6x Olympic Medalist Who Once Earned Michael Phelps’ Praise Carries The Baton For America On The Top Male Swimmers List

Michael Phelps enthralled the swimming world with his incredible speed and powerful strokes in the pool. One of the most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 Olympic medals. Even after years of his retirement from competitive swimming, his records anchor his dominance in the history books. However, a few newer talents have taken up an eraser to rub his name from the top of swimming champs’ table.

Michael Phelp’s accomplishments kept his hold over the sport firmly intact but there are new athletes who are trying to move away from being under Phelp’s shadow. One such swimmer is Ryan Murphy. The backstroke ace is currently representing the United States of America on the all-time swimmer’s list instead of Phelps. Rather than resist the change, ‘the flying fish’ has happily accepted the tide of time.

Michael Phelps embracing change and making way for Ryan Murphy

As the most consistent backstroke swimmer, Ryan Murphy earned two gold medals in the Rio Olympics. At the same Olympics, he had teamed up with Michael Phelps to bring home the 4×100-meter medley title. After Ryan Murphy’s 2022 World Championships performance, his former teammate sent him a text to congratulate him on his success.

The 6x Olympic medalist was elated when one of his heroes praised him despite losing the 100-backstroke title, saying, “I think Phelps texted me after the meet which I was pumped about”. With this impetus, Murphy once again gave a great performance at the 2023 Fukuoka World Championships. He left Japan with 2 golds, 1 silver, and a bronze. With such dominant performances in the 50, 100, and 200m, he now belongs in second place on the all-time male swimmers list as uploaded on Instagram by Swimming Stats.

Michael Phelps was a versatile swimmer and had many records in multiple distances and disciplines. However, he was absent from this list of male swimmers because he had not posted any timings in recent competitions. Instead, as the Instagram post highlighted, Qin Haiyang has emerged as the new face of swimming in recent days.

Qin Haiyang takes top place on the all-time list

Swimming Stats caption on Instagram revealed Qin Haiyang’s dominance over the swimming world. The caption read, “During the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Qin Haiyang became the first swimmer to ever win gold medals across 50-100-200 events in a single edition. He is also the highest ranked all-time male swimmer across the three distances in the same stroke. These are some male swimmers high ranked in the all-time performers list across 50, 100 and 200 events in the same stroke”. Qin Haiyang also had a clean sweep in the breaststroke titles at the Asian Games. This solidified his position as the top-ranking athlete.

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Now, the Haiyang is competing in the Swimming World Cup 2023. In both the Berlin and Athens meet, Haiyang pulled ahead of the rivals and took the meet trophy. He is poised to win once more in Budapest when the competition resumes. With this level of success, he is confident of winning the Olympics in 2024 and showcasing the same level of swimming prowess as the legendary Michael Phelps.

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