Michael Phelps Recalls Special Moment With Son, Boomer, at Rio Olympics

Phelps could only laugh when host Matt Lauer showed him a clip of a prior interview he’d done with Ryan Lochte, in which Phelps’ longtime intra-squad rival said he could “guarantee” we would see the swimming legend again in Tokyo.

Competing in his remarkable fifth games since debuting in 2000 in Sydney at the age of 15, Phelps was on hand to help the United States roar to a 4 x 100 metre medley relay gold and the USA’s 1,001th medal in total.

Michael Phelps brought down the curtain on his glittering Olympic career when he helped the US win 4x100m medley relay gold at the Rio Games on Saturday, taking his personal tally to 23. I knew this was the last race that I ever had, the last Olympics that I ever had. Image credit: Chicago Tribune.

Phelps shared the silver with two other longtime rivals, Chad le Clos of South Africa and Laszlo Cseh of Hungary. On Saturday night, Phelps shared the winners’ podium with Ryan Murphy, Cody Miller, and Nathan Adrian.

“I’m not going four more years, and I’m standing by that”. “In the left foot, there’s a footprint of him, inside of my shoe, and I put my shoe on and I looked down at it and I started to get emotional because I knew he was in the stands”. This has been such a passion of mine and a big sport for me. “Chad and I have had some races over the last four years and Laszlo and I – I can’t even remember when I first raced him… so it’s kind of special and a decent way to finish my last individual race”. This was Logan’s third gold medal, which is the most golds ever earned by a U.S. women’s rower.

Yet after all he’s been through, from an eight-gold performance in Beijing to a post-depression London comeback and a rehab stint in 2014, Phelps is finally content with his swimming career that ended with a new Olympic record on the 4×100 medley relay.

What an incredible race to watch, but Phelps announced after that it would be his last.

United States Olympic Committee head, Scott Blackmun, said: “One thousand gold medals is a remarkable achievement made possible by the culture of sport that is the fabric and foundation of Team USA”. This time, Phelps sent the typical message of quality over quantity when it comes to personal achievements.

As NPR points out, if Phelps was not a person but a country competing in Rio, he would have more gold medals than all but 32 of the 205 countries present, and that includes medal tallies from the summer AND winter games.