Michael Fred Phelps

Michael Fred Phelps was born on June 30, 1985 in Baltimore, Maryland, to Fred and Debbie Phelps. Phelps began swimming when his two older sisters joined a local swimming team. At age 7, Phelps was still “a little scared” to put his head under water, so his instructors allowed him to float around on his back. One day, after seeing swimmers Tom Malchow and Tom Dolan compete at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, Phelps would begin to dream of becoming a champion himself. 

He launched his swimming career at the Loyola High School pool. He met his coach, Bob Bowman, when he started training with the North Baltimore Aquatic Club at the Meadowbrook Aquatic and Fitness Centre. The coach immediately recognized Phelps’s talents and fierce sense of competition and began an intense training schedule. By 1999, Phelps had made the U.S. National B Team.

At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, the 15 year old Phelps became the youngest American male swimmer to compete at the Olympic Games in 68 years. Although he didn’t win a medal he would soon become a major force in competitive swimming.

In the spring of 2001, Phelps set the world record in the 200-metre butterfly, becoming the youngest male swimmer in history to ever set a world swimming record. He then broke his own record at the 2001 World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, with a time of 1:54:58, earning his first international medal. 

Phelps became a superstar at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, winning eight medals, including six gold ones. He continued to establish world records and in 2012, his Olympic medal count increased to 22, setting a new record for the most Olympic medals won by a single person. In 2016, he became the first American male swimmer to earn a spot on five different Olympic teams.  

Adapted from biography.com