My goal is one Olympic gold medal. Not many people in this world can say, 'I'm an Olympic gold medalist.'
Interpretation
Michael Phelps emphasizes the uniqueness and value of achieving an Olympic gold medal.
In this quote, Michael Phelps reflects on the significance of his goal to win an Olympic gold medal, highlighting that it is a rare and prestigious achievement that few individuals can claim. He underscores the dedication and hard work required to reach such a level of excellence in sports, suggesting that the journey toward achieving such goals is what makes it meaningful.
In practice
During a motivational speech about setting ambitious goals.
I want to be able to look back and say, 'I've done everything I can, and I was successful.' I don't want to look back and say I should have done this or that. I'd like to change things for the younger generation of swimmers coming along.
For so long, I looked at myself as literally a kid who was talented who would go up and down the pool. That's it. Nothing else. Very few people knew who I really was.
I don't want to be the next Mark Spitz; I want to be the first Michael Phelps
There are too many kids who are drowning for lack of water safety. That's something I'd like to do. Teaching kids to live an active lifestyle.
I know it won't be eight medals again. If you want to compare me to that, that's your decision, not mine. I'm going out there to try to accomplish the things that I have in my mind and in my heart.
I learned how fast you can go from being an international hero to being a reference in a joke on a late night talk show.
Sound character provides the power with which a person may ride the emergencies of life instead of being overwhelmed by them. Failure is... the highway to success.
There's a plaque on our wall that says we've sold over 65 million albums, and I don't feel I've accomplished anything. I feel like I'm just getting started.
The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure.
A lot of people think I had such a rosy career, but I wanted to identify that one of the things that helps you have a long career is learning how to deal with adversity, how to get past it. Once I learned how to get through that, others things didn't seem so hard.
As it happened, all three of us turned out to be real writers--a coincidence almost too large to be termed mere coincidence in a society where literally tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of college students aspire to the writer's trade and where bare hundreds actually break through.
I found the most difficult thing when you became successful - when I had the record album, it won Album of the Year - that you were cut off from the source of your material. Your material was everyday people, and you were kind of cut off from that, and you had to work at it.
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