Also known as: michaelfredphelps1
Favorite Quote: Actions speak louder than words Honors and Awards: 8 medals in the 2004 Olympics Favorite Famous Swimmer: Pablo Morales Hero(es): Michael Jordan, my mom Personal Website: www.swimroom.com/phelps Favorite Websites: www.swimwiththestars.com Best Stroke/times: 200 fly - 1:52.0 100 fly - 50.7 400 im - 4:03 100 free - 47.5 200 free - 1:42.9 Most exciting race I've ever seen: Swimming Goals: To elevate the sport of swimming Favorite practice set: Most painful workout: There have been too many to pick one Years in swimming: 12 Greatest Swimming Moment: 4 x 200 free relay in Athens Phelps was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up in the Rodgers Forge neighborhood. He graduated from Towson High School in 2003. His father, Fred Phelps, worked for the Maryland State Police and his mother, Debbie Davisson Phelps, is a middle school principal. The two divorced in 1994. Michael, whose nickname is "MP", has two older sisters, Whitney and Hilary. Both of them were swimmers as well, with Whitney coming close to making the U.S. national team for the 1996 Summer Olympics before injuries derailed her career. In his youth, Phelps was diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). He started swimming at age seven, partly because of the influence of his sisters and partly to provide him with an outlet for his energy. He excelled as a swimmer, and by the age of 10 held a national record for his age group. More age group records followed, and Phelps' rapid improvement culminated in his qualifying for the 2000 Summer Olympics at the age of 15. In November 2004, at the age of 19, 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. Questioned about the incident later that month by Matt Lauer on the Today Show, Phelps said it was an "isolated incident" and that he had "definitely let myself down and my family down...I think I let a lot of people in the country down." Between 2004 and 2008, Phelps attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, studying sports marketing and management. In May 2008, Phelps said he intends to return to Baltimore following the 2008 Olympics, joining Bob Bowman there when he leaves the University of Michigan, saying, "I'm not going to swim for anybody else. I think we can both help the North Baltimore Aquatic Club go further. I'm definitely going to be in Baltimore next year." The club has announced that Bowman is leaving the University of Michigan to become the club's CEO. Phelp's teammates call him "Gomer" because he reminds them of Gomer Pyle, the good-natured, naive country boy played by Jim Nabors. He has made an estimated $5 million in endorsements, including a $1 million bonus from swimsuit maker Speedo for winning eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games.Physique and lifestyle Five physical attributes particularly suit Phelps to swimming: his long, thin torso (low drag in the water), arms which span 6 feet 7 inches (201 cm) (long, powerful, propulsive "paddles") disproportionate to his height of 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm), relatively short legs (lower drag, and perhaps the speed enhancement of a hydrofoil), coupled to size 14 feet (providing the effect of flippers) by hypermobile ankles he can extend beyond the pointe of a ballet dancer, enabling him to whip his feet (as if they were fins, for maximum thrust through [if not over] the water). In October 2007, Phelps slipped on a patch of ice and fell while climbing into a friend's car in Michigan, breaking his right wrist. Coach Bowman recalled that Phelps was in despair over the injury. For a few weeks after the surgery, he was confined to kicking in the pool with a kickboard while his teammates swam. However, this allowed Phelps to strengthen his legs, which may have allowed him to edge out Milorad Cavic in the 100 butterfly final for his seventh gold medal at the 2008 Olympics. In the last five meters, an exhausted Cavic was dragging his legs while Phelps used a strong kick to get his hands to the wall first, by a hundredth of a second. In a front page illustrated article profiling Phelps on the eve of the 2008 Summer Olympics, The Baltimore Sun described the hometown swimmer as "a solitary man" with a "rigid focus" at the pool prior to a race, but afterwards "a man incredibly invested in the success of the people he cares about". Bowman told a Sun interviewer, "He's unbelievably kind-hearted", recounting Phelps's interaction with young children after practices. According to an article in The Guardian, Phelps eats around 12,000 kcal each day, or about six times the intake of a normal adult male.
