MICHAEL PHELPS
For most of his solid-gold life, Michael Phelps saw himself in much the same way as the outside world did.
“I saw myself as a swimmer and nothing else,” he says. “I didn’t know who I really was. And neither did anybody else. At the age of 30, I found myself. And I decided I wanted to show the world not Michael Phelps the swimmer, but who I really was.”
Phelps is 32, and he wants the world to see him as husband, father and, yes, history’s most decorated Olympian — but also as a depression sufferer. “It’s good for athletes to be open about who they are and for people to see we’re far from perfect,” Phelps says. “We’re not gods. I’m human like everybody else.”
After opening up about his issues, he found he could help others while helping himself. “Once I started talking about my struggles outside the pool, the healthier I felt,” he says. “Now I have kids and adults come up to me and say they were able to open up because I was open about my life.” Phelps retired after the 2012 Summer Games in London — or so he said — but ended up coming back for a last hurrah in Rio in 2016, this time with his infant son, Boomer, and his newlywed wife, Nicole, to cheer him on. Now he swears he’s really retired. And he doesn’t have to worry about what’s next; his calling as an advocate for mental health found him. “My talent was in the swimming pool, but it’s led me to something else in life,” Phelps says. “It’s a duty. It’s an honor to talk about mental health. But I’m really just being my authentic self, sharing my story.”