Meanwhile, Phelps continued to establish world records at the 2006 Pan Pacific Championships in Victoria, British Columbia, and the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. Phelps followed his coach to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where Bowman coached the Wolverines' swim team, to study sports marketing and management. The coach immediately recognized Phelps' talents and fierce sense of competition and began an intense training regime together. He met his coach, Bob Bowman, when he started training at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club at the Meadowbrook Aquatic and Fitness Center. He launched his swimming career at the Loyola High School pool. Not surprisingly, the first stroke he mastered was the backstroke.Īfter he saw swimmers Tom Malchow and Tom Dolan compete at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, Phelps began to dream of becoming a champion. At age seven, Phelps was still "a little scared" to put his head underwater, so his instructors allowed him to float around on his back. Olympic team in 1996, but injuries derailed her career. Phelps began swimming when his two older sisters, Whitney (born 1978) and Hilary (born 1980), joined a local swim team. When Phelps' parents divorced in 1994, he and his sisters lived with their mother, with whom Phelps grew very close. His father, Fred, an all-around athlete, was a state trooper and his mother, Debbie, was a middle-school principal. The youngest of three children, Phelps grew up in the neighborhood of Rodgers Forge. Michael Fred Phelps was born on June 30, 1985, in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the first American male swimmer to earn a spot on five Olympic teams and also made history as the oldest individual gold medalist in Olympic swimming history at the age of 28. Phelps competed in his first Olympics at the age of 15, as part of the U.S. Michael Phelps is an American swimmer who holds the record for the most Olympics medals won by any athlete at 28, including 23 gold medals and 13 individual golds.
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