RIO DE JANEIRO _ In his younger days, Michael Phelps pushed down his emotions each time he heard "The Star-Spangled Banner" after winning an Olympic gold medal.
But at these 2016 Games, which Phelps swears will be his last, he has allowed feelings and memories from his five Olympics to wash over him each time he climbs the medal stand. He's shared his tears and his laughter with the world, a sure sign that in his mind, his career is coming to an end.
"It's wild to think that over 20 years ago, I learned to swim and I'll be stopping, competition-wise, in the next 48 hours," he said after his resounding win in the 200-meter individual medley Thursday. "It's crazy to think about some of that stuff, but it's also cool, because I've been able to do everything I ever wanted, and it all started just as a kid who wasn't afraid."
Going into the Olympics, Phelps said his most fervent wish was to create a satisfying ending to his career before moving on with the rest of his life. He has done that in every way imaginable, pushing his career record for gold medals to a point even he never thought possible and doing so with a joy he could not find four years ago in London.
Phelps has been so brilliant that he's already hearing the question he'll be asked over the next four years: If he's still this good, why stop?
"I've actually said those words to him, and hopefully, he didn't hear me," said his coach of 20 years, Bob Bowman. "I just don't see it happening. He's in such a good place personally that he doesn't need it. At some point it's just other people need to step up."
If this really is the end for Phelps the swimmer, as he has suggested many times over the last week, he's going out with arguably the greatest exclamation point in Olympic history. It's an ending that could go down with the best in sports history _ Ted Williams hitting a home run in his last at-bat or Jim Brown walking away from the NFL after winning the rushing title.
From the charge he threw into the U.S. team with his relay leg on the second night of competition to his convincing beatdown of young rival Chad le Clos to his masterful swim in the 200 IM, the 31-year-old Phelps has been about as good as he ever was.
"Nothing surprises me anymore with that guy," said his friend and in-pool antagonist, Ryan Lochte. "He's a phenom. It's unbelievable."
Since he was a teenager, Phelps has said he wanted to leave his sport fundamentally changed. Certainly, his week in Rio demonstrated the unique power he holds among Olympic swimmers.
Fellow athletes selected him to carry the American flag into the opening ceremony, just the second swimmer ever to do so.
He set off an international discussion about the medical legitimacy of cupping therapy after viewers noticed the round, purple bruises on his back and shoulders.
The competitive fury he flashed at le Clos became an internet sensation, fueled by the release of an emoji figure from Phelps' own app.
He helped frame the increasingly harsh public assessment of doping enforcement in the Olympics, saying, "I wish somebody would do something about it."
