Michael Phelps | Biography, Medals, Olympics, & Facts (2024)

Michael Phelps (born June 30, 1985, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.) is an American swimmer, who was the most-decorated athlete in Olympic history with 28 medals, which included a record 23 gold. At the 2008 Games in Beijing, he became the first athlete to win eight gold medals at a single Olympics.

Phelps was raised in a family of swimmers and joined the prestigious North Baltimore Aquatic Club at age seven. He finished fifth in the 200-metre butterfly at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. At the 2001 U.S. spring nationals, he became at age 15 the youngest world-record holder in men’s swimming when he posted 1 min 54.92 sec in the 200-metre butterfly. He went on that year to win his first international title at the world championships in f*ckuoka, Japan. He claimed five medals at the 2002 Pan Pacific championships, including three gold (200-metre and 400-metre individual medley [IM] and 4 × 100-metre medley relay). At the U.S. spring nationals in 2003, he became the first male swimmer to claim titles in three different strokes at a single national championship, and he later broke an unprecedented five individual world records at the world championships in Barcelona, Spain. Phelps also captured five titles at the U.S. summer nationals—the most won by a male swimmer at a single championship.

At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Phelps captured six gold medals (200-metre and 400-metre IM, 100-metre and 200-metre butterfly, 4 × 200-metre freestyle relay, and 4 × 100-metre medley relay) and two bronze medals (200-metre freestyle and 4 × 100-metre freestyle relay) while setting five Olympic or world records. His four individual swimming gold medals tied a record set by American Mark Spitz at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Phelps continued to dominate the sport at the 2007 world championships in Melbourne, where he won seven gold medals (200-metre and 400-metre IM, 100-metre and 200-metre butterfly, 200-metre freestyle, and 4 × 100-metre and 4 × 200-metre freestyle relay) and set five world records. With his seven titles, Phelps tied Spitz for most wins at a major international meet.

Phelps entered the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing with the goal of breaking Spitz’s record of seven gold medals at one Olympics. He took the gold in each of his first three events—the 400-metre IM, the 4 × 100-metre freestyle relay, and the 200-metre freestyle—and each victory took place in world record time. On August 13 he won golds in the 200-metre butterfly and the 4 × 200-metre freestyle relay to capture his 10th and 11th career gold medals, a new Olympic record. Phelps then won his sixth gold of the Beijing Games by breaking his own world record in the 200-metre IM. He tied Spitz’s record by winning the 100-metre butterfly final by 0.01 second and broke the mark as a member of the victorious American 4 × 100-metre medley relay team. All told, Phelps set world records in all but one (the 100-metre butterfly) of his eight gold medal-winning events. He followed his record-setting Olympics with five golds (100-metre and 200-metre butterfly, 4 × 100-metre and 4 × 200-metre freestyle relay, and 4 × 100-metre medley relay) and a silver (200-metre freestyle) at the 2009 world championships in Rome.

At the 2012 Olympics in London, Phelps had a disappointing start, failing to medal in his first event, the 400-metre IM. However, he subsequently won silver medals in both the 4 × 100-metre freestyle relay and the 200-metre butterfly and a gold medal in the 4 × 200-metre freestyle relay. With the latter win, Phelps captured an unprecedented 19th career Olympic medal, surpassing the record set by Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina. He also claimed gold in the 200-metre IM, becoming the first male swimmer to win the same individual event at three consecutive Olympics; he later won the 100-metre butterfly for the third consecutive time. Phelps, who had announced that he was retiring from the sport after the London Games, captured a gold medal in his final event, the 4 × 100-medley relay.

Phelps’s retirement was short-lived, as he announced his return to competitive swimming in April 2014. In October of that year, he was suspended by USA Swimming for six months after he was charged with driving under the influence, his second such arrest; the first had occurred in 2004. Phelps was the American flag-bearer at the opening ceremonies of the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games, which were his fifth Games, a record for an American male swimmer. There he added to his unparalleled medal count by winning golds in the 200-metre IM, 4 × 100-metre medley relay, 4 × 100-metre freestyle relay, and 4 × 200-metre freestyle relay as well as a silver in the 100-metre butterfly. It was his gold in his signature event, the 200-metre butterfly, that captured the most international attention. The finals of that race featured South Africa’s Chad le Clos, who had beaten Phelps by five-hundredths of a second in the race at the 2012 Games and who had exchanged verbal barbs with the American over the following four years. Before the race, cameras caught le Clos warming up in front of Phelps, who fixed an icy stare upon his rival that instantly became a meme on social media platforms. In the following race, Phelps eked out a victory by four-hundredths of a second and had an uncharacteristically exuberant celebration in the pool. Having completed his improbably dominant comeback at the 2016 Games, he again retired from competitive swimming.