Michael Phelps-The “sea-earth” man

By Josuè Mendez

The “sea-earth” man given birth by world nature.

A boy named Michael Fred Phelps was born in the month when the roses first bloom, on June 30th, 1985 in Baltimore, Maryland. Having been “luckily” diagnosed in his youth, with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is seen as a lucky fact. He grew up in the neighborhood of Rodgers Forge, a warm and caring community with his father, Fred who was a complete athlete and a state trooper and his mother Debbie, a dedicated middle-school principal. It did not take long for his parents to divorce in 1994. Michael and his siblings moved in with their mother, with whom Michael had a very close relationship. 

 With the opportunity to start swimming, his sisters, Whitney and Hilary, with only seven and five years of difference in age, joined a local swimming team when Phelps was only seven years old. Reasons to join included the influence of his sisters and the need to provide himself with an outlet for his restless energy. Being afraid to get inside the water, his instructors allowed him to float around on his back and surprisingly in a rush he mastered the first stroke, “the backstroke”.

 It was just a push after he saw the swimmers Tom Malchow and Tom Dolan in the competition at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, when he began to dream of becoming a champion. He launched his swimming career at the Loyola High School pool, and began training at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club at the Meadowbrook Aquatic and Fitness Center. The coach immediately recognized his talents and fierce sense of competition and began an intense training hand to hand; by 1999 Phelps had made the U.S. National B Team. 

Phelps became the youngest American male swimmer at an Olympic Game in 68 years. Even though he didn't win a medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, he would soon become a major force in competitive swimming by being 6 foot 4 inches tall and weighting around 185 pounds (84 kg), 14 inch feet and 6ft 7in arm reach, which is 3 inches longer than his height. He has relatively short legs for his height, which gives him an additional advantage in the pool. His knees are double-jointed and his feet can rotate 15 degrees more than average, allowing them to be straightened fully so that his mighty feet can act like flippers. In addition, his heart pumps 30 liters of blood each minute to his muscles, which is double the amount of the average adult male. He also produces only one third of the lactic acid that the average swimmer does, meaning that he does not suffer from muscle burn during intensive exercise like his competitors do. These genetic advantages help him to kick off from the wall and propel himself like a dolphin.

 His advantage allowed him to win 33 World Championship Medals, 26 of those being Gold. Over his swimming career, he established 39 world records. Phelps has been claimed to be the greatest Olympic athlete of all time, because of this, he received the name, “the human dolphin“. 

By 2012, he had reach four gold medals and two silvers at the London Olympics, which he said will be his final swimming. Phelps retires with myriad Olympic records, including twice as many gold as anyone else (18) and 22 medals overall, four more than anyone else in any sport.

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