Michael Phelps: The Multi-Million dollar Tokyo 2020 question

Michael Phelps goes to many different places, but the question is almost always the same.

Will he make another sensational swimming comeback at Tokyo 2020?

Anything can set the speculation off and even the slightest aside from the most decorated Olympian ever can melt the internet.

Like this social media post.

Just look at the shape Michael Phelps is in, he's 33 but he looks in even better nick than 25-year-old Rio silver medallist Chase Kalisz!

Phelps must be training for a comeback, he and Usain Bolt are going to crash the party and take over Tokyo.

"I've lost it, so no comeback you guys"

Even when Phelps states it as plainly as that, the speculation doesn't end.

In March 2019 Phelps couldn't have been clearer, he was at a promotional event in front of a starstruck crowd in New Delhi when he said: "Don't ask me that question."

"In the sport of swimming, when you miss one day, it takes two days to get back. For me when I spent six years straight not missing a single day, I was getting so much more benefit out of that than other athletes who were training for six days."

"If you take Sunday off, you aren't back to where you were until Tuesday. I was training so much. Now when I get in, I don't have that feel of the water that I had before. I've lost it. So, no comeback, you guys."

And still, the speculation doesn't stop, one British tabloid published an article on May 22 2019 with the headline screaming:

But it's hardly any surprise that so many want to see the USA's Olympic great back in the water.

Remember how much fun it was last time?

It doesn't help when your fellow athletes try and pour fuel on the fire either, we're looking at you Chad Le Clos.

G.O.A.T.

For many the greatest Olympian ever, Phelps holds the Olympic record for most medals (28), most gold medals (23), most individual medals (16) and most individual gold medals (13).

At the the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Phelps won eight Olympic gold medals in all eight events that he participated in. Then there were the four golds at the London 2012 games, and the Rio 2016 comeback where he won five out of six gold medals, Singapore's Joseph Schooling preventing him of another clean sweep.

Michael Phelps: Wife, kids, happiness

But a married, retired and happy Phelps has moved on from the sub-aquatic life.

“In the sporting world, I was able to achieve everything I wanted to. Now, I am continuing talking about the importance of healthy and active lifestyles, mental health and water safety. It is something close to me and makes me excited to get out of bed every day,” he said while in Asia in April.

It must be hard for a 28-time Olympic medal-winning athlete to leave something behind that brought so much excitement and adrenaline, but Phelps has dipped into a different phase of his life.

The 'Flying Fish' is now a husband and a father and has a lot more time to spend with his wife Nicole Johnson, who he married in June 2016, and his two sons Boomer Robert Phelps and Beckett Richard Phelps.

He even gets to eat cake now.

No pressure

But while dad happens to be a swim superhero, Phelps isn't going to force his sons to take the same lane he did.

Michael and Nicole are no-pressure parents, but the 23-time gold medallist told Olympic Channel last year that his son Boomer is already turning into a “pool rat”.

Michael Phelps' Mental Health problems

But things aren't always rosy in life.

Even someone as mega-successful as Michael Phelps has his dark days.

The 'Baltimore Bullet' openly admits that he struggled - and sometimes still struggles - with depression and anxiety, to the point where he even contemplated suicide after the 2012 Olympics.

"I do break down and maybe have a bad day, where I'm not in a good mental state," he told the Associated Press in summer 2018.

“I understand that. It’s who I am. I guess that will always be something that’s a part of me.”

Now he campaigns for awareness on mental health issues and works through his Michael Phelps Foundation for this and other causes such as levelling playing field for kids in swimming through grants and funding.

Phelps' focus on the next generation

While raising two sons he also coaches and mentors the next generation of swim stars.

He had this to say for any young athletes with a dream:

“Never give up on something you truly wanted. If your dream is true, you can do everything to make it a reality. My journey was not always easy… was not always fun. But it was something I truly wanted and there was no one who could stop me from achieving my goals.”