The opening of the Tokyo Olympic Games, there have been many heroic figures in previous Olympic Games, and today it is about Michael Phelps.
Phelps was born into a broken family, his father a policeman and his mother a school teacher. Phelps was born in a small blue-collar town on the northeast coast of Maryland, where people revere rugby more than swimming. Sisters Hilary and Whiteney, both swimmers, once said that the pool was the only way for the siblings to escape their parents' quarrel. When Phelps was 7 years old, both parents divorced.
When Phelps was 11 years old, his coach Bowman discovered his swimming genes.
At the age of 15, Phelps competed in sydney as the youngest Olympic swimmer in 68 years in the United States. In Sydney, he finished fifth in the 200m butterfly, and the following year, Phelps, who was only 15 years and 9 months old, broke the world record in this event, becoming the youngest athlete to break the swimming world record. Four months later, Phelps once again broke the world record in the 200m butterfly and won the World Championships for the first time.
In 2001, Phelps broke the 200m butterfly world record, becoming the youngest world record holder and earning the nickname "Prodigy". In the same year, he won his first career world championship title at the Fukuoka World Championships.
At the Barcelona World Championships, Phelps broke the world record five times and stood on the top podium four times, creating another feat in the same competition. He successfully defended the 200m butterfly title, while also winning gold medals in the 200m and 400m individual medley and setting world records. In addition, he won gold in the medley relay and set a world record in the semi-finals of the 100m butterfly. Phelps was deservedly named the World's Best Male Swimmer of the Year 2003.
At the 2004 Athens Olympics, Phelps broke several records. On his first day, he won the gold medal in the 400m individual medley with a 3.5-second advantage and broke the world record in the event. The next day, he won a bronze medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay, followed by another bronze in the 200m freestyle. Phelps then won two gold medals on the same day, first in the 200m butterfly, and an hour later, he competed in the 4x200m freestyle relay and won another gold medal. He also won gold in the 200m individual medley, and Phelps won another gold medal in the 4x100m mixed relay. So far, Phelps has won 6 gold and 2 bronze, in addition to breaking 5 world records.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Phelps broke the men's 400-meter medley world record in 4:03.84, and he officially started the 8 gold journey of the Olympic Games. In the men's 4×100m freestyle relay, Phelps, who played the first line, helped the United States rewrite the world record in 3:12.23. In the men's 200m freestyle, Phelps broke the world record and won the gold medal in 1:42.96. Phelps then won the 200m butterfly championship in 1:52.03 and won the fourth gold medal and broke the world record. An hour later, he led the United States to gold in the men's 4×200m freestyle relay and broke the world record. In the men's 200m medley final, Phelps broke the world record with 1:54.23 and won his sixth gold medal at the Olympic Games. In the men's 100m butterfly and men's 4×100m medley relay, Phelps won all of them easily, surpassing Spiez to become the athlete who won the most gold medals in a single Olympic Games.
In London in 2012, Phelps won four gold medals, surpassing the record of 18 Olympic medals held by the former Soviet gymnastics star Latynina, becoming the athlete who won the most medals and gold medals in Olympic history.
On August 4, 2012, Phelps chose to retire, but two years later, in 2014, Phelps officially announced his comeback.
In August 2016, Phelps served as the flag bearer of the U.S. team at the Rio Olympics, marking his fifth olympic participation. In the men's 4x100m freestyle relay final, the United States won the championship with a time of 3:09.92, and Phelps, who participated in the Olympic Games for the fifth time, won his 19th Olympic gold medal.
He then won the men's 200m butterfly, men's 4x200m freestyle relay, men's 200m medley, and men's 4x100m medley relay, where he had 23 Olympic gold medals.
On December 2, 2016, Michael Phelps, the American "Flying Fish" and olympic gold medalist, publicly announced at the Golden Swimming Goggles Awards ceremony in New York that he had completely retired.
(Luantai)