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# Olympian Michael Phelps on Retirement, the Butterfly and Athlete Activism

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/4LgWjH4o.m3u8" -->
## Video: Olympian Michael Phelps on Retirement, the Butterfly and Athlete Activism

[Watch (HLS stream): Olympian Michael Phelps on Retirement, the Butterfly and Athlete Activism](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/4LgWjH4o.m3u8) (1:23)

![Olympian Michael Phelps on Retirement, the Butterfly and Athlete Activism](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/4LgWjH4o/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2018-09-20. Since leaving competitive swimming after the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janiero, Phelps has been enjoying retirement in Arizona with his wife Nicole and sons Boomer and Beckett, seven months. He’s also become an advocate for water conservation and menta_


---

Jul 28, 2023 4:19 AM UTC

---

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### Michael Phelps: How Boxing Makes You a Better Swimmer

---


## Transcript

So as a kid growing up, obviously I wanted to be an Olympian. I wanted to go represent my country, win a gold medal, break a world record. And having that done, I then had a platform to be able to stand up and talk about things that I believe in, and things I wanna see change in. For me, I know there are probably a lot of people out in the world that are struggling the same exact way that I do still struggle, and have struggled. I was so used to just compartmentalizing everything, and being an athlete I'm supposed to be this strong person that doesn't have a weakness, or doesn't have this or that.

I'm probably gonna have more depression spells down the road, I'm probably gonna struggle with them Like I have in the past. And I'm gonna stand up and talk about the things that I've gone through and I've experienced. I probably am in the water two or three days a week, not much, not long. It's basically really an escape to get away and let go of whatever I need to let go of. Being able to watch Boon as he is now, kind of get to that point where he's getting ready to start kind of crawling. We're loving it, we're absolutely loving it. Kick, kick, kick. The other day he had his floaties on, we were in there, and he points to me and goes like this.

And then does like this, and I was like you want me to swim butterfly, and he's like and then I have to do a couple laps and then that's it. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

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