MICHAEL PHELPS Olympic Swimmer Born June 30, 1985 Enter your search terms Submit search form   Web gardenofpraise.com

Children and young people have found a new hero in a 6 foot 4 inch swimmer from Baltimore, Maryland. His name is Michael Phelps. He is the youngest of three children in his family.

While he was growing up he was tall and lanky*, and his arms swung below his knees when he stood up. Kids made fun of him and bullied him. At the age of nine he was diagnosed with ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity* disorder. He couldn't sit still or concentrate, and he was always on the move. One teacher told his mother he would never be able to focus. His grades were B's, C's, and a few D's.

His two big sisters, Whitney and Hilary were good swimmers. Whitney even finished sixth in the 200 butterfly at the 1996 Olympic trials. Michael also became interested in swimming and his mother encouraged him to swim. It was an outlet for his abundant energy and the lane markers tended to give him the structure he needed. He loved swimming. When he was 11 years old he began to work with Bob Bowman, a swim coach, and Bob began pointing him toward the Olympics*. Bob, who had the North Baltimore Aquatic* Club, knew talent when he saw it.

When he was young he played other sports such as baseball and soccer in addition to swimming, but by the time he was 11 he knew he had found his niche* and concentrated on swimming.

He made his first Olympic team in Sydney, Australia in the 200 butterfly race in the year 2000 when he was just 15 years old.

At the Olympics in Athens in 2004 he won 6 gold medals and 2 bronze medals. At the 2007 world championships in Melbourne he won 7 gold medals.

Most recently in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China he won 8 gold medals! This topped swimmer Mark Spitz's thirty-six-year-old record of 7 gold medals which he won in the Munich Olympics in 1972. Mark Spitz called Phelps "The Greatest Olympian". Others will disagree citing athletes in different fields such as track and gymnastics. And some athletes excel in multiple sports, but Michael Phelps has won the hearts of the nation because of his accomplishment.

Phelps swims 7 days a week, two to five hours a day. He doesn't like to be a loser. He likes to win whether it's a video game or a race. If he loses, he just works harder so he can be a winner the next time.

His life revolves around swimming, sleeping, and eating. Swimming burns a lot of calories, and he eats a tremendous amount of food; 8,000 - 12,000 calories* a day. This is five times as much as the average man eats, but don't try this at home unless you want to swim several hours a day, or before long you will be waddling across the room instead of walking.

Michael's third grade teacher wrote a letter to his mother telling how proud she was of him. She said perhaps it had never been focus he lacked, but, rather, a goal worthy of his focus.

Michael says, "If you dream as big as you can dream, anything is possible."

Olympic Medals Beijing 2008

First Place, Michael Phelps (center) gold
Second Place, Laszlo Cseh (right) silver
Third Place, Ryan Lochte (left) bronze

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Michael Phelps Biography

Michael Phelps
NBC Olympics.com

Michael Phelps
at Wikipedia

Built to Swim
New York Times Magazine

The Butterfly Stroke
swim video

Articles about Phelps
Baltimore Sun.com

Olympic Results
Beijing 2008

Interview With Michael Phelps
MSNBC Feb. 12, 2008

Michael Phelps Quotes

Michael Phelps' Unusual Diet
BBC
Michael's Mother Answers Questions
Good Housekeeping Magazine

Swifter, Higher, Stronger: A Photographic History of the Summer Olympics By Sue Macy / National Geographic Children's Books Hardcover 96 pages Publication Date: 2008

Success (boys swimming), 5 x 7 Framed Gift By Lighthouse Christian Products Framed print to motivate and inspire features boys swimming collage and quote from Psalm 20:4 May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. Contemporary black metal frame with glass; velvetex easel back; 7" x 5"; boxed for giving.

From Word Central's Student Dictionary
by Merriam - Webster
(Pronunciation note: the schwa sound is shown by &)

lanky
Pronunciation:LANG kee
Function: adjective
being tall, thin, and usually loose-jointed

hyperactive
Pronunciation: hi-p&r-AK-tiv
Function: adjective
very active especially to an abnormal amount

niche
Pronunciation: nich
Function: noun
a place, use, or work for which a person is best fitted

aquatic
Pronunciation: &-QUAHT-ik
Function: adjective
1 : growing or living in or often found in water as aquatic animals
2 : performed in or on water

Olympic Games
Function: plural noun
1 : an ancient Greek festival held every fourth year and made up of contests in sports, music, and literature
2 : a series of international athletic contests held in a different country
during the summer and the winter once every four years

calorie
Pronunciation: KAL-&-re
Function: noun
1 : a unit of heat: the heat energy required to raise the temperature of one gram of water one degree Celsius (small calorie)
or the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water one degree Celsius (large calorie)
2 : an amount of food having an energy-producing value of one large calorie

Biographies in this Series

Presidents of the United States	George Washington 1st U.S. President	John Adams 2nd U.S. President	Thomas Jefferson 3rd U.S.President
	James Monroe 5th U.S. President	Andrew Jackson 7th U.S. President	Abraham Lincoln 16th U.S.President
	Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd U.S. President	John F. Kennedy 35th U.S. President	James Madison 4th U.S. President
	Theodore Roosevelt 26th U.S. President	Ronald Reagan 40th U.S. President	Barack Obama 44th U.S. President-elect
American Patriots	Benjamin Franklin patriot and statesman	Francis Scott Key Star Spangled Banner	Deborah Sampson woman soldier in the Revolutionary War
World Leaders	Constantine Roman Emperor	Alexander the Great conqueror	Winston Churchill British Prime Minister
Inventors	Alexander Graham Bell telephone	Johann Gutenberg printing press	Cyrus McCormick mechanical reaper
	The Wright Brothers first airplane	Henry Ford Automaker	Thomas A. Edison electric light bulb
	Sequoyah Cherokee alphabet	Nikola Tesla 700 patents	.
Explorers	Christopher Columbus explorer	Meriwether Lewis explorer	Robert Peary Arctic explorer
	John Muir Naturalist	Matthew Henson Arctic Explorer	Sir Edmund Hillary Mr.Everest
	Kit Carson Indian agent	"Johnny Appleseed" orchardist	.
Women who made a difference	Clara Barton founder of the Red Cross	Helen Keller overcame blindness & deafness	Florence Nightingale founder of nursing profession
	Joan of Arc religious and military leader	Amelia Earhart Aviator	Annie Oakley sharpshooter
	Susan B. Anthony Suffragette	Elizabeth Keckly Seamstress	Harriet Tubman deliverer of slaves
	Anne Frank Diarist	Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian	.
Scientists	George Washington Carver botanist and educator	Sir Isaac Newton explained gravity and properties of light	Marie Curie scientist, physicist
	Louis Pasteur Biologist	Albert Einstein physicist, genius	Galileo Astronomer, physicist
	Lise Meitner Physicist	.	.
Educators	Noah Webster writer of dictionary	Booker T. Washington leader and educator	Aristotle Greek philosopher
Physicians	Hippocrates father of medicine	Walter Reed discovered cause of yellow fever	Albert Schweitzer humanitarian
Religious Leaders	Increase Mather Salem witch trials	.
Athletes	Lou Gehrig baseball player	Wilma Rudolph Olympic gold medal winner	Tiger Woods golfer
	Michael Phelps Olympic swimmer	.	.
Civil Rights Leaders	Martin Luther King civil rights leader	Rosa Parks bus desegregation	Sojourner Truth Former slave
	Frederick Douglass Abolitionist	Mary Ann Shadd Cary Civil rights leader	James Forten Inventor, abolitionist
	Gandhi Indian civil rights leader	César Chávez Civil rights leader	.
Composers	Beethoven composer
Artists	John James Audubon artist and naturalist	Gutzon Borglum sculptor, Mount Rushmore	Ansel Adams photographer

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