|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other authors named Michael:
|
|
|
|
Author's popularity: 0
Vote:  
|
If you like or dislike this author in general or one or more of their quotes in particular, please give us your feedback by clicking on the icon to vote for, or the icon to vote against them.
|
|
Popularity: 0
Vote: | 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. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Every day after I wake up, I think, 'Wait... this can't be real; I'm still going to wake up.' |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | I always thought, it would be neat to make the Olympic team. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I have reached a place in my life where I need to sit down and say, 'Well, what do I do? What's best for me?' I need to look into options for the future. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | 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. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I love to race the best people in the world and the fastest people in the world. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and you put the work and time into it. I think your mind really controls everything. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | 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. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I want to test my maximum and see how much I can do. And I want to change the world of swimming. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | I won't predict anything historic. But nothing is impossible. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | 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. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I'm the same kind of guy before all this happened. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | I've always been fortunate in that I've been able to put myself in my own zone and relax. It comes naturally. I'm lucky to be that way. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | If I didn't swim my best, I'd think about it at school, at dinner, with my friends. It would drive me crazy. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | My goal is one Olympic gold medal. Not many people in this world can say, 'I'm an Olympic gold medalist.' |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Swimming is more than a once-every-four-years sport. My goal is to bring attention to swimming - to give it some personality. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Swimming is normal for me. I'm relaxed. I'm comfortable, and I know my surroundings. It's my home. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | There is a one woman in China that claimed she paid $50 to get my e-mail address. It was pretty shocking. I got one this morning from Scotland. A girl's requesting a signed photo of me. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | This is the first medal I've ever won in an international meet. For it to be gold is incredible. It feels great. I can't explain it. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | 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. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | You can't put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get. |
|
Biography
|
Michael Phelps (born June 30, 1985 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American swimmer and world-record holder (as of 2004).
Michael Phelps appeared at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney as the youngest American male swimmer at an Olympic Games in 68 years at the age of 15. While he did not win a medal at the 2000 Olympics, Phelps proceeded to make a name for himself in swimming shortly thereafter. Five months after Sydney, Phelps broke the world record in the 200m butterfly and then broke his own record again at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan (1:54.58). At the 2002 Summer Nationals in Fort Lauderdale, Phelps also broke the world record for the 400m individual medley and set American marks in the 100m butterfly and the 200m individual medley.
In 2003, Phelps broke his own world record in the 400m individual medley (4:09.09) and in June, he broke the world record in the 200m individual medley (1:56.04). Then on July 7, 2004, Phelps broke his own world record again in the 400m individual medley (4:08.41) during the U.S. trials for the 2004 Summer Olympics.
He won the 2003 Sullivan Award.
2004 Summer Olympic Games Phelps' dominance brought comparisons to former swimming great Mark Spitz, who won seven gold medals in the 1972 Summer Olympics, a world record. Phelps had the chance to break that record in 2004 by competing in eight swimming events: the 200m freestyle, the 100m butterfly, the 200m butterfly, the 100m backstroke, the 200m backstroke, the 200m individual medley, the 400m individual medley, the 4x100m freestyle relay and the 4x100m medley relay. Unfortunately, his 4x100m freestyle relay team only won a bronze medal due to a very disappointing effort by teammate Ian Crocker, and he personally placed for bronze in the 200m freestyle. Thus, he fell just short of that record. However, he did win eight medals in one Olympics, a feat only achieved by Aleksandr Dityatin, a gymnast, in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
Had he won seven golds, he would have been eligible for a US $1 million bonus from his sponsor, Speedo. Only a few days before the beginning of the swimming competition in Athens 2004, however, Gary Hall Jr. and Jason Lezak, both of whom were aiming to be on the U.S. 4x100m freestyle team, publicly criticized the possibility of allowing Phelps to swim in the event. In the view of some, they claimed that Phelps is not a top swimmer in the event and his presence could compromise the US team's performance in the name of what was called a "media circus" for Phelps to win eight gold medals. More specifically though, they claimed that he had not swam the 100m freestyle at Olympic Trials, and although having posted one of the top times in the nation, he should not have expected to gain an automatic berth.
On August 14, 2004, he won his first Olympic gold, in the 400m individual medley, setting another new world record (4:08.26).
On August 20, in the 100m butterfly final, Phelps defeated American teammate Ian Crocker (who holds the world record in the event) by just 0.04 seconds. Traditionally, the Olympian who places highest in a individual event will be automatically given the corresponding leg of the 4x100m medley relay. This gave Phelps an automatic entry into the medley relay, but as he was exhausted from the many races he had competed in over the preceding week, he graciously gave up the butterfly leg to Crocker, who would not have recieved a gold medal otherwise. The American medley team went on to win the event in world record time, and since he had raced in a preliminary heat of the medley relay, Phelps was also awarded a gold medal along with the team members that competed in the final.
NBC Olympic coverage of the 2004 games always showed him listening to his iPod with Bose headphones before competing.
See also: Swimming at the 2004 Summer Olympics
...(more on Wikipedia)
|
|
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Michael Phelps".
|
|
|