An athlete who has worked hard like Michael Phelps deserves respect for his achievements. It is difficult to go through rigorous training methods most days of the year, repeating the same routines to achieve goals. Thus, Phelps did it the hard way. Ever since he fell in love with the sport, the trajectory was skyrocketing to the next level. The proverb ‘No pain, No gain’ suits perfectly for him, as he did sacrifice a lot of things.
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But if you ask him whether he will do it again, the answer will probably be a yes. He once recalled a person who came up to him and asked whether he regrets winning medals. Any guesses about his answer?
Michael Phelps winning mentality
What it takes to win, that too on such a consistent basis, takes some winning mentality, and a lot of other things. “For me, I think the biggest thing is the sacrifices that I made in training. I did things differently than other people who didn’t train. I worked harder than they did,” said Phelps.
Sacrifices are tremendously tough and sometimes necessary for reaching one’s goal. Phelps knew what he got into from day one. Thus, he was surprised when a person came up to him and asked a question that shocked him; and that is whether winning medals was worth it?
“Somebody asked me the other day, they said, ‘Do you feel bad about winning medals?’ and I looked at him and like ‘huh’? like ‘no, not one bit.’ That’s why I went to practice every day. That’s why I worked as hard as I did every day because I didn’t want anybody to beat me,” mentioned Phelps, who looked surprised at the question.
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Winning medals for life
It is just a testament to his work to become the best in the world of swimming. Talking about medals, it probably would be a count that no one can match. If we combine the total medals tally from his Olympic Games and FINA competitions, he won a total of 94 medals, out of which 69 are gold, 16 silver, and nine bronze medals. That’s just too precious to leave out.
Sacrificing so much and training hard to become the best in the sport is no easy feat. For young swimmers who come through the ranks, Michael Phelps is the benchmark they look up to. For his achievements in the pool, no one can replace him. Do you think he would sacrifice his medals?
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