"I was uncomfortable in my stomach" - When Michael Phelps recalled how childhood coach helped him overcome fear of swimming

28-time Olympic medalist Michael Phelps once opened up about his childhood coach, Cathy Bennett, who helped him overcome his fear of swimming. Bennett was the mentor of Phelps during the swimmer's early days in the world of swimming.

Notably, Bennett has also been associated with the Michael Phelps Foundation, which the American swimmer founded back in 2008. Bennett is currently the program director of the organization, and her job includes working with the children associated with it.

In an interview in May 2022, Phelps shed light on the impact that Cathy Bennett had in his career. The Baltimore native stated that as a child, he was afraid to go into the water, which Bennett figured out was because of Phelps's issue with his stomach. Owing to this, Bennett advised Phelps to flip on his back to eliminate this uncomfortableness. He said (via WHOOP, 2:09 onwards)

"I can go back to probably not wanting to to put my face into the water, when I first learned to swim, Miss Kathy who first taught me to swim, who does all of my learn to swim for my foundation found that I was uncomfortable in my stomach. I was afraid of my stomach so she kind of just flipped me on my back and when I overcame that fear, I just threw my face into the water."

Besides, Kathy Bennett, Phelps' longtime coach Bob Bowman is also among the board members of his foundation.

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Olympic gold medal winning swimmer Adam Peaty recalls an incident involving Michael Phelps

Michael Phelps at the 2025 SheBelives Cup match between the United States and Australia (Image via: Getty Images)

British swimmer Adam Peaty recently revealed an incident involving the 28-time Olympic medalist Michael Phelps. Peaty is a three-time Olympic gold medalist and has two 100m breaststroke gold medals.

Peaty revealed that he had asked Phelps whether he should compete at the 2028 quadrennial games in Los Angeles. In reply to this, Phelps advised Peaty to listen to his heart. Peaty said (via Olympics.com):

"I said, you've retired two times, what did it take to bring you back because I'm in the situation now whether I go for LA. And he goes, basically forget all the bull, what does your heart tell you?"

Peaty and Phelps competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where the former bagged a gold and silver medal. The latter, on the other hand, ended his quadrennial events journey in Rio with five gold medals and a silver medal.