The most decorated athlete in Olympic history insisted again Sunday that his swimming career is over, less than 24 hours after claiming his 23rd gold medal in the 4×100-meter medley relay.
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Since he first took the Olympic plunge at the 2000 Sydney Games he has had an ambition to take swimming into the mainstream and there is no doubt the sport has enjoyed a much higher profile during his tenure as its leading figure.
On swimming in the same pool as Olympic legend Phelps, Peaty said: “It was special to swim with Phelps”.
The 31-year-old athlete was pictured out and about in Rio alongside his fiancée Nicole Johnson and their three-month old son, Boomer, earlier today.
“Walking down the warm-up pool deck, I started to get choked up, just thinking, “That’s it”. I want to be an inspiration, but I would like there to be a day when it is not ‘Simone the black swimmer’. This is the best place I’ve ever been in my life, with an incredible family.
“Anything that I can do to help somebody accomplish their goals and their dreams, it would mean the world”, he said.
At Beijing 2008, Phelps won all his eight events to surpass what was thought to be the most insurmountable record at the Games, the seven-gold haul at a single Olympics by Mark Spitz at Munich 1972, prompting the Munich hero himself to pay tribute to his young compatriot.
“I have a feeling it’s not”, Lauer said. And after every race, he heard the crowd (and his fellow US swimmers) chant: “Four more years!” I am very happy I came back. I don’t want to miss a thing. “He’s helped me through some of the worst times in my life and he’s been there every step of the way and I’m forever thankful”. “That’s the difference. Because I knew this was the last time. Looking back at the two-plus years spent training, I don’t have anything else that’s left”.
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Phelps retired following the London Olympics – disappointed with his performance and exhausted of the sport – but returned 18 months later in search of a better ending to more than two decades in the pool.
