6 Insane Facts About Michael Phelps

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On June 30th, 1985, Michael and Deborah Phelps became the proud parents of a child that would go on to be the most decorated Olympian in history. Later diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, he began swimming at the age of 7 as an outlet for his energy, and by age 10, held a national record for his age group in the 100-meter butterfly. He began to train at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club under the guidance of swim coach Bob Bowman—the man who would go on to coach Phelps through his Olympic career.

Phelps turned out to be a phenomenon, dominating in nearly every swimming event he competed in, smashing world records and stunning crowds, earning him no less than seven World Swimmer of the Year Awards.

Although Phelps has announced his retirement as an Olympic athlete after the 2016 Rio Olympics, he continues to fascinate the world through his almost superhuman athletic achievements. Indeed, his achievements are far beyond the norm, and so with that in mind, let’s take a look at 7 insane facts about Michael Phelps.

His Wingspan

Beyond his intense dedication and training regimen, there are several physiological reasons why Michael Phelps is an incredible swimmer. The biggest game-changer? His arm span. When Phelps’s arms are extended, they reach 6’7”. With his 6’4” height, that’s wider than he is tall!

This isn’t normal, and it gives Phelps an advantage as a swimmer. The average person has an arm span that’s roughly equal to their height. Phelps’s long arms give him incredible pulling power while swimming. It doesn’t hurt that Phelps also has very large hands, which, when combined with his long arms, act like the paddles of a boat.

His lower body is, unusually, only 5’10” long, which is proportionally shorter than the norm. Because so much of his body is invested in his arms, he experiences less water resistance and more pulling power.

But genetics are only half the game—while they may determine our maximum, they don’t determine whether we’ll reach that potential. That’s left to discipline and dedication, which Phelps certainly has.

His Feet

Do you remember that moment, as a child, when you discovered that using swim fins in the pool made you feel like you could swim a million miles an hour? Those big, flexible apparatuses make an incredible difference in the water, allowing us to propel ourselves through the water many times faster. They work because they increase the surface area of our feet, and that surface area acts on the water, pushing us along—the bigger the surface area, the harder we’re pushed along.

Michael Phelps has size 14 feet. That’s huge—well beyond what most of us have. At that size, they’re more akin to swim fins. Adding to this, Phelps also has extremely flexible joints, including, most importantly, his ankles, which are capable of 15 degrees of greater movement than an average man's. That extra flexibility allows for a fuller range of motion, which propels Phelps through the water more efficiently.

Because Phelps has legs that are proportionally shorter than normal, his kicks are more efficient, enabling him to make the best of his natural swim fins.

He Started Young

We’ve covered how Phelps began swimming at the age of 7. While that’s impressive, what he went on to achieve in his teens is unbelievable.

At the mere age of 15, Phelps became the youngest American male Olympian in nearly 70 years, competing at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney Australia. While he didn’t medal at this point, he made a strong showing, and was inspired by watching the athleticism of Australian swimming superstar, Ian Thorpe.

It was in 2001 that Phelps truly began to shine. Still 15, Phelps became the youngest male swimmer to break a world record, a title previously held by none other than Thorpe, who broke his own record at age 16.

Phelps went on to the 2001 World Championships in Japan, breaking his own record in the 200-meter butterfly.

His record as the youngest male swimmer to hold a world record still stands today, and serves as just the beginning of a long string of broken world records to come. Read on to find out more.

His Achievements

It’s not an exaggeration to say that we won’t see Phelps’s achievements outdone in our lifetimes. As of the 2012 Olympics, he has officially announced his retirement—and with a current net worth of about 55 million, this is understandable. This draws to a close one of the most incredible Olympic careers in history—contemporary and ancient.

Since attracting the world’s attention at age 15, Phelps has gone on to win a total of 28 Olympic medals—outdoing more than 90 countries, including Mexico, Argentina, and India. When only swimming is taken into account, Phelps beats out Japan, Great Britain, and Germany, among many others.

For an individual to win more Olympic medals than an entire country with a population in the millions is staggering to say the least. We can only imagine the kind of dedication to the sport and ferocious sense of competition that can drive a man to such heights.

He Beat a Minor Roman God

Over 2,000 years ago there lived an athlete known as Leonidas of Rhodes. Leonidas competed in four successive Olympiads in 164 BC, 160BC, 156BC, and 152BC, winning three different foot races in each of these.

An Olympic athlete who won three events at a single Olympics was called a triastes—there have only been seven triastes, and Leonidas is the only one known to have won the honor more than once.

The three races Leonidas partook in were the stadion, a sprint of about 200m, the diaulos, which was a sprint of 400m, and the hoplitodromos—a race in full, heavy armor. To the amazement of all, Leonidas won all of these, one after another.

After his death, Leonidas was worshipped as a local diety, and a statue was constructed in his image, displaying his legend: “He had the speed of a God”. In the end, he had earned 12 individual Olympic titles.

Phelps has just broken the record Leonidas set all those centuries ago, retiring with an incredible 13 individual titles.

Perhaps it’s time for another statue.

His Full Circle Retirement

If you remember, we’ve talked about how Michael Phelps was inspired by and idolized Australian swimmer, Ian Thorpe, and then went on to smash Thorpe’s record, thoroughly outdoing him in nearly all respects.

We’ve come full circle. In what was Phelps’s final event, he was beaten in the 100-meter butterfly by 21-year old Joseph Schooling of Singapore, who, as a boy, idolized Michael Phelps. In fact, Schooling still has a picture that he took with Phelps when the U.S. team trained in Singapore before the 2008 Olympics.

Winning Singapore’s first-ever Olympic gold, Schooling set a national, Asian, and Olympic record for the 100m butterfly with a time of 50.39 seconds, as compared to Phelps’s 51.14.

For Phelps and his many fans, this was symbolic of him passing on his legacy of athletic greatness. “I’m happy,” Phelps is quoted as saying, “I’m ready to spend some time with Boomer and Nicole and watch the little dude grow.”

Indeed, spending time with his family is now the swimming champion’s main focus. He’s earned his rest.