This post will give you the big picture when it comes to how great olympic champion Michael Phelps really is. You can even see exactly whose records he's broken in 2012...

Michael Fred Phelps II (born June 30, 1985) is an American swimmer who has won 17 Olympic medals and set numerous world records. He won six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004 and eight gold at Beijing in 2008, winning more medals than any other athlete in either of those Games. So far, in the 2012 Summer Olympics, Phelps has won one silver.






link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSk4QWELxHY


link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3paiELa7mA


link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_qIhrxwo1A&feature=related


He has twice equaled the record eight medals of any type at a single Olympics achieved by Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin at the 1980 Moscow Summer Games.

Wanna know what that was like, look here!

link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArRYdfWazs8


His five gold medals in individual events tied the single Games record set by compatriot Eric Heiden in the 1980 Winter Olympics and equaled by Vitaly Scherbo at the 1992 Summer Games.


link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfpVqK3cswE


Phelps holds the record for the most gold medals won in a single Olympics; his eight at the 2008 Beijing Games surpassed American swimmer Mark Spitz's seven-gold performance at Munich in 1972.


link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXUMXy16L9k

Phelps' Olympic medal total is second only to the 18 Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina won over three Olympics, including nine gold.



link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz54uctiYlc&feature=c-shelf-119

Phelps also holds the all-time record for most gold Olympic medals, as well as the record for most gold medals in individual events .Phelps's international titles and record-breaking performances have earned him the World Swimmer of the Year Award six times and American Swimmer of the Year Award eight times. He has won a total of sixty-six medals in major international competition, fifty-four gold, nine silver, and three bronze spanning the Olympics, the World, and the Pan Pacific Championships. His unprecedented Olympic success in 2008 earned Phelps Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportsman of the Year award. The same magazine said that he is “universally recognized as the greatest swimmer in history”.



He's even into community service...

After the 2008 Summer Olympics, Phelps started the Michael Phelps Foundation, which focuses on growing the sport of swimming and promoting healthier lifestyles. As a participant in the US Anti-Doping Agency's "Project Believe" program, Phelps is regularly tested to ensure that his system is clean of performance-enhancing drugs.