Michael Phelps Is Really Retiring This Time: ‘I’m Done, No More’

“He’s a father figure to me”, Phelps said of Bowman, his coach since age 11 who he followed to Arizona when Bowman was named ASU’s swim and dive coach a year ago.

“I am on Tinder”, he said. I’m on Tinder. My biggest relationships pretty much for the past four years have been in the swimming pool, and now that I’m taking a break – I’m going to take a break – I’ll settle down. He told Costas he felt the tears well up from the moment he walked into the pool to warm up and shared one final pre-race conversation with his longtime coach Bob Bowman. The athlete with the most medals in Olympic history had a natural ability to grasp concepts quickly as a swimmer.

However, he’s confident he can make a difference.

“I am done competing, but by no means does this mean it’s the end of my career”. “If there’s a kid that’s hungry enough and will work hard enough, it’ll be enjoyable for me”.

Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time, with a record 28 total Olympic medals after completing his fifth Games in 2016. DiRado has already won one each of gold, silver and bronze in Rio.

“I just wanted to be done with swimming and didn’t want anything to do with the sport anymore”, he said of his mindset at the time. “This is the cherry I wanted to put on top of the cake”.

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. He hopes to carry on that momentum, even though he’s stepping away from competitive swimming. I am retiring, this is it.

Phelps says he’s looking forward to building “a family with [his fiancee] Nicole” and starting a “whole new chapter” in his life. He said he has barely seen Boomer over the last few weeks. “Being able to play catch with him in the backyard, or take him to a sporting event, or if he’s into music …”