Finding Michael Phelps

Personalisation:

This topic is relevant to my readers because if there is one thing most to all swimmer’s fear is what is life like after swimming? Thus, this article I thought showed that even the most decorated Olympian of all time also feared what his life would be like after swimming. After his last Olympics in 2016 Michael Phelps tried to find a reason to postpone his retirement. When Michael Phelps returned from the Olympics in Rio 2016 he was going through his swimming wardrobe and came across his Olympic goal sheet and he came to realise the only time he had achieved was in the men’s 4x100 freestyle relay. He quickly sent a message to his lifelong coach Bob Bowman saying that he had not achieved any of his goals he set in place and still had unfinished business. Bob Bowman replied to him “Let it go,” he wrote, adding a smiley-face emoji with sunglasses for emphasis (Crouse, 2018). I think that message gave Michael Phelps the closure he was looking for and that it is time for him to enjoy parts of his life he did not have time to do so during his swimming career and now the 28-time Olympic medallist was seen participating in the Ryder Cup celebrity pro-am (Crouse, 2018). Thus, I believe this article can shed some light to my audience about not fearing what is to come after swimming and to embrace it was another day at the pool.

Interpretation:

Basically, when swimmers train for 12 or more years of their lives to be competitive it can be very scary to imagine what will a swimmer do after they pack away the swimming goggles and costumes, where do they put all their energy and time now that the one thing that used to stimulate them is no longer there? Thus, the ramifications that can arise from the information about Michael Phelps article is that not every swimmer in the world is as well decorated or well know as he is which could still reinforce my readers doubts about their fears of retirement from swimming. Thus this will affect my chosen topic in the future where I will have to talk about life after swimming and how to find a new balance, that there are still many things that can be done after swimming and like Michael Phelps we can still keep a competitive edge in other sports but we must be

willing to let go of swimming and not compare the old life of swimming with the new life with no swimming.

​

​

​

IMAGE  REFERENCE Michael Phelps playing on Tuesday at Hazeltine National Golf Club, the site of the Ryder Cup.CreditCreditMichael Madrid/USA Today Sports, via Reuters