Michael Phelps

Swimmer

Teen swimming phenomenon Michael Phelps was one of the biggest stories of the 2004 Athens Olympics, winning six gold medals and two bronze for a record-tying total of eight medals at one Olympic meet. Phelps was only 15 when he made the American team for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. (He placed fifth in the 200 meter butterfly, but his appearance there made him the youngest male Olympian since 1932, when 14-year-old Japanese swimmer Kusuo Kitamura won the 1500-meter freestyle at Los Angeles.) Phelps's specialty is the shorter races of 100 to 400 meters in length. His records, world records and awards are almost too numerous to mention: he set his first world record at age 15 (the 200 meter butterfly at the 2001 U.S. Spring Nationals), was named USA Swimmer of the Year in both 2001 and 2003, and set an unprecedented five individual world records at in one meet at the 2003 world championships in Barcelona.

Extra credit: Soviet gymnast Aleksandr Dityatin also won eight medals, at the 1980 Moscow games. Phelps' six gold medals at one Olympiad fell one short of the record of seven, won by swimmer Mark Spitz at the 1972 games in Munich... Phelps is 6'4" tall and reportedly has size 14 feet... He won the 2003 Sullivan Award, given to the best amateur athlete in the United States... Phelps is ineligible to swim in college, having accepted a sponsorship deal from Speedo swimwear... Leading up to the Athens Olympics, he appeared on the covers of both Time and Sports Illustrated magazines in August 2004... On 4 November 2004 Phelps was arrested in Maryland and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.

Other Olympic athletes through history: swimmer Gertrude Ederle, sprinter Jesse Owens, gymnast Mary Lou Retton and pentathlete (later general) George S. Patton.