“I just got numbed by it” - When Michael Phelps spoke about the pressure to act 'grown-up' and suppress emotions amid seasoned competition

Michael Phelps once opened up on suppressing his emotions to cope with the pressure of competing against experienced athletes. Notably, Phelps was just 15 when he appeared in his first-ever Olympics at the 2000 Sydney Games.

During an interview with brucedennill.co.za, taken to capture Phelps’ stance on The Weight of Gold documentary released in 2020, the retired swimmer opened up about how entering the competitive swimming world at such a young age affected him, having the pressure to act as an adult while still being a teenager, saying:

“It’s difficult to start a journey at such a young age when you miss so much of your developmental stages. I was 15 and thrown into a world where I was competing with 30-year-old men and expected to not be a 15-year-old kid, but a grown-up. At some point, I just got numbed by it all. You train yourself to not pay attention to how you feel, and before too long you are blindsided by it all.”

The 39-year-old went on to explain how showing emotions was seen as a sign of weakness. As a result, he only began to open up about his mental health struggles just a few years before his retirement from swimming, adding:

“And if you do show emotions, you are showing your competitors weakness. I could not show that part of myself until the last two years of my career, when I got to the point where I really didn’t care what people thought about me. It was at that point that I opened up and decided to talk about the struggles I’d been going through.”

Since his retirement in 2016 following the conclusion of the Rio Olympics, Michael Phelps has actively involved himself in speaking about mental health issues.

When Michael Phelps reflected on hectic schedule that helped him achieve his Olympic dreams

Michael Phelps at Rio Olympics 2016 (Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images)

During a virtual event hosted by Panasonic in July 2021, Michael Phelps opened up on the importance of having a dream to drive one's career. He shared:

“I think it's important to have a dream because that's what's going to drive you. That's what's going to help you. It's going to motivate you to get out of bed every single day. I had these dreams of being an Olympic swimmer, a world record holder.” [via olympics.com]

However, Phelps further mentioned how achievements don’t come easy to a person by giving his own example of how he had to train without breaks during holidays to accomplish his long-term goals.

“We went five or six years without missing a single day. 365 days. No days off, no birthday, no Christmas. We were in the water every single day. I was willing to do anything, anything it took to have that chance,” he added.

Phelps concluded his competitive swimming career as the most decorated Olympian in the Summer Games’ history, with 28 overall medals, including 23 gold.