A lot can change in four years, but legendary U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps is Olympic-bound yet again after winning the 200-meter butterfly at the U.S. swimming trials in Omaha, Nebraska Wednesday night. The win will send Phelps to Rio for the 2016 Summer Games and also makes him the first male swimmer in history to qualify for five Olympic Games.
It’s been quite the journey for Phelps since he won four gold medals and two silver medals at the 2012 Games in London. Since then he’s retired, come back, and then been kicked off the national team after he was arrested for a DUI in Baltimore. Following his second DUI, he entered rehab and is now engaged to be married and a father of a 7-week-old son who was on hand to witness Phelps’ latest victory in the pool.
Phelps’ winning time of 1:54.84 pales in comparison to the 1:51.51 world record he set in 2009, but that time was achieved while wearing a high-tech full-body swimsuit that has since been banned in international competition. With the win at qualifiers, Phelps joins Dara Torres as the only Olympian to compete in five Olympics Games; Torres qualified for five separate Olympics between 1984 and 2008.
Rio will be Phelps’ fifth-consecutive Summer Games after qualifying for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney as just a 15-year-old. There, as the youngest American swimmer since 1932, Phelps finished fifth in the same 200-meter butterfly he won Wednesday night. Now, 16 years later, 31-year-old Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all-time, and he and his record 18 gold medals are headed to Rio looking for more.
