Just watched Phelp's final event (another ho-hum gold) and went to look at who has what medal-wise.  Back in the days B.M. (Before Michael) Mark Spitz stood third on the most medals list with nine golds, one silver and one bronze.  Now Michael has exactly doubled each of those medals!  In fact, just in gold medals alone, he has as many medals as the second-place person, Larisa Latynina, a Soviet gymnist from the 50's & 60's (and one of only four people with nine gold medals - the second most to Phelps who almost got that many in Beijing alone).
 
I know records are meant to be broken, but even a quick look at THIS LIST will tell you it may be a LONG time before Michael's totals are topped.
 
Too bad he was so "lazy" and engaging in horrible acts like getting caught smoking pot or he would have had a couple more gold medals, eh?  (Actually, one of his current silver medals should have been gold - he was ahead of everyone but glided to the wall instead of finishing strong - another lesson!)
 
I fully agree with his decision to retire from swimming now and do the many other things out there for him to do, but I can't help but wonder if he couldn't get even more medals in Rio if he really wanted to!

As I mentioned in the other thread, he is an absolute legend.

He's been criticized by some for being a little below par yet still has the biggest medals haul this Olympics.

Top that with the fact he's a very human and approachable guy instead of a single focused robot he to me is one class act the likes of which we are never going to see in another lifetime.

At 27 too he has a whole lifetime ahead without a thing to prove to anyone.

He's one of those rare phenomena that really does warrant the true meaning of AWESOME!

What a swimmer...I swear he was the last one in the water
in his last race and still won. He's just operating on a completely
different level. The Hendrix of swimming.