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I Would Visualize The Best- And Worst-case Scenarios. Whether I Get Disqualified Or My Goggles Fill Up With Water Or I Lose My Goggles Or I Come In Last, I'm Ready For Anything.

-Michael Phelps

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I Would Visualize The

Michael Phelps

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I Would Visualize The Best- And Worst-case Scenarios. Whether I Get Disqualified Or My Goggles Fill Up With Water Or I Lose My Goggles Or I Come In Last, I'm Ready For Anything.

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Worst Case Scenario

More From Michael Phelps

There Will Be Obstacles. There Will Be Doubters. There Will Be Mistakes. But With Hard Work... There Are No Limits.

Nobody Is Going To Put A Limit On What I'm Doing.

Coming Into Tonight, I Knew It Was Going To Be A Great Race, ... In The 400, Laszlo Put Up A 4:10.1 Earlier In The Year, And So You Expect Him To Put Up A Good Time In (the 200). I Knew Ryan Was Going To Be Fast Coming Off His Short Course Season, And He's Improved A Lot Since Athens, So I Just Wanted To Go Out There And Relax A Bit And Go Out There And Do What I Had To Do.

You Can't Put A Limit Anything.

My Strategy Is That I Actually Have Absolutely No Strategy.

Water Has Always Been A Large Part Of My Life, So For Me Now, Being A Father With Another Child On The Way, I'm Just Teaching Some Of The Small Things I've Been Able To Learn - And Passing That Onto The Younger Generation. Small Things Like Turning Your Faucet Off When You Brush Your Teeth, Not Taking A 30-minute Shower When You Really Don't Need To. So I Want To Teach The Younger Generation To Spread The Message And Make A Difference. I'm Almost More Excited To Do This Than I Was To Swim.

If I Bring Back Only One Gold People Are Going To Say It's A Disappointment. But Not Too Many Of Them Own An Olympic Gold Medal So If I Get One I'm Going To Be Happy.

I Think Goals Should Never Be Easy, They Should Force You To Work, Even If They Are Uncomfortable At The Time.

Before The (olympic) Trials I Was Doing A Lot Of Relaxing Exercises And Visualization. And I Think That That Helped Me To Get A Feel Of What It Was Gonna Be Like When I Got There. I Knew That I Had Done Everything That I Could To Get Ready For That Meet, Both Physically And Mentally

It's Cool Just Because I've Had This Dream Of Changing The Sport Of Swimming And It's Finally Happening.

I've Always Been Fortunate In That I've Been Able To Put Myself In My Own Zone And Relax. It Comes Naturally. I'm Lucky To Be That Way

What Does God Mean To Me? I Guess I Was Made The Way I Am For Some Reason, And I've Been Able To Find The Talent I Have, And I've Been Able To Use It, So I'm Grateful For That. I Believe In God; [but] I'm Not Saying I'm Highly Religious.

Being Compared To Ian Thorpe, That Could Be One Of The Greatest Compliments You Could Ever Get In Swimming - Being Compared To Him And Mark Spitz.

Compliments You

When We Got In The Race, We Knew What We Had To Do And Knew What We Wanted To Do. Having Three Of Four Guys From The American Record 800 Free Relay Is A Pretty Solid Relay, So We Thought We Could Take A Crack At The U.s. Open Record Tonight. We're All A Little Tired, But That's Fifth-fastest American Relay Ever, So It's Not A Bad Time. We Ended Tonight On A Great Note.

I Have Reached A Place In My Life Where I Need To Sit Down And Say, 'well, What Do I Do? What's Best For Me?' I Need To Look Into Options For The Future.

I Think The Biggest Things I Am Looking Forward To Is Getting New Faces Into The Sport. Getting Kids Who Could Be Afraid Of Water To Feel Comfortable In The Pool.

When I'm Focused, There Is Not One Single Thing, Person, Anything That Can Stand In The Way Of My Doing Something. There Is Not. If I Want Something Bad Enough, I Feel I'm Gonna Get There.

I Was Very Fortunate At A Young Age To Learn What Goal Setting Is And How To Take Time And Spend It The Right Way. I Have A Lot Going On Now, But I Want My Family To Have Everything I Had Growing Up And More, And Yeah, For Me To Do That There Are Times When I Need To Jump On A Plane And Travel Around The World In A Week. But Also, It's Like, If I Start Getting Burnt Out, I Know When I Need To Take A Break. Your Body Tells You; Just Listen To What Your Heart Is Saying.

When You Use Your Imagination Anything Can Happen.

Anything Can Happen

I Learned How Fast You Can Go From Being An International Hero To Being A Reference In A Joke On A Late Night Talk Show.

I Won't Predict Anything Historic. But Nothing Is Impossible.

Nothing Is Impossible. With So Many People Saying It Couldn't Be Done, All It Takes Is An Imagination.

With Social Media, So Many People Have Anxiety And Depression Because Of It. Of Course Technology Is Somewhat Good, But It Can Present So Many Issues; More And More We're Seeing What That's Causing, And It's Even Leading To Deaths. I Just Got Finished Doing A Documentary Called Anx With Children Talking About Anxiety And Recognizing Their Emotions And Understanding Them Better. We Need To Let Kids Know It's Ok To Not Be Ok. And We Need To Help Them Be Comfortable Talking About It.

I'm The Same Kind Of Guy Before All This Happened.

I Think Sometimes I Guess You See Records, Say You Want To Get There And Use That As Motivation. In A Way, It's Kind Of Cool If There Is A Possibility To Rewrite History And Be Up There With The Greats Of Olympic History.

We're All A Little Tired.

I Think To Be - For Me To Be An American Is - You Know, It's One Of The Greatest Things In The World For - You Know, For Me Just Because I've Been Able To Grow Up With Everything. The Freedom. You Know, In My Eyes This Is The Greatest Country In The World.

I Always Have On My Headphones To Block Out All Of The Other Distractions And I'm Just Focused On Doing The Best That I Can.... There A Few Of Them ... Dmx Party Up ... Mack 10 Bc And Ice Cube Connected For Life. I Also Listen To The Eminem Cd ...whichever Song Really Gets Me Going That Night

I Feel Like Aaron Brings Out The Best In Me

You Can't Put A Limit On Anything. The More You Dream, The Farther You Get.

Things Won’t Go Perfect. It’s All About How You Adapt From Those Things And Learn From Mistakes.

Learning From Mistakes

Swimming Is Fun. It's A Lot Funner Than Golf.

It's The Olympics. If You Can't Get Up To Swim Early In The Morning, Don't Go.

I Engaged In Behavior Which Was Regrettable And Demonstrated Bad Judgment. I'm 23 Years Old And Despite The Successes I've Had In The Pool, I Acted In A Youthful And Inappropriate Way, Not In A Manner People Have Come To Expect From Me. For This, I Am Sorry. I Promise My Fans And The Public It Will Not Happen Again.

If You're Not On Your 'a' Game In Our Workouts Every Day, You're Going To Get Absolutely Smoked.

Every Day After I Wake Up, I Think, 'wait... This Can't Be Real; I'm Still Going To Wake Up.'

I'm Satisfied In A Way Because This Is An Eye Opener For Me, ... I Didn't Have The Success I've Always Been Able To Have. I Learned A Lot.

Our Time On Earth Is Already Short Enough. For Me, It's Like Every Single Day I Try To Be As Happy As I Can. It's Crazy To Think About. We Never Have Enough Time. That's Always The Thing. We Always Want To Do More. So It's About Being Able To Spend Time On The Things That Are Most Important To You. Life Is A Lot Easier That Way, And Obviously Life Is Pretty Difficult A Lot Of The Time.

I Try To Separate My Personal Life From Swimming.

It's Not How You Start, But It's How You Finish.

Every Day Is Different And Every Day Brings Something More Exciting.

I Don't Want To Be The Next Mark Spitz; I Want To Be The First Michael Phelps

I Knew I Was Not A Failure In Any Way, And So Did Those Close To Me. It Doesn't Matter If You Fall Short; It Is Never A Failure To Go After Your Goals With Everything You've Got.

If I Didn't Swim My Best, I'd Think About It At School, At Dinner, With My Friends. It Would Drive Me Crazy.

I Feel Most At Home In The Water. I Disappear. That's Where I Belong.

I Am 26 And, And I Don't Recover As Fast As I Have In The Past.

My Mom Never Really Pushed Me Into Doing Something. It Was Kind Of Whatever I Wanted To Do, And That Was What Made Me Continue And Have The Longevity That I Had In My Career. I Went Through Ups And Downs In The Pool When I Loved It And When I Hated It.

When I Race, I Don't Think About It; It Just Happens.

I'm Fortunate To Have An Amazing, Strong Mother Who Is So Supportive Of Everything Me And My Sisters Did Growing Up - But She Was Someone Who Never Forced Us To Go Swim Or To Go Do This Or That. She Helped Us Think About Certain Consequences When We Needed To, But We Made Our Own Decisions. I Think If I Were Forced To Swim, I Wouldn't Have Stayed In The Pool As Long As I Did.

I've Been Able To Get An Excitement Back In The Water.

Obviously For Water Safety, You Want To Learn Just To Be Comfortable In The Water; That's The Main Goal. I Think The Second That You Start Freaking Out And Feeling Uncomfortable, It's Not Going To Go Well.

There Is A One Woman In China That Claimed She Paid $50 To Get My E-mail Address. It Was Pretty Shocking. I Got One This Morning From Scotland. A Girl's Requesting A Signed Photo Of Me.

Not Having To Travel And Being Able To Settle In Has Helped Me In Training Life And School Life. I've Learned To Get A Grip And Take Care Of Myself.

Other Nights ... I Visualize To The Point That I Know Exactly What I Want To Do: Dive, Glide, Stroke, Flip, Reach The Wall, Hit The Split Time To The Hundredth, Then Swim Back Again For As Many Times As I Need To Finish The Race.

Every Day, There's Always Something To Be Worried About; You Turn On The News And See Something Different Every Day, And It's Terrible. Hopefully, As Americans, And As The Inhabitants Of The World, We Can Come Together. We Need To Change Lives - Whether That's Conserving Water, Destigmatizing Mental Health Treatment Or Something Else. We Can Change Lives.

I Love To Race The Best People In The World And The Fastest People In The World.

I Always Thought, It Would Be Neat To Make The Olympic Team.

At A Very Young Age, I Wrote Down The Goals That I Had So I Could Always See What I Wanted To Accomplish. And I Would Look At That Goal Sheet And Think "i Still Want To Do This."so I'd Decide "i'm Not Quitting."

I Want To Test My Maximum And See How Much I Can Do. And I Want To Change The World Of Swimming.

I Got The Stamina. I Can Close.

Once I'm Already In My Room, I Still Have To Open A Door To Get Into My Bed. It's Like A Giant Box. It's Like The Boy In A Bubble.

I Don't Like To Be Second In Anything. I Was Trying, I Just Wasn't Going Anywhere.

I'm Pretty Lazy. My Wife Always Says, "you're The Laziest, Most Successful Olympian I've Ever Seen." How Does That Make Sense? Honestly, If I Have Downtime, I'm Really, Really Good At Not Doing Anything.

Dream As Big As You Can Dream, And Anything Is Possible.

Anything Is Possible

I Treat Every Race The Same. We All Wanted To Swim Fast Today And Give Something Back To The Crowd.

Perseverance, Determination, Commitment, And Courage-those Things Are Real. The Desire For Redemption Drives You.

I'm Kind Of A Creature Of Habit. Once I Get Used To Doing Things, It's Like Second Nature.

My Little Son Is Already Like Me - My Mom Has Always Said I Used To Bounce Off The Wall And Never Stop Talking Or Sit Still. I'm Starting To See That With Him. I Guess It's Living Proof He's Part Of Me.

I Wanted To Do Something Nobody Ever Did. This Goes Hand In Hand With My Goal Of Changing Swimming.

I Want To Go To The World Cup. I Want To Go To The Masters. I Want To Go... Anywhere.

My Mom Put Me And My Sisters In The Water To Feel Comfortable, To Have Water Safety.

Why Is It Such A Big Deal What I'm Swimming?

I Used To Always Go To Church On Holidays, But I Don't Go Much Any More.

This Is My 20th Year In The Sport. I've Known Swimming And That's It. I Don't Want To Swim Past Age 30; If I Continue After This Olympics, And Come Back In 2016, I'll Be 31. I'm Looking Forward To Being Able To See The Other Side Of The Fence.

I Finished My Career The Way I Wanted To.

[phelps] Firmly Denies That He Takes Drugs, Suggesting That The Notorious Photo Of Him Smoking From A Bong Was A One-time Lapse Of Judgment.

We Wanted To See How Close We Could Get To The World Record. We'll Take That For Right Now.

Records Are Always Made To Be Broken No Matter What They Are. Anybody Can Do Anything That They Set Their Mind To.

If You Put Your Mind To Anything That You Dream, You Can Achieve It.

People Say To Me, 'you're So Lucky. You Get To See The World.' But I Don't. I Go To The Hotel And To The Pools And Back Again. That's It.

Swimming Is More Than A Once-every-four-years Sport. My Goal Is To Bring Attention To Swimming - To Give It Some Personality.

I Want To Be Able To Look Back And Say, 'i've Done Everything I Can, And I Was Successful.' I Don't Want To Look Back And Say I Should Have Done This Or That. I'd Like To Change Things For The Younger Generation Of Swimmers Coming Along.

It's Tough To Put Into Words Right Now, But I Finished My Career How I Wanted To. Through The Ups And Downs Of My Career I've Still Been Able To Do Everything That I've Ever Wanted To Accomplish.

Things Can Change In The Blink Of An Eye!

God Never Blinks

There's Such A High Stigma Around Talking About Your Feelings Or Insecurities Because, Especially For Men, We Don't Want To Show That "weakness." But I'm Always Like, "ok, What Would You Rather Do: Show Weakness And Get Better, Or Continue To Get Worse And Who Knows Where That Leads?" There's Something Behind The Suicide Rate Continuing To Climb Year After Year. Why Don't We Ask For Help?

I Like To Just Think Of Myself As A Normal Person Who Just Has A Passion, Has A Goal And A Dream And Goes Out And Does It. And That's Really How I've Always Lived My Life.

If I Want To Achieve The Goals I've Set, I've Got To Be In Tip-top Shape.

I See My Goals As Personal And I Always Have. That's Just Been How I've Worked.

For Recovery, I Think It's A Big Deal To Eat Within A Half-hour After You Exercise. Otherwise I Just Try To Put Carbs Into My System Before I Swim And Then Load Up On The Protein After. I Don't Count Calories. Whether It's Sour Patch Kids Or Reese's Or A Bag Of Chips, If I Feel Like Eating It, I'm Going To Eat It.

I Have Had Extreme Ups And Downs. The Biggest Thing I Learned After I Broke My Wrist Is To Never Give Up. Nothing In Life Will Ever Come Easy. It Depends On How You Deal With Those Obstacles And How You Overcome Those Obstacles. If You Can Overcome Them, You're A Stronger Person. If You Make Mistakes Along The Way, As Long As You Never Make That Same Mistake Again, You're A Successful Person.

I'm So Sick Of The Water.

Anything Is Possible As Long As You Want It, You Work For It. Doesn't Matter What Anyone Else Thinks, The Only Person That Can Really Put Pressure On You Is Yourself

I Can't Remember The Last Day I Didn't Train.

I Don't Have A Strict Diet. It's All About Cramming In As Many Calories Into My System As I Possibly Can. To Be Honest With You, I Have A Tough Time Keeping Weight On.

So Many People Along The Way,whatever It Is You Aspire To Do, Will Tell You It Can't Be Done. But It All It Takes Is Imagination. You Dream. You Plan. You Reach. There Will Be Obstacles. There Will Doubters. There Will Be Mistakes. But With Hard Work, With Belief, With Confidence And Trust In Yourself And Those Around You, There No Limits.

If You Say "can't" You're Restricting What You Can Do Or Ever Will Do.

And I Hope Seeing A Therapist Becomes 10 Times Easier In The Future. For Me, Once I Came Out Of Treatment, I Got Into A Therapist And Continued My Road To Recovery And Health And Happiness. But Not Everyone Can Do That. It's Challenging To See A Therapist When You Work Full-time, When You Can't Get An Appointment Within A Week, And Then By The Time You Do Get One, Maybe You Feel Like Your "problem" Has Lessened And You Don't Bother To Go In. It's About Access.

I Think With Practice, You Can Being Whatever You Want To Be, And With A Goal You Can Go In Any Direction That You Want To Go In.

I Believe In God; I'm Not Saying I'm Highly Religious.

I Think That Everything Is Possible As Long As You Put Your Mind To It And You Put The Work And Time Into It. I Think Your Mind Really Controls Everything.

I Like To Get In My Own World. When I'm Getting Ready For A Meet, I Always Have Headphones On, Listening To Rap Music To Get Myself Fired Up

Once I Retire, I'm Retiring. I'm Done.

Funny Retirement

I Have The Opportunity To Be Part Of Swimming History. To Take The Sport To A New Level Would Be An Honor For Me. There's No Better Time To Try This Than Now.

My Goal Is One Olympic Gold Medal. Not Many People In This World Can Say, 'i'm An Olympic Gold Medalist.'

So, You Know, If, If I Wanted To Get Up And Just Play Golf One Day, I Would Just Get Up And Play Golf. If I Wanted To Go To Vegas, I Would Just Get Up And Go To Vegas.

Being Able To Do Something That's Never Been Done Before, That's What I've Always Wanted To Do. . . . There Was Nothing That Was Going To Stand In My Way Of Being The First.

Even In High School, I'd Tell My Mom I Was Sick Of Swimming And Wanted To Try To Play Golf. She Wasn't Too Happy. She'd Say, 'think About This.' And I'd Always End Up Getting Back In The Pool.

This Is The First Medal I've Ever Won In An International Meet. For It To Be Gold Is Incredible. It Feels Great. I Can't Explain It.

The One Thing That's Common To All Successful People: They Make A Habit Of Doing Things That Unsuccessful People Don't Like To Do.

And, You Know, Being Able To Wear The Stars And Stripes, When You Step Up On One Of The Blocks Or, You Know, When You Step Off Of An Airplane Or When You Hear The National Anthem Play, You Know, It's One Of The Greatest Feelings In The World Because You Know That There Are People At Home Who Are Supporting You And Watching You.

The More You Dream The More You Achieve.

Eat, Sleep And Swim, That's All I Can Do.

If We Can Continue To Come Together And Work On Small Things Little By Little, At Least It's Something. It's A Start. At Least Now There's A Lot More Talk About Climate Change And The Earth's State Than When I Was A Kid. I Guess It's Better Late Than Never? But It's Also Very Tricky Because This Is Something That's So Important To So Many Of Us, And A Lot Of People Don't See It That Way. But Hopefully, We Can Get All Our Points Across To Them - One By One, One Person At A Time.

I Know It Won't Be Eight Medals Again. If You Want To Compare Me To That, That's Your Decision, Not Mine. I'm Going Out There To Try To Accomplish The Things That I Have In My Mind And In My Heart.

Yeah, My Friends Call Me Mike, Michael Or Just My Last Name.

There Are So Many Things That I Still Want To Do. My Foundation, Growing My Brand . . . The List Is Endless. I'm Honestly Busier Now Than I Was When I Was Swimming. It's Kind Of Weird, But I Feel Like More Of An Adult Because I Have To Do Stuff Every Day. Whether It's Checking Emails Or Making Phone Calls Or Doing This And That, It's Fun For Me. It's The Start Of A New Chapter. At Times, It Is Frustrating, But I Know It's Not Going To Be Easy To Accomplish The Goals That I Want.

I've Been Around Water My Whole Life, So I Basically Really Learned At A Young Age The Importance Of It But Also One Day, At One Point, Clean Water Will Be Hard To Find. There's So Many People Throughout The World That Don't Have Access To Clean Water. Obviously We're Extremely Fortunate To Have The Opportunities That We Have And To Have All The Water That We Have. Like I Said, And I Can't Say It Enough, We All Should Work Together To Try And Conserve As Much As We Possible Can.

I Felt Comfortable In The Water. I Was In My Own World, Focused. I Love Sports And I'm A Very Goal-oriented Person. Once I Started Falling In Love With Sports, It Was Easy. I Was Able To Put My Mind On Something And Go For It. That's How I Am With Everything, It Doesn't Matter What It Is That I Do. If I Want To Do Something, Nothing Will Stand In My Way.

Falling In Love

If You Look At Me, Basically My Whole Entire Life I've Been Around Water. So When You Look At A Stat Like, "if You Leave The Faucet Running For Two Minutes While You Brush Your Teeth You Waste Four Gallons Of Water," To Me That's Mind-blowing. There Are So Many People That Don't Even Have Access To Clean Water, And People Leave Their Faucets Running. For Me It Was Something That Fit With Things That I Believe In.

I Live A Pretty Conservative Life, So I Probably Really Haven't Done Anything Crazy.

I Consider Myself Normal. I've Spent 20 Years In The Pool. I Consider That Something That's Normal.

The Only Reason I Started Swimming Was For Water Safety. Then, Once I Started Falling In Love With Sports, I Got More Comfortable With It.

Falling In Love

We Need To Make Seeing A Therapist More Accessible; We've Got To Crack Down On This And Allow People The Opportunity To Seek Help. It's Going To Be A Game-changer. I Would Love People To Become More Vulnerable And Reach Out And Ask For Help. I Would Never Want Somebody To Go Through The Feelings I Had, Almost Exactly Three Years Ago, Of Not Wanting To Be Alive. That's A Scary Thing, And To Think Of Where I Am Today Compared To That - That's Way Bigger Than Winning A Gold Medal.

Swimming Is Normal For Me. I'm Relaxed. I'm Comfortable, And I Know My Surroundings. It's My Home.

I Would Visualize The Best- And Worst-case Scenarios. Whether I Get Disqualified Or My Goggles Fill Up With Water Or I Lose My Goggles Or I Come In Last, I'm Ready For Anything.

Worst Case Scenario

I Grew Up Around The Pool With My Sisters. Both Of My Sisters Swam. I Was Always There. So I Thought, Why Not? My Mom Put Us In The Water For Water Safety, So We Were Comfortable In The Water In Case Anything Ever Happened. I Learned That Way, And Started Liking It More And More.

Before, It Came Easy For Me. I Don't Have Two Speeds Anymore. I Need To Focus On The Small Things That I Once Took For Granted.

The Problem With Heart Disease Is The First Symptom Is Often Fatal.

I Am Excited To Have The Opportunity To Help Provide The Same Swim Instruction That I Received As A Child When I Was Enrolled In A Water Safety Class At Five-years-old.

I Wanted To Get The Fastest Time In The World This Year, But With Everything Going On, It's A Pretty Decent Swim, ... I Knew I Was Under World Record Pace. You Could Tell By The Crowd. You Can Always Tell At These Meets When Something Good Is Going On Because Of The Crowd.

If You Want To Be The Best You Have To Do Things That Other People Aren't Willing To Do.

Records Are Made To Be Broken.

It Doesn't Matter What Else Is Going On. When You Walk Into Your Arena Or Your - Whatever You Excel At, You're There To Take Care Of The Job That You Have To Do.

One Thing With Me, And Every Goal I've Had - In The Sport Of Swimming, My Mother Didn't Know My Goals. The Only Person That Knew My Goals Were My Coaches.

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