Micheal Phelps - Biography, Achievements and Quotes

Michael Fred Phelps II (born June 30, 1985) is a retired American swimmer and the most decorated Olympian of all time, with a total of 22 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold medals (18, double the second highest record holders), Olympic gold medals in individual events (11), and Olympic medals in individual events for a male (13). In winning eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games, Phelps took the record for the most first-place finishes at any single Olympic Games. Five of those victories were in individual events, tying the single Games record. In the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Phelps won four golds and two silver medals, making him the most successful athlete of the Games for the third Olympics in a row.
Phelps is the long course world recordholder in the 100-meter butterfly, 200-meter butterfly and 400-meter individual medley as well as the former long course world recordholder in the 200-meter freestyle and 200-meter individual medley. He has won a total of 71 medals in major international long-course competition, 57 gold, 11 silver, and three bronze spanning the Olympics, the World, and the Pan Pacific Championships. Phelps's international titles and record-breaking performances have earned him the World Swimmer of the Year Award seven times and American Swimmer of the Year Award nine times as well as the FINA Swimmer of the Year Award in 2012. His unprecedented Olympic success in 2008 earned Phelps Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportsman of the Year award.
After the 2008 Summer Olympics, Phelps started the Michael Phelps Foundation, which focuses on growing the sport of swimming and promoting healthier lifestyles. He expects to do further work with his foundation after the 2012 Olympics, which he has said will be his last.

Achievements & Facts about Micheal Phelps

• Phelps was born and raised in the Rodgers Forge neighborhood of Towson, Maryland, located just north of Baltimore. Michael is the youngest of three children. His mother, Deborah Sue "Debbie" (née Davisson), is a middle school principal. His father, Michael Fred Phelps, is a retired Maryland state trooper who played football in high school and college and tried out for the Washington Redskins
• In the 1970s. Phelps's parents divorced in 1994, and his father remarried in 2000.[10] His ancestry includes English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and German. Phelps graduated from Towson High School in 2003.
• Phelps began swimming at the age of seven, partly because of the influence of his sisters and partly to provide him with an outlet for his energy. When Phelps was in the sixth grade, he was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
• By the age of 10, he held a national record for his age group, and Phelps began to train at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club under coach Bob Bowman. More age group records followed, and Phelps's rapid improvement culminated in his qualifying for the 2000 Summer Olympics at the age of 15 and becoming the youngest male to make a U.S. Olympic swim team in 68 years.
• While he did not win a medal, he did make the finals and finished fifth in the 200-meter butterfly.
• At the World Championship Trials for the 2001 World Aquatics Championships, on March 30, Phelps broke the world record in the 200-meter butterfly to become, at 15 years and 9 months, the youngest man ever to set a swimming world record, breaking the record previously held by Ian Thorpe when he lowered the 400-meter freestyle world record at 16 years, 10 months. 
• At the World Championships in Fukuoka, Phelps broke his own world record in the 200-meter butterfly en route to becoming a world champion for the first time.
• Phelps has won six medals in London this year. He alone is tied with Netherlands, Ukraine and Brazil.
• Phelps record in winning gold medals in London is equaled by only eight countries. In the 24 men’s swimming events of the Olympics that Phelps has participated in, he has won the medal 22 times.
• Phelps’s eighteen gold medals are equal to eighteen regular medal acquired by Larisa Latynina in Olympics. Spain has less total medals when compared to Phelps gold medals in London. 81% of medals won by Phelps at the Olympics are gold.
• The 6-foot-4 Olympian, who’s a lean 195 pounds of efficient muscle, swims 31 miles a week and lifts weights four times every week. His hard work and dedication is a lesson for all.  He considers Michael Jordan as his inspiration because of Jordan’s ability to perform on the basketball court despite what’s going on in his personal life.
• His sister, Whitney Phelps, was a member of the 1995 World Championship team.
• He has double-jointed knees and elbows, which play a role in his famous dolphin-like kick.
• Michael Fred Phelps (born June 30, 1985) is an American swimmer and 14-time Olympic gold medalist (the most by any Olympian), who currently holds seven world records in swimming.
• Michael Phelps holds the record for the most gold medals won at a single Olympics; a total of eight, surpassing Mark Spitz
• In November 2004, at the age of 19, Michael Phelps was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in Salisbury, Maryland. He pleaded guilty to driving while impaired the following month and was granted probation before judgment and ordered to serve 18 months probation, fined $250, obligated to speak to high school students about drinking and driving and had to attend a Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) meeting.
• Born on June 30, 1985 makes this fellow just 23 years old. That makes him a Cancer and in Chinese Astrology his sign is a - Wood Ox. According to Chinese astrology he has these traits... Dependable, calm, methodical, patient, hardworking, ambitious, conventional, steady, modest, logical, resolute, tenacious. Can be stubborn, narrow-minded, materialistic, rigid, demanding.
• He shares a common birthday with famous people like, Reggie Bush, Colbie Caillat, Ciara, Tara Conner, Frankie Muniz, and T-Pain to just mention a few.
• Won 38 National Titles in 2007.
• Has set 35 World records. Five of which were set recently at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. (so far as of August 14, 2008)
• His strongest event and swimming stroke is the breast stroke.
• He is being celebrated as the Greatest Olympian ever. As he stated after the Medal ceremony "I'm almost at a loss for words. To be the most decorated Olympian of all time, it just sounds weird. I am speechless."
• Certainly the world will not quickly forget Phelps stellar performance at this 2008 Beijing Olympics and the fact that he has so far surpassed such former Olympic stars like Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis.
• Michael Phelps made history by qualifying for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, when he was just 15-years-old. By qualifying for the 2000 Olympics, Michael Phelps became the youngest member of the US Olympic team since 1932. Phelps finished fifth in the 200 meter butterfly and shattered the 15-16 National Age Group record. Five months after the Olympics,Phelps became the youngest world record holder in history by setting a new record in the 200 meter butterfly at the World Championships in Japan.
• When Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe said he did not think anyone could win eight races at a single Olympics, Phelps memorized the quote to motivate him for Beijing. He hung a poster of Ian Crocker above his bed after his team mate beat him at the 2003 world championships, to help motivate him for Athens.
• Overall, Phelps has won 16 Olympic medals: six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. In winning these medals, he has twice equaled Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin's record of eight medals (of any type) at a single Olympics (Dityatin: Moscow 1980; Phelps: Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008). Out of his eight gold medals from Beijing, five were won in individual events, tying the record for individual gold medals at a single Games originally set by Eric Heiden in the 1980 Winter Olympics and equaled by Vitaly Scherbo at the 1992 Summer Games. Phelps ranks second in total career Olympic medals, after Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina, who won a total of 18 medals (nine gold) spanning three Olympic Games.
• Michael Phelps received the 2004 Sullivan Award.
• Michael Phelps needs to wolf down a lot of calories to have the energy for all his swimming. For breakfast, he often eats two egg-and-cheese sandwiches, a bowl of grits, a large omelet and a tall stack of chocolate chip pancakes.
• In 2008, Michael appeared in an infomercial, hosted by Tracy Gallagher and Duane Sider, for the “Rosetta Stone” language learning software.
• After the 2008 Olympics, Phelps used his $1-million Speedo bonus to set up the Michael Phelps Foundation.   His foundation focuses on growing the sport of swimming and promoting healthier lifestyles.  Now that’s cool…
• During the 2008 Olympics Phelps was questioned about whether perhaps his feats were “too good to be true”, a reference to unsupported rumors that Phelps might be taking performance enhancing drugs.  In response, Phelps noted that he had signed up for Project Believe, a project by the United States Anti-Doping Agency in which U.S. Olympians can volunteer to be tested in excess of the World Anti-Doping Agency guidelines.  During the games, Phelps passed all nine tests that were administered to him.
• Phelps started swimming since he was seven years old.  He doesn’t mind all the sacrifices he has made to be where he is today since his goal was set and he knew he had to achieve it.   “If you want to be the best, you have to do things that other people aren’t willing to do.  I’ve spent 20 years in the pool. I consider that something that’s normal. I wanted to do things that nobody else had ever done, and had these very big goals as a kid but I made sacrifices to be able to get there.”

Some Superb Quotes of Micheal Phelps

• “You can't put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the father you get.”
• “Nothing is impossible. With so many people saying it couldn't be done, all it takes is an imagination.”
• “Swimming is normal for me. I'm relaxed. I'm comfortable, and I know my surroundings. It's my home.”
• “You can't put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.”
• “I think everything is possible as long as long as you put your mind, work and time into it.”
• “Every day after I wake up, I think, 'Wait... this can't be real; I'm still going to wake up.”
• “If I didn't swim my best, I'd think about it at school, at dinner, with my friends. It would drive me crazy.”
• “If you say "can't" you're restricting what you can do or ever will do.”
• “I knew I was not a failure in any way, and so did those close to me. It doesn't matter if you fall short; it is never a failure to go after your goals with everything you've got.”
• “That's it. Thats Bob's game. His drill...is really quite simple- make a habit of doing things other's weren't willing to do.”
• “At the hospital, I was asked for my autograph; I'm right-handed and couldn't sign. So I was asked for photos. While hooked up to IV lines.”
• “You can't put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.”
• I wouldn't say anything is impossible. I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and put the work and time into it.”
• My goal is one Olympic gold medal. Not many people in this world can say, 'I'm an Olympic gold medallist.”
• Swimming is normal for me. I'm relaxed. I'm comfortable, and I know my surroundings. It's my home.”
• Swimming is more than a once-every-four-years sport. My goal is to bring attention to swimming - to give it some personality.”
• Being compared to Ian Thorpe, that could be one of the greatest compliments you could ever get in swimming - being compared to him and Mark Spitz.”
• I won't predict anything historic. But nothing is impossible.”
• I want to be able to look back and say, 'I've done everything I can, and I was successful.' I don't want to look back and say I should have done this or that. I'd like to change things for the younger generation of swimmers coming along.”
• “When the Australians walked out, the crowd went nuts, and when we walked out, the crowd went even more nuts. I can't describe how amazing that was. Three thousand people were here rooting for the two strongest swimming nations. I'll never forget that, and I was glad to be part of it.”
• I have the opportunity to be part of swimming history. To take the sport to a new level would be an honor for me. There's no better time to try this than now.”