Michael Fred Phelps (born
June 30,
1985) is an
American swimmer and 11-time
Olympic Gold medalist who holds
world records in several events.

Phelps won eight medals in the
2004 Summer Olympics in
Athens, which tied him with
Soviet gymnast
Alexander Dityatin for the most medals of any type in any one Olympics.
[2]Overall, Phelps has won thirteen Olympic medals (eleven gold, two bronze): eight at the
2004 Summer Olympics in
Athens (six gold, two bronze) and five at the
2008 Beijing Olympic Games (all gold),
[3] which gave him the most gold medals of any Olympic athlete of the
modern Olympic era.
Phelps' international titles, along with his various world records, have resulted in him being awarded the
World Swimmer of the Year Award in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007 and
American Swimmer of the Year Award in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2007.

So far, Phelps has won a total of 45 career medals: 37 golds, 6 silvers and 2 bronze. This includes all the Championships he has competed in:
The Olympics,
the World Championships, and
the Pan Pacific Championships.
Phelps has qualified to compete in eight swimming events at the
2008 Summer Olympics in
Beijing, and is attempting to surpass fellow US swimmer
Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals at one Olympics.
Phelps was born and raised in
Baltimore, Maryland and grew up in the
Rodgers Forge neighborhood. He graduated from
Towson High School in 2003.
[4] His father, Fred Phelps, worked for the
Maryland State Police and his mother, Debbie Davisson Phelps, is a middle school principal.
[5] The two divorced in 1994.
[4] Michael, whose nickname is "MP", has two older sisters, Whitney and Hilary.
[4][5] Both of them were swimmers as well, with Whitney coming close to making the U.S. national team for the
1996 Summer Olympics before injuries derailed her career.
In his youth, Phelps was diagnosed with
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
[4] He started swimming at age seven, partly because of the influence of his sisters and partly to provide him with an outlet for his restless energy. He blossomed quickly as a swimmer, and by the age of 10 held a national record for his age group. More age group records followed, and Phelps' rapid improvement culminated in his qualifying for the 2000 Summer Olympics at the age of 15.
[6]In November 2004, at the age of 19, Phelps was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in
Salisbury, Maryland. He pleaded guilty to
driving while impaired the following month and was granted probation before judgment and ordered to serve 18 months probation, fined $250, obligated to speak to high schoolers about drinking and driving and had to attend a
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) meeting.
[7][8] Questioned about the incident later that month by
Matt Lauer on the
Today Show, Phelps said it was an "isolated incident" and that he had "definitely let myself down and my family down…I think I let a lot of people in the country down."
[4]Between 2004 and 2008, Phelps attended the
University of Michigan in
Ann Arbor, Michigan, studying sports marketing and management. In May 2008, Phelps said he intends to return to Baltimore following the 2008 Olympics, joining Bob Bowman there when he leaves the University of Michigan, saying, "I'm not going to swim for anybody else. I think we can both help the North Baltimore Athletic Club go further. I'm definitely going to be in
Baltimore next year." The club has announced that Bowman is leaving the University of Michigan to become the club's CEO.
[9]In a front page illustrated article profiling Phelps on the eve of the 2008 Summer Olympics,
The Baltimore Sun described the hometown swimmer as "a solitary man" with a "rigid focus" at the pool prior to a race, but afterwards "a man incredibly invested in the success of the people he cares about".
[4] Bowman told a Sun interviewer, "He's unbelievably kind-hearted", recounting Phelps' interaction with young children after practices.
[4]As a young teenager, Phelps trained at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, under coach
Bob Bowman. At the age of 15, Phelps competed at the
2000 Summer Olympics in
Sydney, becoming the youngest American male swimmer at an Olympic Games in 68 years. While he did not win a medal, he was fifth in the 200 m Butterfly. Phelps proceeded to make a name for himself in swimming shortly thereafter. Five months after the Sydney Olympics, Phelps broke the world record in the 200 m butterfly to become, at 15 years and 9 months, the youngest man ever to set a swimming world record.
[10] He then broke his own record again at the World Championships in
Fukuoka,
Japan (1:54.58). At the 2002 Summer Nationals in
Fort Lauderdale, Phelps also broke the world record for the 400 m
individual medley and set American marks in the 100 m butterfly and the 200 m individual medley.
In 2003, Phelps broke his own world record in the 400 m individual medley (4:09.09) and in June, he broke the world record in the 200 m
individual medley (1:56.04). Then on
July 7,
2004, Phelps broke his own world record again in the 400 m individual medley (4:08.41) during the U.S. trials for the
2004 Summer Olympics.
In 2004, Phelps left North Baltimore Aquatic Club with Bob Bowman to train at the
University of Michigan for Club Wolverine.