The Olympian GOAT Michael Phelps has no doubt had an impact on swimming and the Olympic world in general. With a whopping 28 medals (23 of them gold), Phelps has ten more medals than Larisa Latynina, who was the former record holder for the most medals won in an Olympic career. Over his career, Phelps has set 39 world records, has more Olympic gold medals than 108 countries (Time Magazine), and has changed the sport of swimming.

Besides his obvious noteworthy athletic achievements, Phelps represents an athlete dedicated to his craft. Swimming is ‘basically’ an individual sport- there are relays, but when you’re at a practice swimming thousands of yards or meters, head down and staring at the black line at the bottoms of the pool for hours, you’re alone with your thoughts. The only thing there is, is how hard you’re working out- there are no scrimmages, no plays to run, no teammates to count on, only you, working hard for hours. And this goes on every day, often twice a day, for as long as your swimming career lasts. To be at the elite level that Michael Phelps was at for 16+ years takes an extremely high amount of dedication and focus.

Of course I respect and admire the amount of work and dedication Phelps has put in (being a swimmer myself, I know how difficult the sport can be), but there are many athletes that are on an elite level as well. However, what I think makes Michael Phelps a respectable athlete is his ability to take accountability for his mistakes.

Everybody makes mistakes- it’s part of being human. When we see admirable athletes doing things we see as out of character, though, we somehow forget that they are human too, and they are managing something not common to most people. Phelps has made mistakes too; having been caught smoking and charged with two DUIs. While I do not condone these actions, unlike many athletes we see today who lie, blame someone or something else, sue, or anything of the like, Phelps immediately took accountability for his actions and faced the consequences- both legal and social. This counts for something.

Phelps’ may not be the perfect athlete or human we want him to be, but I believe that his quickness to take responsibility for the mistakes he makes contributes to him being a praiseworthy athlete. It teaches us that everyone, regardless of status, slips up at one point or another, but that we can be forgiven by owning up to what we’ve done. Accountability teaches us that we should always seek to learn from our mistakes and continue to develop good character. Michael Phelps is an example of someone who falls and is able to gracefully get back up.