Michael Phelps just completed another record year of Olympics in Rio with a staggering five gold medals and one silver. That tops him off at 23 gold medals, three silver and two bronze for his Olympic career in swimming. He’s the most decorated Olympian in history and he’s also the oldest Olympian to win an individual event. And let’s not forget about the 2,168-year-old Olympic record he broke by winning 12 individual Olympic titles. The guy is a machine. However, for Phelps, it’s no longer about winning gold medals.
Michael Phelps used to be a guy who didn’t know the names of all of his teammates on the 2004 and 2008 United States Olympic swimming squads. He was so absorbed in his own journey, shutting himself off from the outside world that he wasn’t aware of others around him.
Phelps never got to be a teenager. He never got to develop his personality but instead spent those years developing his swimming talents. The training and isolation made him a high-performance machine. He was hardly human.
The 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing were great for Phelps as he won a record eight gold medals. However, the years that followed were not some of the best. A photo of him with a bong surfaced and a second D.U.I was charged to his name. He hit rock bottom by the end of 2014.
Phelps was on his way home from a casino after drinking when he texted his girlfriend, Nicole Johnson. He told her there was a cop behind him. She then received a phone call from him in jail. He had been clocked going 84 miles per hour in a 45 mph zone and had been observed crossing the double lines. He failed two field sobriety tests and a Breathalyzer recorded his blood-alcohol level at 0.14. Once out of jail, Phelps locked himself in his house, refusing to talk to anybody for the next several days. He texted his agent, Peter Carlisle saying he didn’t want to be alive anymore. Michael Phelps was truly lost and broken. That was when he finally decided to check into the Meadows, the rehab center he spent six weeks at.
The Meadows broke down the walls that Michael Phelps had spent years building in order to be the machine he was for the Olympics. He began reading books, spending time getting to know people and coming out of his shell. He laughed, talked and acted like his normal self – the one he had been before all of the pressure and training.
Michael Phelps’ message is “Vulnerability is a strength.” Someone who once thought having a rough exterior and being machine-like was the best path now realizes that he is so much stronger after being vulnerable. He’s training better than he ever has, feels more powerful and is doing well. All of this after crumbling to his absolute lowest points and letting the armor come off.
There are several lessons that we can take from Michael Phelps. The first is that you can have all the success and money you’d ever dream of having, but those things aren’t always what make you happy. Phelps had all of the money anyone his age could ever desire to have, was the most decorated Olympic athlete ever and had all the free time to do whatever he wanted, but he still wasn’t happy with his life. It’s not always about the fame and fortune. The second lesson we can learn from Phelps is that you can do absolutely anything you dream of doing. Michael Phelps hit an all time high at the 2008 Olympics and declined after that, using drugs and alcohol as a way to cope with the life he was unhappy with. He was in the watchful eye of the public and paparazzi where any wrong move would make headlines. He was stripped of all pride and dignity as news outlets and media buzzed with photos and articles of his mistakes. He chose to get up, brush himself off and fix everything he had done. He got help and turned his life around. He got back to his training with a regimen even more difficult than before and competed in another year of the Olympics where he took home more medals. If he can do that, anybody else can do what they desire to do. Just when you think you’ve hit rock bottom, you can turn it around to do great things.
