Born on June 30, 1985, Michael Fred Phelps II is a former competitive swimmer from the United States. With a total of 28 medals, he is the most successful and decorated Olympian of all time. Phelps also holds the records for the most Olympic gold medals (23), individual Olympic gold medals (13), and individual Olympic medals (16) ever won. Phelps broke Mark Spitz’s 1972 record of seven first-place finishes at any one Olympic Games when he won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games. By winning six gold and two bronze medals at the Athens Summer Olympics in 2004, Phelps already tied the record for eight medals of any color in a single competition.
37 Michael Phelps Quotes
1. “It’s not how you start, but it’s how you finish.”
2. “Perseverance, determination, commitment, and courage-those things are real. The desire for redemption drives you.”
3. “No goal is too high if you put your mind to it.”
4. “You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.”
5. “Every day is different and every day brings something more exciting.”
6. “You’re tired; you feel you can’t move; you’re truly hurting. That’s when he would throw down especially hard sets.”
7. “If you want to be the best you have to do things that other people aren’t willing to do.”
8. “I wanted to do something nobody ever did. This goes hand in hand with my goal of changing swimming.”
9. “But a hero should be somebody who can lift up other people with his courage and dedication.”
10. “You can make a million mistakes, just not the same one twice.”
Inspirational Michael Phelps Quotes
11. “I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and you put the work and time into it. I think your mind really controls everything.”
12. “If you say “can’t” you’re restricting what you can do or ever will do.”
13. “I think with practice, you can being whatever you want to be, and with a goal you can go in any direction that you want to go in.”
14. “It doesn’t matter what else is going on. When you walk into your arena or your – whatever you excel at, you’re there to take care of the job that you have to do.”
15. “Things won’t go perfect. It’s all about how you adapt from those things and learn from mistakes.”
16. “If you want to be the best, you have to do things that other people aren’t willing to do.”
17. “I try to separate my personal life from swimming.”
18. “With so many people saying it couldn’t be done, all it takes is an imagination.”
18. “It’s the Olympics. If you can’t get up to swim early in the morning, don’t go.”
19. “Records are always made to be broken no matter what they are. Anybody can do anything that they set their mind to.”
Michael Phelps Quotes About Dreams and Hand Work
20. “Start with three sandwiches of fried eggs, cheese, lettuce, tomato, fried onions and mayonnaise; add one omelet, a bowl of grits and three slices of French toast with powdered sugar; then wash down with three chocolate chip pancakes”
21. “Dream as big as you can dream, and anything is possible.”
22. “I think goals should never be easy, they should force you to work, even if they are uncomfortable at the time.”
23. “You’re tired, you feel you can’t move, you’re truly hurting. That’s when he would throw down especially hard sets.”
24. “I feel most at home in the water. I disappear. That’s where I belong.”
25. “The more you dream the more you achieve.”
26. “Anything is possible as long as you want it, you work for it. Doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, the only person that can really put pressure on you is yourself”
27. “Swimming is normal for me. I’m relaxed. I’m comfortable, and I know my surroundings. It’s my home.”
28. “I won’t predict anything historic. But nothing is impossible.”
29. “When you use your imagination anything can happen.”
Motivational Michael Phelps Quotes
30. “People say to me, ‘You’re so lucky. You get to see the world.’ But I don’t. I go to the hotel and to the pools and back again. That’s it.”
31. “Nothing is impossible. With so many people saying it couldn’t be done, all it takes is an imagination.”
32. “I like to just think of myself as a normal person who just has a passion, has a goal and a dream and goes out and does it. And that’s really how I’ve always lived my life.”
33. “I have reached a place in my life where I need to sit down and say, ‘Well, what do I do? What’s best for me?’ I need to look into options for the future.”
34. “When I’m focused, there is not one single thing, person, anything that can stand in the way of my doing something. There is not. If I want something bad enough, I feel I’m gonna get there.”
35. “I learned how fast you can go from being an international hero to being a reference in a joke on a late-night talk show.”
36. “If I didn’t swim my best, I’d think about it at school, at dinner, with my friends. It would drive me crazy.”
37. “In some sports, you can just get by on a lot of natural talent. In swimming, it helps to be long and lean, but you can’t be good at it without putting in the work. There is a direct connection between what you put into it and what you get out of it.”
Phelps won four gold and two silver medals at the London Summer Olympics in 2012, and five gold and one silver at the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics in 2016. For the fourth Olympics in a row, this made him the most successful athlete at the competition.
Additional Read: Michael Phelps Biography, Olympic Medals and Records