There’s a good chance he could go into coaching, maybe even assist his longtime-time swim coach Bob Bowman at Arizona State University.
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He added to his resume with five gold medals in Rio (4×200-meter freestyle relay, 200-meter butterfly, 4×100-meter medley relay, 4×100-meter freestyle relay and 200-meter individual medley) and a silver (100-meter butterfly).
The Olympic curtain came down on Michael Phelps Saturday, but not before he and his USA 4×100-meter medley relay colleagues could add another medal to his already record-breaking collection.
With a personal medal tally that exceeds the total medal count of India and several other countries in the modern Olympics ever since they began in 1896, Phelps is easily the greatest Olympian that ever lived.
But after a post-Olympic life marked by an alcohol-fueled recklessness marred by family feuds, Phelps took stock of what’s happening to him. “Come on”, as they laughed sarcastically. “There’s so much more I want to accomplish in the sport of swimming”. This is it. I’m done. “It’s been an incredible career, a ridiculous career and there’s no better way of finishing how I did”, he said on Sunday. The best way to finish!
While he does not have to put himself through the daily grind of training, it seems nearly certain that Phelps’ next career involves continuing to try to boost the sport’s profile.
It wasn’t the first time that Ledecky met Phelps. She also won three more medals at the games, including a second gold over the weekend when she anchored the 400-meter medley relay. Since then her career has skyrocketed. He may have been the chiseled veteran of the games – 31-years-old with a long history of Olympic and worldwide competitions under his swim trunks – but he proved he still had it: he won five gold medals in Rio and added a silver medal from the Mens’ 100m butterfly. The time is 51.14 seconds while, the time to beat made by schooling is 50.30 seconds. “I didn’t mean it like that”.
Katie Ledecky set a new Olympic record on Thursday in qualifying for the women’s 800-meter freestyle final.
Ledecky took to her own Instagram to big an emotional goodbye to the Games. I wanted to challenge myself, see how much more I could actually do.
“This accomplishment, I can’t wrap my head around”, Phelps said. And I was thinking: “my last warm-up, my last warm-down, my last time putting on a suit, my last cold tub – I did all that”. Justin Rose of Britain is the third-round leader and will be trying to win golf’s first gold medal in 112 years. Australia and Hungary were a distant second with three gold medals each.
After the 2012 London Olympics, which he had declared to be his last, Phelps walked away with not only the regret that he simply went through the motions but like many athletes in retirement, he appeared lost and unprepared.
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MICHAEL Phelps is 31 years old and Hidilyn Diaz 25.
