Michael Fred Phelps II is a former American swimmer.
Place of Birth, Education
He was born on June 30, 1985 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America (USA). He was the youngest of three children in the family.
He attended Rogers Forge Primary School, then Dumbarton High School. In 2003, he graduated from Towson High School.
He started swimming at the age of 7. Already at the age of 10, he set a US national record in his age group at a distance of 100 meters butterfly.
After that, he began training at the North Baltimore Aquatics Club under coach Bob Bowman.
Career
2000 – 2005
Already at the age of 15, Phelps broke the world record in the 200-meter butterfly and became the youngest record holder in the history of swimming. In particular, he was recognized as the best swimmer of the year in the United States.
In 2003, at the World Championships in Barcelona, he won 4 gold and 2 silver medals, and also set 5 world records. After the tournament, he was recognized as the best swimmer in the world and the best amateur athlete in the United States.
Before the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Phelps planned to win 8 gold medals and surpass the record of Mark Spitz, who won 7 gold medals in 1972. It was not possible to completely repeat the result, but he won 6 gold and 2 bronze medals.
2005 – 2010
At the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Phelps won 7 gold medals and set 4 world records.
At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, he surpassed Spitz’s record – he won 8 gold medals and each time climbed to the highest step of the podium.At the same time, he won swims at distances of 400 meters in individual medley, 200 meters freestyle, 200 meters butterfly, 200 meters in individual medley and 100 meters butterfly, and also won two relays – 4×100 meters freestyle and 4×100 meters individual medley. In most of these finals, in addition to the 100-meter butterfly, he set world records. He won the final gold as part of the American 4×100-meter medley relay team, which finished with a world record of 3 minutes 29.34 seconds.
2010 – 2015
At the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Phelps won 6 medals – 4 gold and 2 silver.
He became an 18-time Olympic champion and set a record for the total number of awards at the Games – 22 medals, surpassing the achievements of Larisa Latynina.
After the London Olympics in 2012, at the age of 27, Phelps announced his retirement. However, in 2014 he returned to competition and subsequently qualified to participate in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Phelps won his first gold medal as part of the 4×100 meters freestyle relay, showing one of the fastest turns in history – about 2.43 meters per second.
He won his second gold medal in the 200-meter butterfly, ahead of Japan’s Masato Sakai by only 0.04 seconds. After that, he received another championship title in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay.
On August 11, he won the 200-meter medley swim and won his 13th individual gold medal at the Olympic Games.
After completion, Phelps announced the final end of his sports career.
World records
Phelps is the only 23-time Olympic champion in the history of sports: he won 13 gold medals at individual distances and 10 as part of relay teams.
He also won the World Championships in the 50-meter pool 26 times and repeatedly set world records.
From 2001 to 2010, he won the US championships in individual disciplines 50 times. In addition, he won 5 relays and won three national championships, where distances are measured in yards.
As of July 27, 2012, Phelps has set 39 world records: 29 individual and 10 in relays.
Four years later, on August 19, 2016, he held seven world records: 100 meters butterfly, 200 meters freestyle, 200 meters butterfly, 200 meters individual medley, 400 meters individual medley, as well as as part of the 4×100 and 4×200 meters freestyle relays.
Marital Status
Phelps is married to former Miss California USA winner Nicole Johnson. The couple met in 2007 during the ESPY Awards. Their relationship was interrupted several times: they broke up in 2008, later resumed their relationship, but broke up again in 2010.
In 2012, Phelps and Johnson got back together and announced their engagement in February 2015.
On June 13, 2016, they secretly tied the knot, announcing it publicly just four months later.
The couple have four sons.
