This summer has been a sobering reminder that athletic glory can be fleeting _ even for the most decorated swimmer and overall athlete in Olympic history, Baltimore's Michael Phelps.
On July 24, Kristof Milak of Hungary captured the 200-meter butterfly race at the world swimming championships in Gwangju, South Korea. His winning time of 1 minute, 50.74 seconds edged Phelps' record of 1:51.51 set at the 2009 world championships in Rome.
Two days later, Caeleb Dressel broke Phelps' 100-meter butterfly mark by 0.32 seconds in a time of 49.50 seconds. And two days after that, the American collected his eighth medal of the world championships when he contributed to the national team's silver finish in the 4x100-meter medley relay. Dressel overtook Phelps' record of seven gold medals at the 2007 world championships in Melbourne.
But rather than be dismayed, Phelps sounded proud of the swimmers' achievements in an in-depth interview with The New York Times published Monday.
"It's frustrating that the records didn't last longer, but I love being able to see kids breaking through," he said from the Paradise Valley Country Club in Arizona. "That is awesome. You have to have performances like that in the sport in order to see the sport continue to grow and evolve. If you have records that are completely untouchable, people will be, like, 'Oh my God, why even try?' "
Here are four more takeaways from the article.
