Phelps plans to help more people around the world learn how to swim.
“Maybe a bronze”, Bowman chimed in.
Additionally, Phelps managed to break a almost 2,200-year-old record with his 13th individual gold medal last week in the 200m individual medley.
Proving unbeatable in the pool, Phelps swept the boards at the 2012 London Olympics with 4 gold medals and 2 silver medals to his name.
The comeback endured a huge setback with his second drunken-driving arrest in 2014, which led to Phelps being banned from the world championships past year. Only after a second drunken-driving arrest and six weeks of inpatient therapy did Phelps reconnect with his dad, who cheered on his son a month ago at the U.S. Olympic trials but wasn’t able to travel to Brazil.
He quit drinking, reconnected with his estranged father, got engaged, moved to Arizona with his longtime coach Bob Bowman, and became a father. “That human spirit, that capacity to heal”.
“Obviously having a great relay split [in the men’s 4×100 freestyle relay, his first event in Rio].I was like, ‘OK, we’re gonna have a good meet, ‘” he explained. While he finished the games in Australia with no medals, he started winning them one after the other ever since.
Boomer’s pressence, Michael said, made his last Olympics so much more special.
How many medals does Michael Phelps own? “It’s insane. This is how I wanted to finish my career”.
But Adam Peaty, who twice broke the 100m breaststroke world record en route to gold in Rio, got past American Cody Miller on the second leg, pulling Great Britain from sixth to first. Back when races were only timed to one-tenth of a second, not one-hundredth as they are in the pool, USA speedskaters shared silver at the 1968 Winter Olympics.
He wouldn’t be for long.
He punched the water and bellowed as Phelps swam over to congratulate him.
It wasn’t in doubt after that. Astonishingly, all three had touched out in 51.14 seconds, behind Schooling’s Olympic record 50.39.
Two lengths later and the USA was in the clear and heading for gold followed by Team GB which would eventually claim silver and Australia bronze.
Murphy, making his Olympic debut in the Rio Games, swept the 100m and 200m backstroke gold medals. “It’s a nice number”.
Kathleen Baker, Lilly King and Dana Vollmer joined Manuel in the historic victory, which came with a time of 3:53.13. And then she was like, ‘What about 100 fly?
The U.S. also won 33 medals at Sydney in 2000. “Last time walking out in front of thousands of people representing my country”.
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Phelps may have been beaten, but the United States raked in plenty of gold on the penultimate night of action at the Olympic Aquatics Center.
