Greatest Olympian retires: ‘Got all... Ready to be done’

It's a career that draws more awe than envy. But it's Michael Phelps's retirement plan that can get any suit-clad, Starbucks-carrying high-brow professional from London, or any affluent part of the world, jealous. He'll travel on launch cruises, travel to South African and Australian beaches, and always travel first-class — a nice thought to sleep with at 27.

His goal, Phelps said today, was always to be done with the swimming thing before his third decade in life. "I'd told myself very early in life that I'll never swim at age 30," he said.

"I dunno what I'm feeling right now. I'm just retiring," he earlier declared, minutes after he'd wrapped up his London campaign with six medals, including the 4x100 freestyle gold, a prestige event that the Americans have never lost in Olympic history. That made it 22 medals for Phelps alone, including 18 gold in three Olympics.

Besides, today, he received another honour: a trophy rather than a medal, to sum up a career like no other. "To Michael Phelps," it said, "the greatest Olympic athlete of all time."

There are plenty of things Phelps wants to do with his life now. "Staring at a black line (in the pool) for four hours every single day isn't one of them," he said, without a laugh.

"I couldn't have asked to finish on a better note. I've done everything I wanted to do, have been fortunate to accomplish it all. And I know I'm ready to be done," he insisted, sounding and feeling far more relaxed than he thought he would, by his own admission.

His last competitive swim felt like a "normal swim", Phelps added. And his last prepping ever was watched by 20 lifeguards and volunteers. "It was weird when you think of it, there was nobody in that warm-up pool. Usually you're trying to make your way through the crowd. But I was the last to swim in the warm-up pool," Phelps said.

... contd.

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