10 bizarre facts you didn’t know about Michael Phelps

Michael Phelps was an unstoppable force throughout his swimming career. Very few athletes have ever been as gifted in their sport as Phelps was in the pool. We’ll make our way through 10 of the most interesting facts you might not have known about the legendary Olympian.

If one thing is for certain, it’s that Phelps doesn’t shrink when the moment gets big. That was certainly the case in 2016, where Phelps found himself in a different kind of competition against opponents like John Legend, Olivia Munn and Terry Crews. The swimmer spit rhymes Eminem would have been proud of.

Appearing on a show called Lip Sync Battle in 2016, Phelps dropped the mic after an epic rendition of Eminem’s 'Lose Yourself'. Kyle Newport wasn’t just impressed by his cadence; he also noted that Phelps had the “perfect mean mug” to compliment the intensity of the classic hit.

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It’s hard to imagine Michael Phelps wanting to be any other person besides himself, but he was enamored with the talents of NBA star Michael Jordan growing up. Phelps told Yahoo Sports, “For me, MJ was everything growing up. That was the guy I wanted to be. I wanted to do in swimming what he did in the sport of basketball.”

Phelps turned into a mere mortal when he first met Jordan back in 2012. On Run it Back, Phelps said, “I was on a gold channel show, talking about golf, and all of a sudden, he walks through the door. I couldn’t say anything and I didn’t know what to say.”

It can be hard to remember that some of the most successful athletes ever are real people, who watch movies just like the rest of us. According to Aquatics International, Phelps was a big fan of Austin Powers as a teenager.

Anyone who has seen the movies knows they are supremely quotable, and Phelps was known to rattle off classic lines with ease.

Phelps has won 28 Olympic medals, with 23 of them being of the gold variety. It’s an astonishing total, but not many have had the chance to lay their eyes on them. He told NBC Connecticut, “They’re in a secret spot that not many people in the world know exactly where they all are.”

People have observed that Phelps doesn’t really bring out his medals in public that frequently. He told NBC Connecticut that he doesn’t really look at them that often himself.

Phelps is the youngest of three, and has two older sisters named Hilary and Whitney. According to Heavy’s website, Hilary swam for the University of Richmond’s collegiate team, and broke four school records. Whitney was a star in the pool for the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and was named Rookie of the Year as a freshman.

Whitney Phelps Flickinger also ran the 2012 New York City Marathon, with Michael and other family members there to cheer her on.

According to Yahoo, Phelps had a supremely helpful genetic advantage. Elton Fernandes wrote, “Phelps’ body also produces only half of the amount of lactic acid that an average human body does. This helps him stay active for longer periods, giving him more endurance while swimming longer distances.”

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The Washington Post’s Monica Hesse wrote that this was a “quirk that bordered on supernatural.”

Phelps is married to Nicole Johnson, whom he met at the sports awards show. He told Entertainment Online, “my wife was my escort here (at the ESPY’s), when she was working with ESPN.” According to The Knot, the couple has four sons.

According to People’s website, Johnson won the Miss California USA pageant in 2010 at age 24. She would go on to graduate from the University of Southern California and work in marketing.

We’ve covered the insanely low amount of lactic acid Phelps’ body produces, but he had another inherent advantage. According to Business Insider, Phelps has size-14 feet.

Rahul Venkat of the Olympics’ official website wrote that his large feet act like fins in the water.

In the lead up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Phelps revealed that he was eating around 10,000 calories a day. According to TalkSport, he once said, “I just sort of try to cram whatever I can into my body. It’s pretty much whatever I feel like eating, I’m going to eat.”

Phelps wrote in his autobiography that he would load up on food at Pete’s Grille in Baltimore. He wrote that he would “start with three sandwiches of fried eggs, cheese, lettuce, tomato, fried onions and mayonnaise; add one omelet, a bowl of grits, and three slices of French toast with powdered sugar; then wash them down with three chocolate chip pancakes.”

For someone who is so locked in on the task at hand in the pool, it seems like Phelps has everything going for him and then some. However, he’s been dealing with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder since he was nine years old, according to ADDitude Magazine. His mother Debbie recalled, “I was told by one of his teachers that he couldn’t focus on anything.”

Phelps would find solace in the water. He wrote in his autobiography, “I could go fast in the pool, it turned out, in part because being in the pool slowed down my mind. In the water, I felt, for the first time, in control.”

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