Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
by DAN D’ADDONA — SWIMMING WORLD MANAGING EDITOR
18 July 2024, 08:58am
Olympic champion and record holder Michael Phelps has been named the No.1 athlete of the past 25 years by ESPN.
The sports network released its decision in a video.
Phelps became a household name when he won a record eight Olympic gold medals in 2008 in Beijing.
In his career, his is a five-time Olympian, spanning from 2000 to 2016, and accumulated 28 medals, including a record 23 gold.
He won six gold in Athens in 2004, four gold in London in 2012 and five gold in Rio in 2016.
“This all started and began with one little dream as a kid,” Michael Phelps once said. “I wanted to try to change the sport of swimming and do something no one else has ever done – and it turned out pretty cool.”
His medal count at the Olympics is 10 more than the second-most of all time. His 23 gold medals are 14 more than the second-most in history.
In between Olympic years, his success continued. His career featured 33 medals from the World Championships and 21 medals from the Pan Pacific Championships, along with an incredible 39 world records.
Since his retirement from competitive swimming, Phelps has served as an inspiration to the next generation with his raising awareness of the importance of mental health has highlighted the need to take care of oneself and seek support when necessary.