Michael Phelps, the most-decorated Olympian in history, made an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon this week, where the two covered a range of topics.
That included a chat about his son Beckett’s first swim race, in which he smoked the competition (he doesn’t specify which of his kids it was, but does say “first grade” and Beckett is 6).
“He’s never had a swimming race before ever,” Phelps said. “He literally said to me, ‘Dad I’m going to jump off the starting block’ and I was like ‘awesome can’t wait to see it.’
“And he doesn’t jump off the starting block. But as soon as he dove in, I mean, he was half-a-body-length ahead. It was unbelievable, I’ve never seen anything like it, I’ve never seen him swim like that. He took two breaths the whole lap. He just…I don’t want to say he destroyed everybody but…”
He was interrupted by the audience, and the host Fallon, applauding and encouraging his ‘proud dad’ behavior.
.@MichaelPhelps’ son destroyed everyone at his first swimming race! #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/M7ByYRhoK5
— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) May 10, 2024
This was one of a number of conversations between the two which ranged from the silly to the serious.
Phelps says he wants someone to break his medal count record at the Olympics (and lets most of the audience know that all of his individual World Records have been broken):
.@MichaelPhelps wants to see someone break his medal count record at the @NBCOlympics this summer! #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/ahGeqWwXi2
— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) May 10, 2024
Fallon imitating Phelps’ famous pre-race block routine:
🏊♂️🥇 pic.twitter.com/k9hjANe1JG
— . (@Vol_umes) May 11, 2024
Phelps discussing his own mental health journey:
.@MichaelPhelps opens up about his mental health journey and the steps he’s taken to raise awareness. #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/1U52Rc8yoh
— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) May 10, 2024
Phelps doing karaoke with Justin Timberlake:
.@MichaelPhelps, @jtimberlake, @chacecrawford, @ArchieBradley7, and @JeffFujimoto lit up the karaoke stage 🎤 #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/J2NGUAFlEg
— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) May 10, 2024
Phelps and Fallon go head-to-head in water war:
.@MichaelPhelps & Jimmy go head-to-head in Water War! 💦 #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/MF1n9arFJs
— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) May 10, 2024
Phelps is the gift that keeps on giving to this sport. Such a shame that a bunch of whiny boomers don’t like him.
I think Phelps would admit that for most of his career, he was a pretty unlikable guy.
(He would admit it because the evolution from that to this is probably the best talkspace ad there is).
Like father like son
This makes me feel so old
What I really want to know was the time
Michael Phelps now gets to be the kind of dad that he longed for.
Poor kid. Cue the headlines Phelps junior takes back the 400 IM WR from Marchand at the 2040 Olympics!
so… splits??
So we’re just going to, like, believe him?
Why wouldn’t you ?