Michael Phelps: my greatest hero

Michael Phelps, the man, the myth, and the legend is the greatest person of all time, athlete and person. Michael Phelps has been an inspiration to me as a swimmer as a person. Throughout my childhood and my adult years I have been a swimmer all my life and I would like to thank Michael Phelps for helping with my career. I started swimming when I was nine years old, at the time I didn't know how to swim, then I watched Michael Phelps win at the 2008 Olympics. I watched him do the freestyle to break the world record and I thought, I can be Michael Phelps so I started my swim career because of him.

Throughout my career I thought I was done, then after watching Michael Phelps swim, he got me back to my swimming career. In my sophomore year of high school, my coach told me I was doing the 100 butterfly something I never wanted to do, but after watching Michael Phelps swim the butterfly, I know that I could do it and to this day it is still my favorite stroke thanks to Phelps. My butterfly started to struggle later on but I watched how Michael Phelps swim and his techniques, my butterfly was better than ever. I stilled cheered on Phelps during the 2012 Olympics, watching him swim and again he influenced me to continue my swimming career. When Phelps initially retired after the Olympics, I thought of doing the same, but I knew that Phelps would never quit. In 2016 Phelps came back for one more Olympics, the same year I called it quits, I watched Phelps perform one last time with my favorite stroke the butterfly.

After his final race by winning again a Gold Medal, I started to cry because I know that the guy who influenced me to swim was calling it quits. Throughout my time watching Michael Phelps swim, I had the honor of watching the greatest athlete of all time despite winning 28 medals. After I retired from the sport, I swim coach my swimmers to ask themselves what would Michael Phelps do? A few years after I retired from swimming, for my birthday my Dad got me a signed Michael Phelps autographed photo which is still today my most prized possession. It was like a piece of Michael Phelps never left and I still look up to him even though I retired from swimming years ago. Thank You Michael Phelps for helping me not only a great swimmer but a great person. I hope someday I would like to meet you.