The storied Olympic career of Michael Phelps officially opened up a new chapter on Wednesday night, when he qualified for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
With his qualification, Phelps became the first American male swimmer to qualify for five Olympics, according to the United States Olympic team’s Twitter.
#TeamUSA's @MichaelPhelps becomes the 1st male to qualify for his FIFTH Olympic Games! #RoadToRio #SwimTrials16 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Qt6PnfKGLu
— Team USA (@TeamUSA) June 30, 2016
According to Paul Carr of ESPN Stats & Info, Dara Torres is the only other American swimmer to compete in five Olympic Games.
Phelps won the 200-meter butterfly at the U.S. Olympic trials in Omaha. Tom Shields was narrowly trailing Phelps towards the end, but the 18-time gold medalist was able to prevail.
And Phelps didn’t find the task easy at all, from USA Today’s Nicole Auerbach:
“That means the most tonight,” Phelps said afterward. “With everything that’s happened, being able to come back, that’s probably harder than any swim I’ve had in my life.”
[…]
“Just being able to finish how I want to is so important to me,” Phelps said. “Getting on this team is what I wanted to do.”
As he’s done in previous years, Phelps will probably swim in multiple events during the Olympics. That’s lucky for us, as his races have always been a joy to watch, even though you typically already know what the outcome is going to be.
