Phelps added another half-dozen medals to his collection in the 2016 Games, running his total to 28 – 23 of which are gold. Being able to cap it off with these Games is just the ideal way to finish.
Advertisement
“This has been such a passion of mine and a big sport for me, and I want to help these guys as much as I can”, Phelps said. “I’m happy with how things finished”. He’ll have to watch videos of the five gold medals and one silver he earned at these Olympics, at age 31, in front of skeptics who had believed even greatness has its limits. “Getting off the bus walking into the pool tonight I nearly felt myself starting to cry”, said Phelps.
“This is the part of my life where I get to start this whole new chapter …”
Following his six-medal performance at the games, Phelps said that he had wanted to return on his own terms to finish things differently. “It’s definitely been something I’ve been looking forward to for a long, long time and I guess I felt very motivated all week”. Lauer made one last run at Phelps using the words from fellow American swimmer, Ryan Lochte, who guaranteed Friday that Phelps would compete the 2020 Tokyo Games.
“I’ve said this to some of you, it’s not done growing”, he told reporters when he qualified for Rio. Being able to look back at my career and say we’ve been able to accomplish everything we wanted.
“I am retiring, but I’m not done with swimming”.
The decorated Olympian welcomed his little one in May this year but was forced to spend most of the last three months away from his newborn in preparation for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Michael Phelps brought the curtain down on his Olympic career with a dynamite relay swim which resulted in his 23rd gold medal. “It’s the start of something new”.
“I knew that was it”, Phelps said.
So, he knows he has work to do.
Then he and his teammates grabbed a sign that said, “Thank You Rio”.
“It’s incredible. Really. I have been dreaming of this moment since I was a child and it’s fantastic”, said the 21-year-old Paltinieri. “Yeah, I’ve done a lot, but it’s not done”.
Advertisement
13 – The number of individual gold medals Phelps has won, including the 200-meter individual medley on Thursday night. Phelps’ mother, Debbie, and fiancee, Nicole Johnson, both floated the possibility, too. “It always has been and now it’ll be even more special. Italian people really wanted this gold and it was more hard than I expected”.
