"Vulnerability is scary for men especially in sports but in my last ride at Olympics, it almost felt like a superpower"- Michael Phelps

Michael Phelps, who has long been a proponent of talking about mental health in public, has claimed he was in a ‘fight’ mode for most of his career, not letting himself feel emotions. However, after his comeback for the 2016 Rio Olympics, he let himself feel vulnerable and it became his superpower.

Phelps is arguably the greatest swimmer in the history of the sport and there has equally been an insane amount of training behind his 23 Olympic gold medals. According to his coach Bob Bowman, the American swimmer used to swim 13 km a day for at least six days of the week.

The 28-time Olympic medalist once himself said that he went five straight years without missing a single day of training. The 39-year-old now claims that he didn't let himself feel the emotions through those years, always in fight mode as he, like other athletes, didn't want himself to feel vulnerable, a thing he says men are scared of.

Speaking on Need a Lift? with Tim Shrever, Phelps said:

"I think vulnerability is a scary word for a lot of people, particularly for men especially in athletics and sports where competition is almost battle in a way so it's like if you give a little edge to your competitors, it's a sign of weakness. That's how it was throughout the majority of my career."

He continued:

“But I think my last ride at the Olympics, it was completely different. For me it was like, I don't care you all, I'm gonna share and I'm gonna be vulnerable. To me it almost felt like a superpower.”

Phelps added that what separated him from the rest despite being vulnerable was that he was mentally ready to face anything and everything while his competitors weren't. He would eventually prove it, winning five gold medals and a silver in Rio to cap off the greatest Olympics career of all time.

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Before letting himself feel vulnerable, Michael Phelps went through multiple phases of depression

US Open Tennis Championship 2023 - Michael Phelps in attendance (Source: Getty)

Speaking with Today in an interview in 2017 following his retirement, Michael Phelps opened up about his mental health struggles, claiming he didn't want to be alive in 2014.

“I can tell you I’ve probably had at least half a dozen depression spells that I’ve gone through. And the one in 2014, I didn’t want to be alive,” Michael Phelps said.

Phelps added that he had shoved down the negative feelings for his whole life to a point where he didn't feel it. However, following the seriousness of his condition in 2014, things slowly started changing. With some help from his family, he started understanding the importance of feeling vulnerable.

“So for me, I had to learn that vulnerability is a good thing. And it was scary at first, but I learned that vulnerability just means change. And for me it was a great change,” he told Today in May 2024.

The change was more or less visible in Michael Phelps's swimming as well, as he added six medals to his tally at the Rio Olympics to retire as the one of the greatest athletes of all time.