Michael Phelps Research Paper

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Michael Phelps was born on June 30th, 1985 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the 3rd child of Debbie and Fred Phelps. Michael has grown up to be a world renown Olympic swimmer with 28 Olympic medals; 18 of those being gold. He has set world records at as young as age 15 and instantly America fell in love with him. Michael’s parents got divorced when he was only 9 years old and he lived with his mom and sisters in the Baltimore area. Michael was inspired to learn swimming after his 2 sisters joined the swim team, but swimming wasn’t the only sport he participated in. He also was on the soccer, baseball, and lacrosse teams throughout his childhood. Believe it or not, when Michael first started swimming he was too scared to swim with his head underwater so he would only swim on his back, already differentiating him from the other kids. After watching his first Olympics, 1996, Phelps knew that was what he wanted too do. With hard and rigorous training, Phelps made the the U.S. National team and became the youngest male, American swimmer to ever compete in the Olympics. Michael’s career just boosted from there. In the next couple years he became the youngest swimmer to set records in the Phelps struggled during 2014; getting a DWI and contemplating suicide. Phelps “thought the world would just be better off without me[him] ... I[he] figured that was the best thing to do — just end my[his] life”(Metaxes). Even with all the good he has done he struggled with knowing he he really was. He believed he disappointed his family and that he was of no good use. Thankfully his good friend, Ray Lewis, gave Phelps the book“The Purpose-Driven Life” by Rick Warren(Metaxas). This book saved Phelps life and drove him away from suicide by showing him that he had a purpose. Phelps showed many people that even if you have everything, you can still be unhappy. And that you can beat suicide and find your reason to

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