E-mail a friendMichael Phelps
airdate December 11, 2008
On the way to making history with a career total of 14 Olympic gold medals, Michael Phelps changed the sport of swimming. Born and raised in Maryland, he started in the pool at age 7 and, at age 15, became the youngest world-record holder ever. In his recently published memoir, No Limits, the newly-crowned Sports Illustrated "Sportsman of the Year" offers insights gained on his road to success. Phelps has also used his stardom to create a foundation promoting water safety and advocating swimming for children.
Olympic gold medalist talks about his daily routine and gets a surprise visit from Dustin Hoffman. (4:47)
Full interview. (23:00)
Michael Phelps
Tavis: Pleased to welcome Michael Phelps to this program. This summer in Beijing he of course electrified the world by winning a record eight gold medals, eclipsing the mark set by another American swimmer out of Indiana University - go Hoosiers - Mark Spits.
Michael Phelps: (Laughs) Oh, come on. (Laughter) Come on.
Tavis: I went to school there, come on. Last week he was named Sportsman of the Year by "Sports Illustrated." There you see, of course, on the screen the new cover of SI. And now he's out with his new book, "No Limits: The Will to Succeed." What a delight to meet Michael Phelps. Michael.
Phelps: That's why you have the red tie on, for the Hoosiers, right.
Tavis: Yeah, that's my Hoosier tie, my Hoosier (unintelligible).
Phelps: I should have worn (unintelligible) blue, then. (Laughter)
Tavis: I'm glad to have you here, though.
Phelps: Thank you.
Tavis: Let me start by the encounter you had getting to our studio. So Michael, as you all know - you all know his story now; Michael hails from Baltimore and lives there and his mother's a principal there, we all know that back story - so he's not used to hanging out in L.A. too often. So on his way to the studio we welcomed him to L.A. by having him trailed through the streets by paparazzi.
Phelps: Yeah, two guys - two cars trailing us the whole way -
Tavis: Just following you around.
Phelps: - from the book signings, yeah.
Tavis: And that felt like what?
Phelps: It's different. It's weird. I was, like, turning around the whole time, watching them (laughter) weaving in and out of traffic and cutting people off and taking left-hand turns and almost getting in accidents. It was funny - it was funny for me to just watch, but yeah it's -
Tavis: That's amazing, man.
Phelps: It's a crazy lifestyle.
Tavis: Yeah, only in Los Angeles.
Phelps: That's right.
Tavis: Congrats on the book.
Phelps: Thank you.
Tavis: I want to start by talking, if I can, about how you built your confidence. We all know your exploits, but that confidence thing is amazing to me, and you talk in the book and you've talked before, and very courageously and very openly, about how you were teased as a child, because there's so many kids who are inspired by you.
You were teased about your ears, you were teased about the lisp, you were teased about a number of things, to say nothing about the older sisters and you're the baby boy. How do you build confidence in a world where kids can be very cruel?
Phelps: Well, I just remember in middle school we were playing volleyball in gym class, kicks flicking my ear. I remember in elementary school I'd have my hat thrown off the bus or I'd get made fun of. I used to always - the cool kids would always try to sit in the back, so I used to always try to sit in the back of the bus and could never do that, and if I tried to, that's when my hat would get thrown out the window.
I remember yeah, it wasn't fun at the time but I think once I started getting into middle school, I was taking - ADHD, I was taking Ritalin, had had ADHD, and in middle school I said to my mom, "I don't want to take this anymore, I can do this on my own." And I think with swimming I found something where I can sort of - the aggression that I had, I can take it out in the pool.
And I learned, as I got older and older, that I can have focus in anything that I do, and I learned that from swimming and making the decision to get off of Ritalin and try to do it all on my own. And I was confident that I could do it, and once I was able to do that, that it was kind of easy from there.
Tavis: I don't want to turn you into a physician or some sort of pop psychologist, but as you well know, given that you've lived this, there is a huge debate in this country about whether or not we overmedicate our kids. And for every trauma, every setback, every obstacle a kid has, there is some medication that they will recommend to you for that child. Do you have any thoughts at all about this notion of overmedication of kids?
Phelps: I think your mind is the strongest medication that you have. Your mind is the most powerful thing you can have, and you can overpower and overcome anything if you think you can and if you want to, and I've grown up, yes, being teased, yes, being told I couldn't do things. I remember I had a middle school teacher tell me I'd never be successful in anything that I did.
And it's things like that where you're like, I'm going to prove them wrong. Like, whatever - they can think whatever they want, but I know what I can really do and I know what I want to do, and nothing's going to stand in my way. So that's why I've gotten to where I am today - I haven't let anything stand in my way, I haven't listened to the trash other people say about me or what they think about me. I'm my own individual and I have goals and things that I want to accomplish, and I'm going to do whatever I can to get there.
Tavis: Tell me about your mother and more expressly about your relationship and how it developed. And I ask that, again, because we all know you and your mother are very close; your father left home when you were young. And we watch the Olympics, we see parents up in the stands, cheering, but there is a particular special and unique bond, I think, between you and your mother. Tell me about how that came to be.
Phelps: I think obviously without her, none of this is possible. She raised me and my sister single-handedly from seven on, from when I was seven on, and we saw she was a teacher, then went to vice principal and now principal, and she was also going to get her master's and she was doing all of that while making sure we had a roof to stay under, clothes on our back, food on the table - whatever we needed, we got.
And we saw how hard she worked and how hard she works still, and we sort of tried to base ourselves off of what she does, because we see how much determination she has for changing children's lives in the classroom, and we work just as hard as she does with the things that we're very passionate about.
And there's not enough in the world that I could give her, repay her for everything that she's done for me. I can't even put it into words, what she's done for me and how she's helped me get to where I am.
Tavis: I don't know if you had any of these feelings, and this is not about me, it's about you, but your comment now makes me think about my own family. There are 10 kids in my family - my mother and father had six kids, they adopted four kids from my mother's sister, who was murdered, so we took those four kids and so there were 10 kids in my family. And my father was an Air Force officer; he just retired some years ago.
He was an Air Force officer but wasn't making much money in the Air Force, and I recall when I graduated college from Indiana University, go Hoosiers (laughter) -
Phelps: (Unintelligible.) Jeez.
Tavis: When I graduated IU, Michael, and I came to L.A., my very first job I made more money in my first job out of college than my father was making after all these years in the Air Force, and there was a feeling of guilt that came over me because my father was the hardest-working person I'd ever met. Without him, to your mother's point, I wouldn't be here, et cetera, et cetera.
And I had a feeling of guilt about doing so well, and all this acclaim and adulation and this, that, and the other, when my father was the guy that made it all possible, and I was outstripping him on my very first paycheck. Any feeling of, not guilt with a capital "G," but with a small "G?"
Phelps: I think it's weird that I've never heard that question, actually. But with what my mom has done for me, I'm always giving back to her - whatever it is. I offered to help her pay off her house, I've - I remember her first car that I bought her, she was, like, "My car is not working too well," and I was, like, "Well, let's go trade it in, let's get you a new car." And she was like, "You don't have to do that."
So we went shopping and I was like, "What do you like? What interests you?" And she'd be like, "Oh, this one's nice." So I would take her car and just do it all and then bring her car home, and she'd be like, "Oh, you didn't have to do that." (Laughter) I'm like "Mom, it's not a big deal. With all you've done for me, this is the least I can do."
Tavis: Tell me about your love for the city of Baltimore. We all know you bought the flat, you bought the nice house - you ain't been home to decorate it, I hear.
Phelps: (Laughs) Not yet.
Tavis: But you bought a new place in Baltimore. You got all this money, all this fame, and you went right back to Baltimore. I'm told you're going to train in Baltimore for the Olympics four years from now. Tell me about your love affair with Baltimore.
Phelps: Baltimore is where I grew up, where I was born, and I think with me it's when I have a love for it, I can tell a love for something right off the bat. It's just like a car - if you find a love for a car when you drive it, you're going to get that car. If you walk into a house and if you find a love for the house, you're like okay, I have to have this house.
It's the same thing - I have that love for Baltimore, where it's just like the people are awesome, the city is awesome, the restaurants, the sports teams - everything about that city I absolutely love.
Tavis: It's such a blue-collar city, though.
Phelps: Oh, it's awesome - I love it. And being back close to my family, my sisters, and my one sister has two kids, so being close to my niece and nephew, that's one of the things. I wanted to go back to my own city, I wanted to be back to my hometown, and I wanted to sort of relax there and start the next part of my life in Baltimore.
Tavis: And L'il Wayne and Young Jeezy?
Phelps: Yeah. I'm a huge hip-hop fan. (Laughter) Huge hip-hop fan. I just heard -
Tavis: A White guy in Baltimore, a huge hip-hop fan. I love it. This is all wrong.
Phelps: I just heard the new - there's a new (unintelligible) song, and (unintelligible) gives me a shout in it, so it's funny just hearing those songs, hearing - I've heard a Jeezy song, and he does it, too, so it's funny. It's something that when I listen to it behind the blocks, it puts me in the zone and just gets me to focus more.
Tavis: For those who don't know this part of the story, we've talked about everything except how you got into the water. How'd you get into the pool?
Phelps: My mom put all of us, me and my sisters, in the water for water safety, and that was the only reason I started swimming. And my sisters' careers were both (unintelligible) 10 years, and I'm working on, what, is it 14, 15 years? So I've been in the water for a while, so it's just something we fell in love with, just wanted to do it just so if we were ever in trouble in the water we're able to get out of it, we're able to swim to safety or help somebody else if we could.
This is a sport that, like I said, I fell in love with it at a very young age and started having goals and wanted to make the Olympic team and wanted to break a world record, wanted to turn professional, and then everything sort of paid off along the road and here I am today.
I've been able to accomplish a lifetime dream and goal that I had this summer to do something that no one else has ever done in the sport, and it's just hard work and determination that really brought me here.
Tavis: Was there a moment - and I went searching for this in the books; I'll let you tell the story - was there a moment, an incident, a time that you recall where you figured that you would go into this professionally? Where you thought I'm good enough at this, I now like this enough to turn the corner and really pursue this, and I'm not into it any longer just for safety reasons?
Phelps: Well, when I first started I was afraid to put my face in the water, so that was something -
Tavis: Which is always funny when I see you in the pool now. This guy was afraid to put his face in the water. (Laughter)
Phelps: So I started on my back, doing the backstroke, and then finally I just got over my fear and I was like, "You know what? I'm just going to put my face in the water. It can't be that bad. I'll just go through it, go through the pain, whatever it is, and get over it."
But growing up I was very competitive - I still hate to lose, still very competitive - and when I was 11 years old I got with the coach who I'm with now, Bob Bowman, and he said to me, and I was 11, in '96, that if I wanted to make the Olympic team in four years, in 2000, I could as a 15-year-old. And I was like, "Okay, that sounds kind of cool - all right. I'll stop playing all of my other sports."
I was playing baseball, lacrosse, soccer, and swimming all at the same time. I was like, "I'll stop all my other sports, focus on swimming, and see if I can make the Olympic team in four years." And sure enough, four years later, I made my first Olympic team. I was fifth. And then six months later after that I broke my first world record, and I knew right then that something special was going to happen, and I'd have the possibility of turning professional, getting one part of my big dream, big goal, knocked off the goal list, and then I can start focusing on something else.
So I signed my first professional contract at 15 - I think 15 and nine months, so from there it's just been the best time.
Tavis: To the Games this summer now that we all, of course, watched - the most-watched Games ever - I'm trying to understand your mental process as the country and the world are watching you win one gold medal, two gold medals, three gold medals. Talk to me about your focus, your process. You knew what everybody was waiting for; you knew we were watching to see if you were going to break this Spitz record. Take me back to your mental process - how do you stay focused as you're winning one at a time?
Phelps: Well, I start with one. I started with my first one (unintelligible) and once I got that one checked off the goal list it's almost like I just throw it over my shoulder, just put it behind me and move to the next one, and I just keep moving on. I just put the races behind me, keep moving them farther and farther behind me, and then once I get - I guess there was one part where it was after my 15th swim of the Olympics, I had two swims left, and I remember saying to my coach, I said, "I got nothing left."
And he was like, "Well, I know you can do these next two races." And I went back to the village, tried to get as much rest as I could, eat as much as I could, recover as much as I could, and then that was the 100 flat was the next day, where I won by 1/100th, and once I got through there it was a lot of pressure, a lot of relief was off my shoulders.
And the 400 medley relay, we've never lost on international competition, and we were all excited to go into the last race and see what could happen, and we wanted to break a world record in the last race, but once I'm going through my races I know what I have to do.
I go through a certain routine once I get to the pool. I get to the pool, I stretch, I get into the water an hour and a half before my race, and then swim for about a half-hour, 40 minutes, get out, and then a half an hour before my race I get back into the water for about five or 10 minutes, get out, walk up to the blocks, swim, come back, walk through the mix zone and the press, jump in the pool, warm down, put some protein and my drink, Pure Sport, into my system, and then get a massage, and then I'm out. (Laughter)
Go back to the village, eat, sleep, and get up and do it again. That's every single session, every single race, that's my exact routine.
Tavis: If I put you on the spot right now and ask you to give me the order that you won the eight in, could you do it?
Phelps: Yeah.
Tavis: Do it.
Phelps: Number one was?
Phelps: (Unintelligible.) Two is 400 free relay, three was 200 free, four was 200 fly, five was (unintelligible) relay, six was (unintelligible), seven 100 fly (unintelligible) and then eighth was four by one medley relay.
Tavis: I wish I had a medal to give you for that. (Laughter)
Phelps: I went through it - I went through all 17 swims. It's something I'm not going to forget.
Tavis: Yeah, I'm just amazed you can remember all eight in the order that they happened. What did you make of - obviously you pulled this off, but what did you make of - you're a very competitive person, but when the story starts to build about Phelps and Spitz, what do you make of that story, the comparisons being made and the hype around that?
Phelps: With being compared to the greatest single performance in Olympic history and by far the greatest performance in swimming history, before everything happened, just being in that comparison, being compared to some of the greatest Olympians of all time and the greatest Olympian of all time, it's an honor for me.
But a goal of mine was not to become the second Mark Spitz but to become the first Michael Phelps, and do something that no one else has ever done before. And that's what I always wanted to do and I thought I could do it and I believed in myself, and I used my imagination for goals that I had. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, I knew there were going to be some close ones and some nail biters and some close relay races, some close individual races, but I was confident that I had done everything that I needed to do and going to the Olympics, I knew there was nothing I could change.
Tavis: What do you think the byproduct has been for the sport of swimming, given what you've pulled off this summer?
Phelps: Really trying to raise the bar in the sport of swimming and take it to a new level is something that I've always wanted to do. I still remember when I first met with my agent he said, "What do you want me to do for you?" And I said, "Help me change the sport." And we -
Tavis: So you knew this early on.
Phelps: It's something I wanted to do early on.
Tavis: And change it in what way? What did you know you wanted to accomplish?
Phelps: Kind of - I don't want to say make it more - well, I kind of do. I want to make it more of a mainstream sport, make it more of an every-year sport, an everyday sport, where people are interested in what we're doing. And it's not easy competing with the NFL and -
Tavis: Basketball.
Phelps: Yeah, and Major League Baseball and hockey and (unintelligible). But it's something that I thought we could do and I thought was possible, and just recently NBC has picked up world championships this summer, nationals the next summer, and the world championships before the Olympics, so you can already see that we're trying to make it an every-year sport where people can see what we're doing and how we're doing it and be interested.
And I can't tell you how satisfying it is to hear people when I walk down the street or people when I'm doing media like at a press conference or something, they'll be like, "I've never watched the Olympics as much as I've watched this summer," and it just shows that it is changing and people are starting to get more involved in what we're doing.
And that's not only going to make it better for us, but it's going to make it better for the people that are going to follow us and come in our footsteps. So that's something that I've always wanted to do, and it's starting to really change.
Tavis: I got a phone call from a young lady named Starlene. She's a high school swimmer down in Texas, a big fan of yours, and said, "Will you please ask -" when she saw you were coming on the show, "Will you please ask Michael Phelps to tell me about his regimen, his physical regimen? What do you eat? You went through it real fast, talking about your sleep, how much you sleep, what you eat, how do you exercise. Give me your regimen.
Phelps: When I'm training, in the morning I get up and it depends on what I'm feeling like in the morning, but either I'll cram a Power bar or like a bagel or like Pop Tarts or something - just quick and easy in my system before I work out, go work out, come back, have a big breakfast. Eggs, cereal, whatever I feel like eating. When I'm - (laughter).
Tavis: Do you know who this is? Can you see this?
Phelps: Oh my god. (Laughter)
Tavis: That's Dustin Hoffman.
Phelps: He looked familiar as soon as he took a breath. (Laughter) I was like -
Dustin Hoffman: Did it work?
Tavis: Hey Dustin, come here. Just come here, just come here.
Hoffman: (Unintelligible.)
Tavis: Just come here, no, just -
Hoffman: (Unintelligible.)
Tavis: Dustin Hoffman, Michael Phelps.
Hoffman: We've met - how are you?
Phelps: Yeah, how are you? Good, good.
Hoffman: Nuts.
Tavis: How are you, sir?
Hoffman: How are you?
Tavis: Have a seat on the edge of that chair right there for a second, Dustin. Just sit on the edge there. How are you?
Hoffman: I'm good.
Tavis: Did you watch the Olympics this summer?
Hoffman: No. (Laughter) When was it?
Tavis: This guy won eight gold medals this summer.
Hoffman: That, I know. That, I know.
Tavis: Do you swim?
Hoffman: No. Do you teach?
Phelps: I do. A friend of mine - when we were in Baltimore Sunday I went to the game and a friend of mine after the game, Ray Louis, goes, "Can you teach me how to swim?" I was like, "Come on, I'll put you in the water, I'll teach you how to swim. That's no problem."
Tavis: So is it true, can brothers swim as well as White guys can?
Phelps: Anybody can swim.
Hoffman: No, that's not what I heard.
Tavis: That's not - (laughter).
Hoffman: That's not what I heard.
Tavis: I'm just asking.
Phelps: Colin swam - Colin Jones.
Tavis: Yeah, that's true.
Phelps: Olympic gold medalist, world record holder, so anything can happen.
Tavis: So if I do the regimen that you do, does it mean that I'm going to be a -
Phelps: You've got to start a little slower first. You've got to start a little slower.
Tavis: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (Laughter)
Phelps: But you can build your way up to it.
Tavis: Yeah.
Phelps: Very interesting story - this guy today, when I was signing today in Westwood, this guy came up to me and said, "Ever since the Olympic stopped I started swimming, and I've lost 50 pounds since the Olympics," and I couldn't believe - that's impressive. Fifty pounds in four months.
Tavis: That's better than Jared at Subway's.
Phelps: He said he's been swimming two hours every day but one since the Olympics and he's lost 50 pounds in four months.
Tavis: Wow.
Phelps: I was pretty impressed - that's an amazing job. So it just shows what kind of exercise swimming is.
Tavis: I'd better start swimming, then. That's the answer.
Hoffman: How much weight do you lose in a day when you're -
Phelps: I think they said -
Hoffman: - in the Olympics?
Phelps: I think I said I burn, when I'm training, I work out anywhere from four to six hours a day in the water and then do about an hour of weights. I burn about 4,000 calories a day.
Hoffman: And what about during the Olympics, because you're -
Phelps: Oh, I definitely lost weight, because all the - I figure my Olympic eight days was about a week and a half worth of actual training. Like what I did in that eight days I could do in a week and a half, if I was really just practicing, just because everything I was going through, how my body was feeling, the warm-up, warm-down races, all the recovery. Almost every day I was sitting in an ice bath for five or 10 minutes. So there's a lot of recovery and a lot of preparation that went into it.
Tavis: So when you lose weight in the pool, you don't lose stamina.
Phelps: No. I can fluctuate between five and 10 pounds in a week, but -
Tavis: In a week?
Phelps: Yeah. It's hard for me to keep weight on. I've never been over 200 pounds, and I've put on seven pounds in four months, so.
Tavis: I know a lot of women in Hollywood who would love to know that regimen. (Laughter) Five or 10 pounds in a week - you could make some money out here. That's Dustin Hoffman, who will be here in January to kick off our sixth season. He just happened to be around here, so he came by to see us.
Hoffman: I swam here.
Tavis: Yeah, he swam here, he said. (Laughter)
Phelps: That's a long swim, you must be tired.
Tavis: You'll see Dustin -
Phelps: (Unintelligible.)
Hoffman: I've lost 10 pounds. (Laughter)
Tavis: This is why I love my job. So Dustin Hoffman - tune in in January, you'll see him. This guy, of course, Michael Phelps, Olympic gold medalist eight times this summer. His new book is called "No Limits: The Will to Succeed." Michael, congratulations.
Phelps: Thank you very much.
Tavis: Glad to have you come on.
Phelps: Thank you for letting me come on.
Tavis: My pleasure. And Dustin, I'll see you in January.
Hoffman: Okay.
Tavis: Stay there, stay there.
Hoffman: One question - I want to ask him one question.
Tavis: Hold on, man. That's our show for tonight.
Hoffman: Oh, that's it.
Back to December 11, 2008