Michael Fred Phelps II OLY was born on June 30, 1985 is an American former competitive swimmer. He is the most decorated Olympian of all time and has created history in the Olympics of winning the most number of gold medals.
He started participating in the Olympic Games at the age of 15. He qualified for the 2000 Summer Olympics, but did not win any medal. In the 2001 World Aquatics Championship, he became the youngest male ever to set a world record in swimming. In the 2002 Pan Pacific Championship in Fort Lauderdale he won 3 gold and 2 silver medals. In the 2003 World Aquatic Championship he won 4 gold and 2 silver medals.
In the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens he won 6 gold and 2 bronze medals. In the 2005 World Aquatics Championship he won 5 gold and 1 silver medals. In the 2006 Pan Pacific Championship in Victoria, British Columbia he won 5 gold and 1 silver medals. In the 2007 World Aquatic Championship he won 7 gold medals. In the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing he won 8 gold medals.
In the 2009 World Aquatic Championship he won 5 gold and 1 silver medals. In the 2010 Pan Pacific Championship he won 5 gold medals. In the 2011 World Aquatic Championship in Shanghai 4 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze medal. In the 2012 Summer Olympics in London he won 4 gold and 2 silver medals.
In 2012 he announced his retirement from swimming and did not want to turn back to the sport again. But by 2014 he was back to the game and the failure of his team after his retirement gave him motivation. After which he changed his diet, training sessions and made a comeback in 2014 Pan Pacific Championship with 3 gold and 2 silver medals. In the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro 5 gold and 1 silver medal.
With a total of 28 medals in the Olympics out of which 23 were gold medals. He has created history in winning the medals for all the games he has participated and also to win medals at the age of 31 in 2016 Summer Olympics.
The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) publishes monthly sports magazines and its first publication was on March 11, 1998 and in 2019 announced its last publication in the month of September. On the 20th anniversary of ESPN Magazine publication announced that they will rank the most dominant athletes of the past 20 years.
When they released the names, Michael Phelps name was not mentioned and it became a point of discussion amongst all the fans. There were many who stood against ESPN and argued that professional swimmers require a lot of discipline, time commitment, strict diet, weight lifting and long hours of training. ESPN responded in return that swimming cannot be compared with other sports as they can play the sport for many years as compared to others. They do not require hand-eye coordination and the success in their field is just a product of repetitive motion. The game is so that the players are not injured which cannot be repaired, so by giving these reasons they stood by their point of not choosing Michael Phelps. They also named many other athletes who have won many Olympic medals but have not been nominated for ESPN Magazine.
