12 Things you don’t know about Michael Phelps

1.  Full name Michael Fred Phelps II

2.  Michael Phelps was born and raised in the Rodgers Forge neighbourhood of Towson, Maryland, located just north of Baltimore.

3.  Michael Phelps is the youngest of three children. His mother, Deborah Sue “Debbie” (née Davisson), is a middle school principal. His father, Michael Fred Phelps, is a retired Maryland state trooper who played football in high school and college.

4.  Michael Phelps ancestry includes English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and German.

5.  Michael Phelps began swimming at the age of seven, partly because of the influence of his sisters and partly to provide him with an outlet for his energy.

6.  When Michael Phelps was in the sixth grade, he was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

7.  At the age of 15 Michael Phelps becoming the youngest male to make a U.S. Olympic swim team in 68 years.

8.  At the World Championship Trials for the 2001 World Aquatics Championships, on March 30, Phelps broke the world record in the 200-meter butterfly to become, at 15 years and 9 months, the youngest man ever to set a swimming world record, breaking the record previously held by Ian Thorpe when he lowered the 400-meter freestyle world record at 16 years, 10 months. At the World Championships in Fukuoka, Phelps broke his own world record in the 200-meter butterfly en route to becoming a world champion for the first time.

9.  After the 2008 Olympics, Michael Phelps used his $1 million Speedo bonus to set up the Michael Phelps Foundation. His foundation focuses on growing the sport of swimming and promoting healthier lifestyles

10.  Michael Phelps was a USA Olympic team member in 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012, and holds the records for most Olympic gold medals (18), most such medals in individual events (11), and most such medals at a single games (8, in Beijing 2008).

11.  With 39 world records (29 individual, 10 relay), Phelps set more records than any other swimmer, surpassing Mark Spitz’s previous record of 33 world records (26 individual, 7 relay).

12.  Michael Phelps’s international titles and record-breaking performances have earned him the World Swimmer of the Year Award seven times and American Swimmer of the Year Award nine times as well as the FINA Swimmer of the Year Award in 2012