Michael Phelps - retired champion

Michael Phelps (June 30, 1985) is an American swimmer who recently withdrew from sports, having the greatest number of Olympic awards in the history of the competition, namely 22 medals. Phelps also holds a world record for the number of gold Olympic awards - 18, which exceeds the result of the previous record holder, Larisa Latynina, 2 times. Taking the 8 games at the 2008 Beijing Games, the athlete has established an absolute superiority in the number of medals for one Olympic Games. Having received 4 gold and 2 silver at the Summer Games 2012 in London, Phelps became the best third time in a row. Given all the major international competitions, the athlete took only 71 medals.

Michael Phelps is the record holder in swimming 100 m and 200 m butterfly, 400 m - complex, as well as former record holder at 200 m freestyle and 200 m - complex. Record performances of the athlete earned him many awards: 7 times "Swimmer of the Year", 9 times "American Swimmer of the Year", as well as "Swimmer of the Year" 2012 by FINA version. The Olympic success in 2008 brought him the title of "Sportsman of the Year" according to the popular publication "Sports Illustrated".

At the end of the Olympic Games in 2008, Phelps established a foundation whose goal is to help develop water sports and promote the right way of life. The athlete is going to continue work on the organization and at the end of the 2012 Olympic Games, which were the last in his sports career, as Michael Phelps himself says.

Biography

Phelps was born in the US state of Maryland and was the youngest of three children. Michael's mother is a high school teacher, and her father is a former policeman who, in his youth, was addicted to football. The athlete has English, Irish, Scottish and German roots. Michael Phelps started swimming when he was 7 years old, partly influenced by sisters, and also to find an application of excessive energy (in the sixth grade he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). At the age of 10, he set a national record in his age group, and then began to train at the Baltimore Water Sports Club. The culmination of his rapid development was the qualification in the 2000 Olympics, which made Phelps the youngest swimmer in the US Olympic team for the last 70 years. The athlete did not win the medal, however, finished fifth in the swimming butterfly by 200 m.

In the test run at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships, Mike Felps broke the world record in a 200 meter butterfly and thus became the youngest man to set a swimming record at the age of 15. The previous record holder was the famous Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe who put in a record of 400 m freestyle when he was 16. In the Fukuoka World Championship Phelps surpassed his own record and became world champion for the first time.

Having announced the end of the sports career after the competition in 2012, the athlete said that he wants to relax and travel the world, because over the years he has seen nothing but hotels and hotels. All newcomers can learn about new adventures of the former swimmer by visiting twisters on Twitter and Instagram, where Michael Phelps himself publishes photos from his personal life. The celebrity girl, Amy Desai, began to figure on many shots after Mike's break with model and actress Megan Rossi in 2012.