Phelps V. The World. It almost doesn’t seem fair.
Only 39 countries have ever won more gold medals than Michael Phelps has all by himself.
He is the most decorated Olympian of all time and if he were to put all 21 of his medals around his neck he would be 6.58kg heavier.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIppXtvg2OH/?taken-by=m_phelps00
If Phelps were to be counted as a country all on his own he would rank 13th in the number of gold medals won since the Athens 2004, the first Olympics he ever competed in.
Phelps, now 31, is almost a decade older than the age most swimmers hit their peak. He temporarily went into retirement after the last Olympics but the lure of gold and the chance to, once again, be aquatically invincible was too strong.
Speaking in an interview after the 200m fly where he beat his long time rival, Chad le Clos, Phelps said ‘there wasn’t a shot in hell I was losing’.
Le Clos was the athlete seen trying to intimidate Phelps before the race with some shadow boxing and odd gyrating.
When you're an introvert among extroverts… #PhelpsFace pic.twitter.com/Erj5oWQeBf
— Octavia Atlas (@OctaviaAtlas) August 9, 2016
What a chump.
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