Michael Phelps Biography

Michael Phelps Profile:

Full name: Michael Fred Phelps

Nickname(s): The Baltimore Bullet

Nationality: United States

Stroke(s): Butterfly, individual medley, freestyle, backstroke

Club: North Baltimore Aquatic Club – University of Michigan

Date of birth: June 30, 1985

Place of birth: Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Height: 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)

Weight: 200 pounds (91 kg)

Michael Phelps Career:

Michael Phelps grew up in the Baltimore suburb of Towson, just outside of Baltimore. Fred was a state trooper, and Debbie was a middle-school teacher who was twice named Maryland’s “Teacher of the Year.”. Michael Phelps’s mother, Debbie, is an administrator with the Baltimore County school system. He has two older sisters, and began swimming when they joined a local swim team. “At first, I was a little scared to put my head underwater, so I started with the backstroke,” Phelps told Frank Litsky, a sportswriter for the New York Times, adding, “I was still scared because I don’t think I had goggles.”

One of the turning points for Michael came when he saw swimmers Tom Malchow and Tom Dolan compete at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta. The 11-year-old began to dream of becoming a champion himself.

When Bowman told Phelps that he had Olympic potential, the twelve-year-old gave up his other sports, which were soccer, lacrosse, and baseball, in order to bring all his energy to daily pool practice. He began winning every competitive event he entered. The first time he lost, however, he was so upset that he threw down his goggles. Bowman warned him about his unsportsmanlike conduct, and since then Phelps has taken his handful of setbacks in stride.

“It’s when your body is not in the best situation, your mind is not in the best situation and things are against you those are the times that really count and really matter you overcome and rise to the occasion.”

Focus was never a problem for Michael in the pool. He spent hour after hour in the water. In school, however, Michael stuggled at times. He was diagnosed with ADHD after his ninth birthday. Michael worked with Debbie to overcome the condition.

American swimmer Michael Phelps has won 14 Olympic gold and 2 bronze medals, more than anyone in history. He has a career total of 16 medals: He won a remarkable eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing (breaking the record of seven gold medals set by swimmer Mark Spitz in 1972), plus six gold and two bronze at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Phelps was only 15 when he made the American team for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. (He placed fifth in the 200 meter butterfly, but his appearance there made him the youngest male Olympian since 1932, when 14-year-old Japanese swimmer Kusuo Kitamura won the 1500-meter freestyle at Los Angeles.)

For the 2008 Olympics he qualified in eight events and won gold medals in every event, including world records in the 400 meter Individual Medley and the 200 meter Freestyle.

Phelps’s specialty is the shorter races, 100 to 400 meters in length. His records, world records and awards are almost too numerous to mention: he set his first world record at age 15 (the 200 meter butterfly at the 2001 U.S. Spring Nationals), was named USA Swimmer of the Year six times between 2001 and 2007, and set an unprecedented five individual world records at in one meet at the 2003 world championships in Barcelona.

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