Michael Phelps rewrote his own record books in arguably the greatest individual performance of any swimmer in an international competition by achieving eight Gold Medals in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, which has never been done before in a single Olympics. Previously he stunned the world by winning seven gold medals while shattering five world records (four individual, one relay) at the 2007 FINA World Championships in Australia. He is a 20-time World record holder, 17-time World Champion, 19-time American record holder and still holds eight titles.

At the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, Michael set World records in the 200m butterfly, 200m Individual Medley and finished first in the 400m Individual Medley, the 800m freestyle relay and the 400m freestyle relay. He won six gold medals at the 2006 U.S. Nationals, three gold medals at the 2005 U.S. Nationals, five gold medals and one silver medal at the 2005 World Championships.

At the 2004 Summer Olympics, Michael won six gold medals and two bronze medals becoming the first Olympian since 1980 to win eight medals in a single Olympics.

At age 15, Michael became the youngest male World record holder in modern history and has since been recognized as USA Swimmer of the Year three times. At age 16, Michael became the youngest American male swimmer to turn pro.

An overarching reason for Phelps's continued improvement is his longtime coach, Bob Bowman. Phelps began working with Bowman back in Baltimore at age 11.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he coached, guided and motivated Michael Phelps to achieve 8 Olympic Gold Medals, which has never been done before in a single Olympics.

• Consuming 8,000-10,000 calories per day
• Three-times-a-week, one-to-two-hour regimen of strength training.
• plyometrics and the stationary bike
• swimming/working out up to five hours a day