Date of Birth
30 June 1985, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Birth Name
Michael Fred Phelps
Nickname
Flying Fish
Height
6' 3" (1.91 m)
Michael Phelps is the newest phenomenon to take the swimming world by storm. Before the Olympics started, rumor had it that a 19 year-old from Baltimore was thinking of trying to match or even surpass Mark Spitz's legendary seven gold medals. By his fourth race with one gold and two bronze it was obvious he couldn't tie it but instead he could match Russian gymanst's Alexander Dityatin's record of eight medals in one Olympics. Every race after the two bronze he came away with gold. After his seventh race he did a truly noble thing by handing over his butterfly leg on the 4 x 200m Freestyle relay to Ian Crocker a rival and now a friend. To everyone this was deemed the most selfless act of the games but to Michael it was just giving his team mate another chance. Throughout the entire week of competition he barely managed to sleep so when he finally got to rest he went to check out how the dominant women's teams were doing and enjoying the culture and atmosphere in Athens. The success in Athens was amazing and now he will begin training for the 2008 Olympics in Bejing.
Michael Fred Phelps (born June 30, 1985) is an American swimmer. He has won 14 career Olympic gold medals, the most by any Olympian, and is often cited as the greatest swimmer and one of the greatest Olympians of all time. As of August 2, 2009, Phelps has broken thirty-seven world records in swimming.
Phelps holds the record for the most gold medals won in a single Olympics, his eight at the 2008 Beijing Games surpassed American swimmer Mark Spitz's seven-gold performance at Munich in 1972.
Overall, Phelps has won 16 Olympic medals: six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008. In doing so he has twice equaled the record eight medals of any type at a single Olympics achieved by Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin at the 1980 Moscow Summer Games. His five golds in individual events tied the single Games record set by Eric Heiden in the 1980 Winter Olympics and equaled by Vitaly Scherbo at the 1992 Summer Games. Phelps career Olympic medal total is second only to the 18 Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina won over three Olympics, including nine gold.
Phelps's international titles and record breaking performances have earned him the World Swimmer of the Year Award in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and American Swimmer of the Year Award in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. He has won a total of fifty-four career medals thus far in major international competition, forty-five gold, seven silver, and two bronze spanning the Olympics, the World, and the Pan Pacific Championships. His unprecedented Olympic success in 2008 earned Phelps Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportsman of the Year award.
Phelps was born and raised in the Lake Point area of Baltimore County, Maryland. He graduated from Towson High School in 2003. His father, Fred Phelps, worked for the Maryland State Police and his mother, Deborah Sue "Debbie" Davisson Phelps, is a middle school principal.The two divorced in 1994.Michael, whose nickname is "MP", has two older sisters, Whitney and Hilary.Both of them were swimmers as well, with Whitney coming close to making the U.S. national team for the 1996 Summer Olympics before injuries derailed her career.
In his youth, Phelps was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). He started swimming at age seven, partly because of the influence of his sisters and partly to provide him with an outlet for his energy. He excelled as a swimmer, and by the age of 10 held a national record for his age group. More age group records followed, and Phelps's rapid improvement culminated in his qualifying for the 2000 Summer Olympics at the age of 15.
In November 2004, at the age of 19, Phelps was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in Salisbury, Maryland. He pleaded guilty to driving while impaired the following month and was granted probation before judgment and ordered to serve 18 months' probation, fined $250, obligated to speak to high school students about drinking and driving and had to attend a Mothers Against Drunk Driving(MADD) meeting.Questioned about the incident later that month by Matt Lauer on the Today Show, Phelps said it was an "isolated incident" and that he had "definitely let myself down and my family down ... I think I let a lot of people in the country down."
Between 2004 and 2008, Phelps attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, studying sports marketing and management. In May 2008, Phelps announced his intention to return to Baltimore following the 2008 Olympics, joining Bob Bowman there after leaving the University of Michigan, saying, "I'm not going to swim for anybody else. I think we can both help the North Baltimore Aquatic Club go further. I'm definitely going to be in Baltimore next year." Bowman left the University of Michigan to become the club's CEO. Phelps purchased a house in the Fells Point section of Baltimore, where he has resided since the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Phelps' teammates at the Olympics called him "Gomer" because he reminded them of Gomer Pyle, the good-natured, na?ve country boy played by Jim Nabors on The Andy Griffith Show and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C..
He has made an estimated $5 million per year in endorsements, including an estimated $1 million dollars to be the face of Mazda in China. After receiving a $1 million bonus from swimsuit maker Speedo for winning at least seven gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games, Phelps used the money to create the Michael Phelps Foundation, a charity foundation to promote water safety and to advocate swimming for children. Speedo then donated an additional $200,000 to the Foundation.
On December 1, 2008, TV Guide reported Phelps' selection as one of Americas top ten most fascinating people of 2008 for a Barbara Walters ABC television program that aired on December 4, 2008.
In early 2009, Phelps admitted to "behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment" following the publication of a photo by the British tabloid, News of the World, showing him using a bong, a device used for smoking marijuana. Following an investigation, the Richland County Sheriff's Departmentannounced on February 16 that Phelps would not be prosecuted in connection with the incident because there was not enough evidence. USA Swimmingsuspended Phelps from swimming competitively for three months, and Kellogg's announced that it would not renew his endorsement contract.
On April 9, 2009 Phelps was invited to appear before the Maryland House of Delegates and the Maryland Senate, to be honored for his Olympic accomplishments. When introduced, he received standing ovations by lawmakers in both chambers.
Phelps co-founded the "Swim with the Stars" program, along with Ian Crocker and Lenny Krayzelburg, a program which promotes swimming and conducts camps for swimmers of all ages.
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