Michael Fred Phelps is professional swimmer who has represented the United States in the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics in Athens and Beijing respectively. He is the most successful Olympic swimmer ever in terms if medals, winning 14 gold medals in 2 Olympics. In addition to this, he has won 2 bronze medals in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
He also holds the record of winning the maximum number of gold medals in a single Olympics, bagging eight gold medals in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. Phelps’ records and accomplishments have earned him the titles of American Swimmer of the Year 8 times and World Swimmer of the Year 6 times. He has been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated and is fondly called “The Baltimore Bullet”. He is a participant of the United States Anti-Doping Agency and is regularly examined to make sure that his body is free of any performance enhancing drug.
The 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens witnessed Phelps fell short by one gold medal in the process of equaling Spitz’s record of 7 gold medals in a single Olympics. He won gold medals in 100 meter butterfly, 200 meter butterfly, 400 meter individual medley, 200 meter individual medley, 4X100 meter medley relay and 4X200 meter freestyle. In addition to this, he won bronze medals in 200 meter freestyle and 4X100 meter freestyle relay.
When Phelps returned to participate in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, he had revived his hope of winning 8 gold medals in a single Olympics. He started off on track by winning the 400 meter individual medley and setting a world record in the process. He later went on to win seven more gold medals in the 100 meter butterfly, 200 meter butterfly, 200 meter freestyle, 200 meter individual medley, 4X100 meter freestyle relay, 4X100 meter medley relay and 4X200 meter freestyle relay, respectively. He managed to set world records in seven of his eight victories and setting an Olympic record for the one remaining event. Ian Thorpe, who had declared that Phelps couldn’t win eight gold medals in the 2008 Olympics, sat in the stands for the last event and congratulated Phelps personally after Phelps managed to win it.