Best of 2000s: Phelps flies to Olympic history

With 16 Olympic medals, 20 world championship medals and 139 finals victories since 2000, Michael Phelps has plenty of reasons to be flat-out tired.

"One of the biggest things that I've always been able to do with having so many races is being able to recover," Phelps told Universal Sports recently. "I've been able to recover really well, and I've been able to be as prepared as I can be and as prepared as I should be at the end of the summer."

The last 10 years saw Phelps go from a young swimmer with some talent to a veteran with 14 Olympic gold medals and 16 world championship medals. The highlight of his decade was winning a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, one of the many factors that led to Phelps being voted as the Universal Sports Summer Olympic Athlete of the Decade.

Phelps' coach Bob Bowman said another reason for his protege's many accomplishments is his ability to stay focused on his goals.

"I think the key to his success is he's able to reset goals," Bowman said. "Once he achieves a certain level, he's able to look past that to the next year and come up with other goals that he works toward. It's basically what I think has made him so consistently successful."

Successful in a variety of strokes, races and distances.

Phelps' first taste of the Olympics came in 2000 at the Sydney Games, where he made one final -- the 200m butterfly -- and finished fifth. About five months later, Phelps broke the 200m butterfly world record at the 2001 U.S. Spring Nationals at 15 years, nine months -- making him the youngest person to ever break a swimming world record. It was the beginning of an historic decade of swimming by the guy with flipper-like feet and dinner plate-sized hands who would be later called "The Baltimore Bullet."

Phelps tuned up for the 2004 Athens Olympics by winning four gold and two silver medals at the 2003 World Championships, a performance that put him on the international swimming map.

The 2004 Games solidified his image as a swimming superstar.

Phelps won six gold and two bronze medals in Greece. His victories came in the 100m butterfly, 200m butterfly, 200m IM, 400m IM, 4x200m freestyle relay and the 4x100m medley relay. He placed third in the 200m freestyle and the 4x100m freestyle relay.

"It was obvious that he had a lot of potential," Bowman said, alluding to when Phelps first joined the North Baltimore Aquatic Club in his early teenage years. "As we worked together more and more, as he learned to set goals and as I could see how he could really zero in on something and focus on it, it became obvious he could go to the top of the sport.

"I didn't know that he would come this far."

If winning eight medals at the 2004 Olympics and capturing seven titles at the 2007 Worlds wasn't enough, Phelps made history at the 2008 Games. His end result of eight gold medals in Beijing featured close finishes (100m butterfly), blowouts (400m IM) and come-from-behind heroics from others (Jason Lezak, 4x100m freestyle relay).

In Beijing, Phelps broke Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals at a single Olympics -- a feat Spitz accomplished in 1972. Phelps went from being one of the most well-known swimmers in the world to one of the most recognizable athletes in the world. He returned to the U.S. after his performance in China and his life was completely changed.

Interviews every day. Sponsorships. A book deal and subsequent book tour across the U.S.

The 2000s were not always sunshine for Phelps, however. Last February, six months after he returned from Beijing, a photograph appeared in a London tabloid newspaper of Phelps with a marijuana pipe. It had been taken during a November 2008 party in South Carolina. No charges against Phelps were filed, but the incident nearly drove him to quit the sport.

It also brought back memories of his arrest for drunk driving after the 2004 Olympics, for which he was sentenced to 18 months probation.

USA Swimming suspended him from competition for three months. Phelps pondered his future in the sport for weeks, wondering if he still wanted to do it. He called Bowman on March 1, however, and said he wanted to return to the pool.

He made his return at the Charlotte UltraSwim in May, his first meet since Beijing over nine months prior. Phelps won four medals -- two gold, two silver -- and said that although he was not completely satisfied with his performance, he welcomed the hard training that would follow.

"If you're disappointed or if things upset you, that's the best time to get back in the water and train," Phelps said at the time. "That's what I've always done. Having my first week back and being able to have some things that really excited me and really made me happy, but also some things that really kinda made me upset, it's gonna be a good next few weeks going into the World Champs Trials."

Phelps finished the season by winning five races at the 2009 FINA World Championships, including the thrilling 100m butterfly final over Serbian Milorad Cavic. He finished second to German Paul Biedermann in the 200m freestyle.

As the second decade of the millennium begins, Phelps and his fellow swimmers will be forced to change their race-day habits. Men are now required to wear swimsuits that extend from the waist to the knees (called jammers), with FINA's new rules having gone into effect Jan. 1. Women can wear suits that stretch from the shoulders to the knees. Gone are the days of high-tech, full bodysuits coated with polyurethane. It's almost as if Phelps, now 24, has seen his career come full circle, with jammers once again being the global standard.

"I've grown up wearing that. I guess nowadays some of these kids grew up wearing full bodysuits," Phelps said. "The jammer is the only suit I ever wore for the first probably 10 years. Obviously it's different [than the bodysuits], but I feel pretty comfortable. I'm fine; we're all wearing the same suit."

It has been said that bodysuits helped different swimmers in different ways. Some dropped four or five seconds off their best times, while others saw only a slight decrease. Phelps was of the latter school of thought. But with every male swimmer in the pool wearing a jammer (or a pair of swimming briefs) for the foreseeable future, the next two and a half years between now and the 2012 London Olympics could produce some of Phelps' best performances.

"London will probably be the last meet," Phelps said. "Bob and I are together in some business, so being able to move away from with that, and just opening up my first swim school recently, is something I'm very happy about. It's something that I have a passion for, [something] that excites me. After I'm done swimming, that's what I'll be doing."

For now though, Phelps will stick to swimming laps and winning races.