“Went Out the Window”: Michael Phelps’ Wife Gave Up on Her F1 Dream When She Started Dating Swimming Legend

Supporting an athlete’s career comes with sacrifices for the family. The time and emotional commitment to their career can leave little space for much else. Similarly, Michael Phelps’ wife, Nicole Johnson Phelps, gave up her ideal career when they started dating.

The two met at the 2007 ESPY Awards, where Johnson, working with ESPN at the time, became Phelps’ escort. She had originally been more interested in being an F1 correspondent, but the two hit it off and eventually began dating.

Michael Phelps’ wife imagined her career to be different

After Michael Phelps’ record-breaking medal haul at the 2016 Rio Olympics, the swimming GOAT’s wife talked to Cosmopolitan. Nicole gave a lot of insights into their relationship and how she wanted to use her marketing and communications background before she got together with Phelps.

“When I graduated from [the University of Southern California], I expected to be working in the sports field … my dream job would have been reporting on Formula One,” she began. But things didn’t go according to plan once she met her now-husband.

Nicole made some significant changes because of their relationship. She continued, “That went out the window, obviously, when Michael and I started dating — his career essentially came first. I moved to Ann Arbor so we could be together because he was going into Beijing.” 

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But she doesn’t blame anyone else for her decision to hit pause on her career. “I put what I expected to do with my life on hold, but that was all my own decision,” she claimed.

Nicole Phelps found her footing easily in her career

Michael Phelps’ wife made most of her opportunities when she finally pressed play. She wished to return to sports and ended up selling cars for a while. “In terms of using my degree, I started working for YP; I signed on as director of communications. And now I’m volunteering with Michael’s foundation on their marketing side,” she revealed. 

Though Nicole’s relationship with the most decorated Olympian in history pushed the trajectory of her career off-kilter, she found herself satisfied with the result. She concluded, “In a really, really roundabout way, I’m back to where I wanted to be to start.”

As a mother, she claimed that while she would be happy to take up work collaborations on hosting or reporting, it won’t be her priority. Instead, her focus remained on being an exemplary mother to her newborn son, Boomer, and a wife to Phelps. Now, six years later, their family has grown, adding two little boys, Beckett and Maverick, to the family tree.

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