Will there ever be an Athlete as Dominant as Michael Phelps again?

Picture Courtesy: usaswimming.org

By Francisco Romero

As sports fans we thrive on the underdog stories, we love them; stories of those who accomplish great things on the field, on the court or the swimming pool against all odds.

But the reality is that we also love the stories of those whose success seems to come at ease; those whose accomplishments make the athletes into legends in their own sport such as Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods amongst others.

Those athletes, we can say, come once in a generation.

What about Michael Phelps?

In my humble opinion, Michael Phelps is different; an athlete like him comes once a lifetime.

I don’t think, that in my lifetime I will ever get to witness an athlete dominate his/her sport the way Phelps has dominated swimming over the years.

And if this Olympics are the last ones that he participates in, I hope you were watching; it was a treat.

Phelps, 31, has won 28 total medals in five Olympic games; 23 gold, three silver and two bronze. He has won 13 individual gold medals

In Rio his accomplishments have been nothing short of great; taking gold in the men’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay, 200-meter butterfly, 4×100-meter medley relay, 4×100-meter freestyle relay, 200-meter individual medley and claimed silver in the men’s 100-meter butterfly.

The Olympian has said that this will be his last Olympic competition.

“Being able to look back at my career, I can say we’ve been able to accomplish everything we wanted. It was a challenge getting back to this point, but this is the cherry on top of the cake that I wanted, and I couldn’t be happier with how things ended,” said Phelps after his last competition.

Did I mention that I hope you watched him compete in this (Rio 2016) Olympics, if you didn’t you missed sports history in the making.