"You've got to win in your mind before you win in your life."
-John Addison
We start off our "BELIEVE in the Beauty of Your Dreams" Series with the incredible story of Olympian, Michael Phelps.
Michael Fred Phelps was born in Maryland on June 30, 1985. He grew up with two older sisters, Hilary and Whitney, who were swimmers as well. He began swimming at the age of seven, for two reasons: the influence of his sisters and to provide him with an outlet for his energy. Phelps, in his youth, was diagnosed with ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.)
He excelled as a swimmer, and by the age of 10 held a national record for his age group. By the age of 15, Phelps qualified for the 2000 Summer Olympics, becoming the youngest male to compete in the games since 1932. In the 2004 Olympic games in Athens, Phelps took home 8 medals total, 6 of them Gold. The most memorable and history making achievement happened during the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, China.
Michael Phelps qualified for 8 events, having the chance to win 8 Gold medals. Winning 8 Gold medals would make him the most decorated Olympian of all time, surpassing Olympian swimmer, Mark Spitz's world record of 7 Gold medals in a single Olympics. Phelps expressed his long time goal was to tie Spitz in the record. He accomplished this feat, winning his 7th Gold medal, by a fingernail!! He won the 100m butterfly event by .01 of a second!!
When asked in the interview right after the win, "Did you know this was going to happen?" He answered, "In my dreams I always wanted it..., I thought in the perfect circumstances I could do it."
In another interview prior to the Beijing Games, he was asked about his thoughts on being compared to Mark Spitz, the greatest Olympian of all time, and his quest for 8 gold medals. He said, "....I don't want to be the second Mark Spitz - I want to be the first Michael Phelps. I want to do something nobody has ever done before. If I accomplish my goals, that's probably going to happen. But it's all on me whether I work as hard as I can, work in and out of the pool."
Michael Phelps did win all 8, now totalling 14 Olympic gold medals, more than anyone in history. (16 Olympic Medals for his career total)
Olympian, Michael Phelps is a prime inspirational example of someone who BELIEVED in the beauty of his dreams, worked hard to pursue them and ACHIEVED unbelievable success. He won in his mind before he won at the Olympic Games.
Many Blessings....
Hugo and Roxanne ~ Believe Achieve
Further Reading:
BELIEVE in the Beauty of Your Dreams Series:
Michelle Kwan
Tiger Woods
Lance Armstrong
Dear Hugo & Roxanne
ReplyDeleteI remember hearing something about Michael Phelps's Coach told his mother when he first saw Michael. The Coach told the mom, "If you can support him in this! Your son is going to do things that No One Else have ever done before!"
The believe of the Michael, his mother, his coach and everyone else around him!
Anything can happen!
Giovanna Garcia
Imperfect Action is better than No Action
Hi Giovanna,
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful it was that Michael's coach saw something very special in him. And to ecourage Michael's mother to support him. When you believe in yourslef, and see yourself achieving your goals, nothing can stop you. We always love it when you stop by.
Many Blessings....
Hugo and Roxanne
~ Believe Achieve ~