Rio Olympics 2016: Michael Phelps Interview

I had two older sisters that I kind of

looked up to and and for them having the

chance to travel nationally and

internationally you know my Whitney was

on a national team with people I looked

up to and you know she always come back

with like autographs and stuff and I was

like I want to do that I want to be on

those teams I want to travel the world

and and at that point I was just like

you know I want to be an Olympic gold

medalist I want to break a world record

and I want to be professional athlete

and those goals that I thought about

every single day kept me coming week

after week and year after year until I

was able to accomplish him my first

national team trip was the Olympics it's

not as big as you could get and just I

mean just having that that experience

and having you know getting the free

t-shirts and the free gear and you know

everything you could possibly imagine

they just came to you here it is and you

know that's kind of like when I learned

all the rules of being on the national

team you know the flag etiquette you

know wearing white caps in the morning

black caps a night just kind of how we

do things and sort of watching the

veterans I think I was able just to

really pick up on a lot of a lot on a

lot of things and you know once an

Olympian always an Olympian and that's

as big as you can get in the sport there

were a lot of mixed feelings after that

race I wasn't happy with the time but

afterwards like I saw the time I was

like man it's really like I'm not happy

with that and then I realized that I had

made my fifth Olympic team and you know

that was something that that after

London I didn't think was possible

taking some time off going through some

ups and downs and being able to get to

the obstacles that I had to be able to

have the chance to swim on my fifth

Olympic team it's just special to not

only be on the team again and represent

my country but also have the chance to

have my son come and watch

my last one was ever he might not

remember him but I'll have the memories

for life ever since I've moved to

Arizona it's it's been so wild to me to

see so many people that have come up and

just been supportive and and I think

that's something really special because

it goes hand it goes back to what I

wanted to do with the sport and being

able just to know that this person or

that person is watching the random bar

down the street or random restaurant

down the street I've changed things in

the sport and I've done what I wanted to

do and there are people back home and we

are overseas that are screaming their

brains out and there's nothing cooler

like like when I come home and hear just

the stories from them and those little

times you know could change someone's

life could pick somebody up it's just an

honor for me I think I've changed a lot

over the last couple of years and I

think I've been become more approachable

and more outgoing than I was and you

know I think that's kind of I'm kind of

exiting the sport but my job isn't done

in the sport even though I won't be

competing I'm handing it off to these

kids that that I hope continue to grow

this sport like we've done over the last

16 years and anything that I can do to

help them I'm here and I'm open to it I

want to be the first Michael Phelps at

something and and I've been able to do

that and and also representing my

country you know being able to wear the

Stars and Stripes for my whole life but

representing them overseas representing

the best country in the world it's just

it's just the greatest feeling and being

able to have a gold medal around a

necklace and the national anthem it

can't beat it