What happened at Michael Phelps' first Olympics final at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney?

Michael Phelps is one of the most famous athletes in the world. He won medal after medal in his prosperous career. The champion swimmer won a total of 28 medals in the Olympics, which includes 23 golds, three silvers, and two bronze medals.

However, Phelps rose to fame when he qualified for the Sydney Olympics in 2000 as a 15-year-old. He was the youngest US Olympics swimmer since Ralph Flanagan, who qualified to represent the US at the 1932 Olympics. Ralph was aged 13 at the time.

In the Olympics trials, Phelps finished second in the 200-meter butterfly behind the 1996 Olympics silver medalist Tom Malchow.

---

Michael Phelps and his first-ever Olympic finals

After reaching Sydney, Michael Phelps stayed with his fellow American Aaron Peirsol. Michael swam his first-round heats at the Sydney Aquatic Center.

He started in lane three and finished with a personal best time of 1:57.30. Phelps easily qualified for the semi-finals and swam the semi-finals the same day.

In the semi-finals, the ace swimmer started in lane five and finished with a time of 1:57.00. This was also a personal best for him as he qualified for the 200-meter butterfly event.

Michael Phelps at the Sydney Olympics (Image via YouTube/Olympics)

On the night of the finals, Bob Bowman (Michael Phelps's coach) wanted Phelps to arrive two-and-a-half hours before the finals. But the 'Flying Fish' was late by 90 minutes because Phelps took his roommate Aaron's athlete credentials by mistake and he had to go back to the Olympic village to fetch his own credentials.

During the introduction of the finals of the 200-meter butterfly, Phelps walked up to his fellow American Tom Malchow in lane four and said to him, "Let's go baby, you can do this".

The 200-meter butterfly event started and Phelps was trying his best in the pool. At one stage, when the swimmers were reaching their 150-meters mark, Phelps was behind all seven competitors.

There wasn't a huge gap, but Phelps was last in the race at the time. The ace swimmer made a comeback in style towards the end and finished fifth with a time of 1:56.50.

Phelps' time of 1:56.50 would've definitely earned him a silver or gold medal at any of the Olympics prior to the Sydney Olympics. But the competition that year was a tough one because Australia's Justin Norris, who was leading in the final 50 meters of the race, could only finish third. He was overtaken by Tom Malchow and Denys Sylantyev of USA and Ukraine.

Michael was appreciated by Malchow after the race. Malchow told Phelps that the best is ahead of him. Even though the ace swimmer couldn't finish in the top three, he was able to fulfil his coach Bowman's pre-Olympic games suggestion. The suggestion was to reduce one second of his personal best.

Bowman asked Phelps to work out in the pool the next day. While the young swimmer was in the pool, Bowman gave him a piece of paper with the words "Austin WR" written in the margin. The following year, Michael Phelps broke the world record in the 200-meter butterfly event during the Spring Nationals in Austin.

Michael Phelps at the Rio Olympics

Since his fifth-place finish at the 200-meter butterfly event finals of the 2000 Olympics, Michael Phelps hasn't looked back. He went on to win a record-breaking 28 Olympic medals, breaking several world records and setting new ones on his way to the top. Michael Phelps retired from competitive swimming post the 2016 Rio Olympics.