Michael Phelps won a record breaking 8 gold medals at the recently concluded Beijing Olympics. By winning 8 gold medals, he broke Mark Spitz’s record of 7 gold medals. He won his 8 gold medals with 7 world records, which is another remarkable feat.
Phelps, whose full name is “Michael Fred Phelps”, had attempted to win 8 gold medals in the Athens Olympics 2004 also, but ended up with only 6 gold medals. He is fondly called the “Baltimore Bullet”, and was born on June 30, 1985. Peculiar physical attributes sets Phelps apart in swimming: his long, thin torso, arms which span 6 feet 7 inches – disproportionate to his height of 6 feet 4 inches, shorter legs, coupled to size 14 feet, with hypermobile ankles he can extend beyond the point of a average human being.
Today, we pay tribute to the great man who has brought much excitement to the world of swimming. Phelps was recently in the news for consuming a massive 12,000 calories per day. (most non-athletes eat only 2000-3000 calories per day, and even athletes do not eat more than 6000-8000 calories per day). Here is a video of his diet, and a chat with the hotel owners of the hotel from where he eats his breakfast (they’re very happy to serve 12k calories):
And below is a funny video of Phelps’ Olympics victory video, where he defeated second-placed Cavic by just a hundredth of a second (note that this is a fake and meant only for comic relief):
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