text: Michael Phelps, the most decorated athlete in Olympic history, will be participating in his his fifth Olympic Games, a United States record among male swimmers. 
   
   Up next for the 31-year-old Phelps will be three individual races — the 200-meter butterfly, 200-meter individual medley and 100-meter butterfly — and as many as three relays at the Summer Games in Rio. And considering he placed first in each discipline at the U.S. team trials in Omaha, it seems likely he’ll add to his incredible collection of 22 medals, a number that includes 18 golds. 
   
   A run like Phelps’ is almost inconceivable in a sport like swimming, where youth typically reigns supreme. But Phelps and his U.S. teammate Ryan Lochte, who turns 32 on Aug. 3, have repeatedly proven themselves to be outliers. 
   
   And should either win gold in a solo race in Brazil — Lochte will compete alongside Phelps in the 200-meter IM but did not qualify in the 400 IM — that swimmer will become the oldest to win individual Olympic gold, knocking Dutch swimmer Inge de Bruijn, who won the 50-meter freestyle three days before her 31st birthday at the 2004 Games in Athens, from the top spot. 
   
   As a result of Phelps’ prolonged dominance, there’s an entire generation of fans who can’t recall a time when he wasn’t in the pool at the Olympics. And there are others, yet, who aren’t even old enough to remember when Phelps got his start, more than half his life ago. So with that in mind, let’s look back on Phelps’ four previous Olympic appearances as he prepares for a record-setting fifth: 
   
   2000, Sydney 
   
   Phelps made his Olympic debut at the age of 15, making him the youngest U.S. male to swim in the Games since 1932. 
   
   At the time, Phelps still had braces on his bottom teeth and didn’t yet have his driver’s license, but he earned a spot in the 200-meter butterfly with a second-place finish at the Olympic trials in Indiana, pulling away from Jeff Somensatto during the final 50 meters to clinch a spot on the team. 
   
   “He doesn’t know what it means to go to the Olympics and how it’s going to change his life,” first-place finisher Tom Malchow, a 1996 silver medalist, said of Phelps after the race. “He’s going to find out soon.” 
   
   Once in Sydney, Phelps performed admirably, and any other year he’d have been worthy of a spot on the medal stand. 
   
   He won his first-round heat with a time of 1:57.30, then earned a spot in the final with a time of 1:57.00 in his semifinal heat. Phelps then cut a half-second off that time in the finals, finishing in a time of 1:56.50 that would have put him one hundredth of a second off the gold-medal pace at the 1996 Games in Atlanta and won him gold at any Olympics prior to that. 
   
   However, Phelps had to settle for fifth place, one-third of a second behind bronze medalist Justin Norris of Australia and more than a full second behind the gold medalist Malchow. 
   
   2004, Athens 
   
   If 2000 was Phelps’ first taste of the Olympics, then in 2004, he devoured the whole buffet. 
   
   By the time the 2004 Olympic trials in Long Beach rolled around, Phelps, then 19, had set world records in four different events. At the trials, Phelps competed in six events and, unsurprisingly, qualified in all of them. But with three relays also expected to be on his plate in Athens, Phelps dropped the 200-meter backstroke, putting him in eight total races at the Olympics. 
   
   What followed was one of the greatest performances in the history of Olympic swimming — one eventually bested by Phelps’ own showing in Beijing in 2008. 
   
   In his first event, the 400-meter IM, Phelps won his first career gold medal, putting him well on his way to tying (or breaking) Mark Spitz’s then-record of seven in a single games. He qualified for the final with a time of 4:13.29 in his first-round heat, then pasted the field with a blistering gold-medal time of 4:08.26 in the final, topping his own world record for the fourth time in the process. 
   
   But Phelps was only getting started. 
   
   Phelps’ next two events — the 200-meter freestyle and 4×100-meter freestyle relay — both ended with Phelps winning bronze, the former (a race alongside Ian Thorpe and Pieter van den Hoogenband dubbed “The Race of the Century”) coming in a time of 1:45.32 and the latter with a time of 3:14.62 that included a 48.74-second leg by Phelps. 
   
   Those disappointments ended Phelps’ hopes of passing Spitz in ‘04, but from that point on, however, it was all gold, starting with Phelps’ signature event, the 200-meter butterfly. Four years after coming up short in Sydney, Phelps set an Olympic record with a time of 1:54.04. 
   
   Then just 61 minutes later, Phelps won his first relay gold in the 4×200-meter freestyle, with Phelps posting a time of 1:46.49 in the lead leg, putting the U.S. in front when he handed the race off to Lochte. Then after Lochte and Peter Vanderkaay kept the U.S. in the lead, Klete Keller held off Australia’s Ian Thorpe on the anchor leg of the race. 
   
   From there, Phelps’ focus returned to the individual races, and in the 200-meter IM, Phelps topped Lochte, setting an Olympic record with a time of 1:57.14. Then the next day, Phelps beat another teammate, world record-holder Ian Crocker, in the 100-meter butterfly final, Phelps’ Olympic record time of 51.25 topping Crocker by four-hundredths of a second. 
   
   That gave Phelps five gold medals and two bronze for the Games, but Phelps, in a somewhat unusual move, put the fate of his sixth gold in Crocker’s hands, allowing Crocker to swim the butterfly leg in the 4×100-meter medley relay. The U.S. went on to break its own world record in the event and Phelps, by virtue of having competed in the team’s qualifying heat, received gold, as well. 
   
   2008, Beijing 
   
   It would be hard to forget Phelps’ historic 2008 effort, even if you tried. Because in addition to the 23-year-old Phelps winning eight gold medals, the most ever by an athlete in a single Olympics, he also set world records in seven of his races in the process. 
   
   Of course, after his run in Athens, there was no question Phelps was capable of what he pulled off in Beijing, but seeing him actually do it was stunning, nonetheless. 
   
   Competing in the same eight events he did in Greece, Phelps started by demolishing his own world record in the 400-meter IM, shaving more than a second and a half off his time from the Olympic trials and more than four and a half seconds off his gold medal time from 2004 with a 4:03.84 finish. 
   
   Phelps then set an American record in the lead leg of the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, and the team set a world record of 3:08.24 thanks to Jason Lezak’s anchor leg rally past Frenchman Alain Bernard. The win was redemptive for Phelps, part of the team that earned bronze in the event in 2004, and marked the only U.S. Olympic gold medal in the race since 1996. 
   
   Equally vindicating was Phelps’ win in his next race, the 200-meter freestyle. After a third-place finish in Athens, Phelps set a world record with a time of 1:42.96 in Beijing, touching the wall nearly two full seconds ahead of the silver medalist, South Korea’s Park Tae-hwan. At that point, Phelps was 3-for-3 with three world records and was the reigning gold medalist in his five remaining events. 
   
   In his next race, the 200-meter butterfly, Phelps overcame some technical difficulties — he spent most of the race swimming blind after his goggles filled with water — to set a world record at 1:52.03. That win gave him 10 gold medals overall, the most ever by a modern Olympian. Later that day he upped the count to 11 as part of the first 4×200-meter freestyle team to break the 7:00 mark. 
   
   Phelps’ sixth gold of the games then came in the 200-meter IM, as he finished more than two seconds ahead of the silver and bronze finishers with a world-record time of 1:54.23. But his seventh gold medal, in the 100-meter butterfly, didn’t come so easily. 
   
   Prior to the race, Milorad Cavic of Serbia remarked that he’d like to go down in history as “some guy” who kept Phelps from winning eight gold medals, and in the end, Cavic came as close as someone possibly could to doing it. In the one race in which Phelps didn’t set a world record (he still set an Olympic mark), Phelps finished in 50.58 seconds, one hundredth of a second ahead of Cavic. 
   
   In the aftermath, there were conspiracy theories abound regarding which swimmer deserved gold, and even today there’s still healthy debate regarding who actually touched the wall first. 
   
   In any case, Phelps moved on to the 4×100 medley — this time he actually swam in the final — and his team set yet another world record, breaking the 2004 U.S. mark by 1.34 seconds, with a time of 3:29.34. Phelps’ split in the butterfly portion of the event was 50.15 seconds and gave the Americans the lead going into the final leg. 
   
   2012, London 
   
   Heading into the most recent Games, Phelps needed three medals to become the most decorated Olympian ever. He went ahead and got six anyway, including four more golds. However, his quest for the record was briefly derailed early on. 
   
   Phelps’ latest Olympics, which were previously thought to be his last, included seven races, though he qualified for the same eight as he had during the previous two Games. He eventually decided to drop the 200-meter freestyle, and in his first final, the 400-meter IM, he placed fourth, leaving him off the medal stand for the first time since his 2000 debut. 
   
   It begged the question whether Phelps had enough left in him to make history, particularly considering that he barely qualified for the final in the first place, his 4:13.33 prelim time the slowest among the eight qualifiers. In the final, Phelps clocked in at a more respectable 4:09.28, but still touched more than four seconds behind the gold medalist, Lochte. 
   
   However, in his second race, Phelps won his 17th medal, doing so with a 47.15-second split during his leg of the United States’ silver medal-winning 4×100-meter freestyle relay. 
   
   Two nights later, Phelps, once again looked a stroke slow but took silver in the 200-meter butterfly, his 1:53.01 time nearly a full second behind his world record time from 2008 (a mark he’d already broken at the 2009 world championships in Rome). Then later that evening, his relay team won gold in the 4×200-meter freestyle. 
   
   Phelps’ elusive 19th medal broke a tie with Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, who won 18 medals, including nine golds, in the 1950s and ’60s. 
   
   With the pressure, at that point, off — or at the least reduced — Phelps returned to the dominant form most had come to expect, winning gold in each of his last three races. The first, coming with a 1:54.27 time in the 200-meter IM, made Phelps the first male swimmer to win the same individual event at three consecutive Olympic Games. 
   
   Phelps then duplicated that feat in his next final, winning his third straight gold in the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 51.21 seconds. In earning his 17th career gold medal, Phelps topped South Africa’s Chad Le Clos, who beat Phelps by five hundredths of a second in the 200-meter butterfly final earlier in the Games. 
   
   Then, in what was believed to be Phelps’ final Olympic race, his 4×100-meter medley team won gold — Phelps’ 18th gold medal and 22nd overall — with a time of 3:29.35, as Phelps bid farewell to the Olympics (or so we thought) with a 50.73-second butterfly leg. 
   
   Now all that’s left to do is see what Phelps has left. It’s unclear as of yet which relay teams will include Phelps, but his first shot at an individual medal could come Aug. 9, in the 200-meter butterfly final. ||||| At first blush, that techno-flourish feels a few light bulbs short of "The Electric Horseman," but we're willing to withhold judgment until we've seen the light show in action. Why? Because we remember all too well the vitriolic public response to the patchwork knit cardigans that were the centerpiece of the Sochi opening ceremony uniforms in 2014 (also designed by the company, which has been the official outfitter of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams since 2008) that might have been a fish hook in the eye on Main Street USA but created a kind of patriotic tapestry during the parade of nations itself. ||||| Michael Phelps participates in a press conference during the 2016 Team USA Media Summit at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion on March 8, 2016 in Westwood, Calif. 
   
   
   
   
   
   RIO DE JANEIRO – Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, was selected as Team USA’s flag bearer for the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Olympic Games, the United States Olympic Committee announced today. The Opening Ceremony will be held Aug. 5 at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Phelps, who is the first American male swimmer to qualify for a fifth Olympic Games, was chosen by a vote of fellow Team USA members. 
   
   Phelps made history at the Beijing Games in 2008 when he won gold medals in eight events and added to his legacy in 2012 when he became the most decorated Olympian of all time with 22 career medals, including 18 golds. Set to compete in three individual events in Rio, Phelps, will look to add to his historic Olympic medal haul in 2016. 
   
   “I'm honored to be chosen, proud to represent the U.S., and humbled by the significance of carrying the flag and all it stands for,” Phelps said. “For Sydney, I just wanted to make the team. For Athens, I wanted to win gold for my country. For Beijing, I wanted to do something nobody else had done. In London, I wanted to make history. And now, I want to walk in the Opening Ceremony, take it all in, represent America in the best possible way and make my family proud. This time around, it's about so much more than medals.” 
   
   Making his Olympic debut at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Phelps became the youngest male Olympian since 1932, and his eight gold medals from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is an Olympic record. 
   
   Phelps is only the second swimmer to lead the U.S. delegation into the Opening Ceremony and the fifth swimmer to serve as flag bearer for Team USA at the Olympic Games. Four-time Olympic medalist Gary Hall previously carried the flag into the Opening Ceremony of the 1976 Olympic Games in Montréal. 
   
   The 2016 Olympic Games will take place from Aug. 5-21 in Rio de Janeiro, marking the first Olympic Games to be held in South America. 
   
   For more information and photos of Team USA at the 2016 Olympic Games, visit TeamUSA.org/Rio2016 and follow Team USA on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 
   
   U.S Olympic Team Flag Bearers – Opening Ceremony 
   
   1908 Ralph Rose, Track and Field 
   
   1912 George Bonhag, Track and Field 
   
   1920 Patrick McDonald, Track and Field 
   
   1924 Patrick McDonald, Track and Field 
   
   1928 Lemuel (Bud) Houser, Track and Field 
   
   1932 F. Morgan Taylor, Track and Field 
   
   1936 Alfred Jochim, Gymnastics 
   
   1948 Ralph Craig, Yachting 
   
   1952 Norman Armitage, Fencing 
   
   1956 Norman Armitage, Fencing 
   
   Warren Wooford, Equestrian* 
   
   1960 Rafer Johnson, Track and Field 
   
   1964 William Parry O’Brien, Track and Field 
   
   1968 Janice Lee Romary, Fencing 
   
   1972 Olga Fikotova Connolly, Track and Field 
   
   1976 Gary Hall, Swimming 
   
   1980 U.S. did not attend 
   
   1984 Edward Burke, Track and Field 
   
   1988 Evelyn Ashford, Track and Field 
   
   1992 Francie Larrieu Smith, Track and Field 
   
   1996 Bruce Baumgartner, Wrestling 
   
   2000 Cliff Meidl, Canoe/Kayak 
   
   2004 Dawn Staley, Basketball 
   
   2008 Lopez Lomong, Track and Field 
   
   2012 Mariel Zagunis, Fencing 
   
   2016 Michael Phelps, Swimming 
   
   
   
   *Due to Australia’s immigration laws for horses, the 1956 equestrian events were held in Stockholm, Sweden. 
   
   
   
  
target: – "King of the Olympic Rings" Michael Phelps already has more medals than any other athlete in history, Fox Sports notes. Now he's going to add a flag to the mix as Team USA's flag-bearer at the opening ceremony in Rio on Friday, the Olympic National Committee announced Wednesday. The swimmer, headed to his fifth Olympics, has 22 medals to his name, including 18 golds. "I'm honored to be chosen, proud to represent the US, and humbled by the significance of carrying the flag and all it stands for," he says in a Team USA release. "For Sydney, I just wanted to make the team. For Athens, I wanted to win gold for my country. For Beijing, I wanted to do something nobody else had done. In London, I wanted to make history. And now, I want to walk in the Opening Ceremony, take it all in, represent America in the best possible way, and make my family proud. This time around, it's about so much more than medals." In more fashionable opening ceremony news, per the Los Angeles Times: Polo Ralph Lauren and the US Olympic Committee revealed Team USA's parade attire Friday, with team members set to be adorned in white denim pants, navy blue blazers, and red-white-and-blue striped T-shirts. But it's Phelps' outfit that will stand out the most: His jacket will be fitted with a battery pack that powers light-up panels to make his Olympic patch on the front and "USA" letters on the back glow. (Phelps' most recent accomplishment: his first child.)