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That Time I Kicked Michael Phelps in the Leg

Friday, July 27, 2012

Happy First Day of The Olympics! I shared this post on Busy Girl earlier this summer, but now that the Olympics are really about to kick off, I thought it fitting for me to once again share this, one of the most bizarre experiences of my life.

Back in high school, I was quite the swimmer. Two practices and probably five or six meals a day, a few times a week in the weight room, and working my ass off in the pool and the gym all led to one huge meet, which my team and I would prepare for with extra enthusiasm as we threw away our razors for several months, growing out our leg hair in hopes that the extra drag would make us even a millisecond faster on race day.

This story begins after Michael Phelps had just been to his first Olympics, in 2004. He's from Maryland, if you didn't know, and he used to swim for the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, which is the pool where our aforementioned biggest meet of the year used to be held. We were all pumped, because he was on the heat sheet for several races at this year's meet.


Let me tell you a little bit about warm-up pools--basically, they're a necessary evil at swim meets. They're over-crowded and anxiety-fueled and hard to move in, but hey, ya gotta warm up. I was in the warm-up pool in Baltimore that year, getting ready for my 200 breast stroke, when suddenly, someone ran over me. At this point, everyone has shaved pretty much any existing body hair off, so after my slippery legs came around and kicked this person's bigger, just as slippery leg, I turned around to say, "Sorry, man!" and was surprised to see Michael Phelps looking right at me with a little bit of disgust on his face.

I had just kicked Michael Phelps right in the leg.

"Oh! Sorry about that!" I panted, treading water in our lane, wondering if now was a bad time to ask him to sign my cap or my arm or my face or whatever. But in that moment, he wasn't interested in signing an autograph or talking to me or really doing anything else but swim. And then he solved the dilemma of the warm-up pool:

"If you'd just keep going, we wouldn't have to stop."

Gee, thanks Michael. I had no idea you were so revolutionary in your thinking.

Either way, I still met up with him later and got him to sign a couple shirts.

16 comments:

  1. LOL Love this. Too bad he seemed kinda annoyed, but I guess when you're an Olympian, you have an air about you. Haha

    Evani
    simplyevani@gmail.com

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  2. Haha I remember Michael Phelps first Olympic Games. My sister and I were HUUUUUGE fans, we tought he was kind of sexy (from what we could see on television)haha.

    Love from Belgium!
    Saar

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  3. wait thats so ironic. i'm a swimmer and when i was in high school i used to swim at those baltimore meets every summer! how funny.

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  4. Haha, wow! That's a great story.

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  5. Warm up pools.. haha. The best ones are at those meets when the age group kids aren't separated from the seniors. Poor kids. I've almost drowned an 8 year old or two on multiple occasions D:

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  6. LOL!! he sounds like such a dick. had he been to the olympics at this point? like, it sounds like he was famous, but if he hadn't been to the olympics, was he just famous amongst the swimming crowd?

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  7. haha he sounds like quite the friendly guy. Still a cool story though!

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  8. haha this is pretty hilarious!

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  9. hahaha I just love this story :) Happy Friday!

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  10. remember when I was the captain of the swim team???

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  11. I'm not sure why, but I laughed far too hard at this. It's a great story!

    smileyius.blogspot.com

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  12. Haha, way cool...such a fun story to tell! Just found your blog and I love it! :)

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  13. LOL! I think you handled it quite well. I probably would have flustered even more and been too embarrassed to ask for autographs. Well done!

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  14. just discovered your blog and I have to say that I LOVE that you're into literature and creative writing, as am I - I love it when a blogger actually knows how to write well :) Following you now!

    also, that story. If that happened to me, that would totally be my claim to fame.

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