"Felt that I wanted to do the training my way and not listen to what my coach was saying"- When Michael Phelps recalled defeats that kept him going

In 2017, Michael Phelps opened up about the failures of his decorated career that pushed him to become his best version. The 38-year-old shared about two of his defeats in reputed championships, that made him realize his mistake and provided him valuable lessons that he carried for the rest of his career.

23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps is widely celebrated as the most decorated swimmer of all time. Over the years, the Baltimore Bullet has collected a total of 33 medals at the World Aquatics Championships and 28 Olympic medals. However, the journey was not a smooth one for Phelps.

In 2018, Michael Phelps revealed his failure at winning the gold medal in the 200m fly at the 2002 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Yokohama, Japan. He also mentioned a similar experience in the 200m butterfly race at the 2012 London Olympics.

In the 200m butterfly race in 2002, Phelps lost to Tom Malchow, finishing behind him 1:55.41 to 1:55.21. As a result, the young swimmer had to end up with a silver medal. Remembering that race, Phelps told Dubai Eye 103.8 Sport,

“I got beaten the 200m fly because I felt that I wanted to do the training my way and not listen to what my coach was saying so that was a good learning experience for me earlier in my career just to trust my coach more”

Furthermore, Phelps talked about the 200m butterfly race at the 2012 London Olympics. In that race, the Baltimore Bullet came second within a time span of 1:53.01. He was behind South Africa's Chad le Clos by 5/100ths of a second.

The legendary swimmer shared about that experience and said,

"I mean I didn't watch that race for two or three years because it just *** it me off to be honest like because I mean what I did cost me the race you know missing my third turn cost me the race not going to work out when I should have cost me that race so it was my fault and I got what I deserved."

Lastly, Phelps concluded that he silenced himself after experiencing defeats. It lingered in his mind while training and he kept replaying it in his imagination. Phelps practiced harder because he hated the feeling of defeat and did not want to experience it further in his life.

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The incident that pushed Michael Phelps to break the world record

Michael Phelps at 2000 Sydney Olympics

In 2000, Michael Phelps made his Olympic debut but finished fifth in the 200m butterfly. The young swimmer’s timing was 1:56.50 and he was left behind by his competitors, Tom Malchow, Ukraine's Denys Sylantyev, and Australia's Justin Norris.

Moreover, the Olympic authorities handed him a piece of paper that said, ‘Congratulations.”

It was not something that Michael Phelps wanted. However, his coach Bob Bowman handed him another piece of paper the next day during training. It read “WR - World Record,” inficating that he wanted Phelps to break the world record in the upcoming championship.

Six months later, Phelps broke the 200m butterfly world record at the 2001 World Championships.