Michael Phelps Finishes His Historic Career with One Last Gold

After competing and winning in four Olympics, the 23-time gold medalist confirmed the news during an interview with the Today show on Monday, August 15. “Being able to have my first child be able to watch me swim and be there, he may not be able to understand really what’s going on, but just being able to have his presence here and know that he’s always up in the stands”, he told E! “I’m done. I’m finished”. I am retiring, but I am not done with swimming.

Phelps, who was still a teenager, won six gold medals and two bronzes in Athens – a feat which already made him the second most successful American athlete in a single Games. Before my last race, I have my white shoes that I wear out to every final, and inside the left shoe is his footprint. “That was the last race ever”.

It was also fantastic to see the world champions of 100m butterfly coming together during the medal ceremony to celebrate the fruits of their hard work, showing that the Olympics are not just about winning, but are also a celebration of sportsmanship and the human spirit. “Yeah, I’ve done a lot, but it’s not done”, Phelps said, referring to the future. “I guarantee he will be there”. I wanted to challenge myself and see how much more I could do. “It brought a tear to my eye, just because he hasn’t seen me in a while and it was so cool to see him smiling back at me and laughing and giggling”.

In other preliminary heats on Thursday, Americans Nathan Adrian and Anthony Ervin moved on to Thursday night’s semifinals for the men’s 50-meter freestyle and Michael Phelps and Tom Shields advanced to the semis for the men’s 100-meter butterfly, also on Thursday night.

“I thought the world would just be better off without me”, he said recalling the dark time.

Phelps was joined by his teammates Kevin Cordes, Conor Dwyer and Chase Kalisz who cheered him on chanting “four more years”.

Now that he’s stepping away from the pool, the Olympian is ready to focus on his family – fiancee Nicole Johnson and their 3-month-old son, Boomer.

“Getting off the bus and walking into the pool tonight, I nearly felt myself starting to cry”.

“We came together as a team and Michael was like ‘You know guys, I don’t really have anything to say”.

Phelps further opened up about his journey during an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt.