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59 free Michael Phelps trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Michael Phelps swam in five Olympic Games and left with 28 medals, 23 of them gold - more than any athlete in any sport, and more than most countries. This Michael Phelps trivia quiz starts where everyone starts: how many medals, which city he grew up in, who his coach was, and what happened in Beijing in 2008. Then it goes lap by lap through the details that made those Games legendary - the relay anchor that ran down the French, the butterfly final won by a hundredth of a second, the goggles that filled with water, and the record that had stood since Mark Spitz in 1972. The harder questions cover the rest of a twenty-year career: the 15-year-old at Sydney 2000, the teenager who set a world record before he could drive, the polyurethane-suit loss in Rome, the retirement, the comeback, the #PhelpsFace meme in Rio, the ancient Greek whose record he broke, and the last relay that gave the United States its 1,001st summer gold. There is also a stretch on the man himself: ADHD, the sponsors, the foundation, the wife he married in secret, the 159-foot putt and the football club he part-owns. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on Phelps, his coach and his rivals, and the sentence that supports each answer is saved with the question. If you enjoy this one, try our Olympics and swimming trivia quizzes next.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many Olympic medals did Michael Phelps win in total?
28
Phelps won 28 Olympic medals across four Games, Athens 2004 to Rio 2016, the most by any Olympian; he also competed at Sydney 2000 without medalling.
Q 02How many of Phelps's Olympic medals were gold?
23
Phelps won 23 Olympic gold medals: 13 in individual events and 10 in relays, spread over Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016.
Q 03How many gold medals did Phelps win at the 2008 Beijing Olympics?
8
Phelps won 8 gold medals at Beijing 2008, the most by any athlete at a single Games, beating a record that had stood since Munich 1972.
Q 04In which city was Phelps born?
Baltimore
Phelps was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the youngest of three children, and swam from childhood with the North Baltimore Aquatic Club at the Meadowbrook pool.
Q 05In which year was Phelps born?
1985
Phelps was born on June 30, 1985, the youngest of three children; his mother Debbie was a middle-school principal and his father Fred a Maryland state trooper.
Q 06Which coach trained Phelps from the age of 11 through his entire career?
Bob Bowman
Bob Bowman began coaching Phelps at his home club when Phelps was 11 and stayed his coach through his final Olympics at Rio 2016.
Q 07Phelps was diagnosed with which condition as a child?
ADHD
Phelps was diagnosed with ADHD as a boy and was prescribed Ritalin for a time; he later said he channelled his restless energy into the pool.
Q 08At what age did Phelps start swimming?
7
He has said the only reason he got in the water was that his mother wanted him to learn to swim.
Q 09How old was Phelps when he made the U.S. team for the Sydney 2000 Olympics?
15
Phelps qualified for Sydney 2000 at age 15, the youngest male on a U.S. Olympic swim team since Ralph Flanagan in 1932, 68 years earlier.
Q 10Where did Phelps finish in his only final at Sydney 2000?
5th
Phelps finished 5th in the 200-metre butterfly final at Sydney 2000, his only event there; Tom Malchow of the United States won the gold.
Q 11In March 2001 Phelps became the youngest male ever to set a swimming world record, at what age?
15 years 9 months
Phelps was 15 years 9 months old when he set a 200-metre butterfly world record of 1:54.92 at the U.S. Spring Nationals in Austin on March 30, 2001.
Q 12Phelps won his first world title in 2001 in which Japanese city?
Fukuoka
Phelps won the 200-metre butterfly at the 2001 World Championships in Fukuoka, lowering his own world record to 1:54.58 in the final.
Q 13In which event did Phelps win his first Olympic gold medal, at Athens in 2004?
400-meter individual medley
Q 21The Beijing 4x200 freestyle relay that Phelps led off was the first team to break which barrier?
Seven minutes
The U.S. quartet of Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay swam 6:58.56, the first time under Seven minutes, beating the old mark by more than four seconds.
Q 22Which Serbian swimmer did Phelps beat by a hundredth of a second in the Beijing 100-metre butterfly?
Milorad Čavić
Milorad Čavić led until the final stroke, but Phelps's half-stroke finish won by 0.01 seconds, 50.58 to 50.59; Serbia's protest was dismissed after FINA reviewed the timing footage.
Q 23How many Olympic medals did Phelps win at London 2012?
6
Phelps won the 400-meter individual medley on the first night of Athens 2004 in a world-record 4:08.26, the first of his six golds at those Games.
Q 14At Athens 2004 Phelps tied the record of eight medals at one Games, held by which Soviet gymnast?
Alexander Dityatin
Alexander Dityatin medalled in every men's gymnastics event at Moscow 1980, including three golds; Phelps matched his single-Games total at Athens with six golds and two bronzes.
Q 15Where did Phelps finish in the 200-metre freestyle 'Race of the Century' at Athens 2004?
Third
Phelps finished Third in the 200-metre freestyle at Athens 2004, taking bronze in 1:45.32 behind the Australian and Dutch favourites in the so-called Race of the Century.
Q 16At Athens, Phelps gave up his medley relay final spot so which teammate could swim for gold?
Ian Crocker
Phelps ceded his butterfly leg in the medley relay final to Ian Crocker, whom he had beaten by 0.04 seconds in the 100 fly; Crocker swam, and Phelps still received gold for the heats.
Q 17Which 2008 autobiography did Phelps write with journalist Alan Abrahamson?
No Limits: The Will to Succeed
No Limits: The Will to Succeed, published by Free Press in December 2008, recounts Phelps's Beijing campaign and the training philosophy he developed with his coach.
Q 18Which American swimmer's single-Games gold-medal record did Phelps break at Beijing 2008?
Mark Spitz
Mark Spitz set the single-Games mark at Munich 1972, each of his wins coming in world-record time; Phelps passed it with his final gold in the Beijing medley relay.
Q 19Which US swimmer anchored the Beijing 4x100 freestyle relay, running down Alain Bernard by 0.08 seconds?
Jason Lezak
Jason Lezak swam a 46.06 anchor split to overhaul Alain Bernard after Bernard had said the French would 'smash' the Americans; the U.S. won in a world-record 3:08.24.
Q 20What went wrong for Phelps during his 200-metre butterfly gold in Beijing?
His goggles filled with water
His goggles filled with water from the start, leaving Phelps unable to see for the final 100 metres; he counted strokes and still won in a world-record 1:52.03.
Phelps won 6 medals at London 2012: gold in the 200 IM, 100 fly, 4x200 freestyle relay and medley relay, plus silver in the 200 fly and 4x100 freestyle relay.
Q 24Which South Korean took silver behind Phelps's world-record 200-metre freestyle in Beijing?
Park Tae-hwan
Park Tae-hwan, Beijing's 400-metre freestyle champion, took silver in 1:44.85 as Phelps won the 200-metre freestyle in a world-record 1:42.96.
Q 25Which anti-doping programme did Phelps cite when asked in Beijing if his feats were 'too good to be true'?
Project Believe
Phelps pointed to Project Believe, a voluntary USADA pilot scheme he joined in 2008 that used extra blood and urine testing to build a biological profile of each athlete.
Q 26Which German swimmer in a polyurethane suit ended Phelps's unbeaten run in the 200 free at the 2009 Worlds?
Paul Biedermann
Paul Biedermann, in an Arena X-Glide suit, beat Phelps by more than a second in Rome and took his 200-metre freestyle world record with 1:42.00; Phelps's coach threatened a boycott until such suits were banned.
Q 27At the 2009 Worlds Phelps became the first man to swim the 100-metre butterfly under what time?
50 seconds
Phelps swam 49.82 in Rome to become the first man under 50 seconds for the 100-metre butterfly, beating his Beijing rival by 0.13 seconds in a world record.
Q 28Which sponsor dropped Phelps after a photo of him using a bong went viral in 2009?
Kellogg's
Kellogg's said in February 2009 it would not renew Phelps's contract, calling the behaviour inconsistent with its image; USA Swimming suspended him for three months.
Q 29Where did Phelps finish in his first final at London 2012, his first non-medal since 2000?
4th
Phelps finished 4th in his opening London final, having scraped in as the slowest qualifier; Ryan Lochte won, with Thiago Pereira and Kosuke Hagino completing the podium.
Q 30Which South African beat Phelps by five hundredths of a second in the 200-metre butterfly at London 2012?
Chad le Clos
Chad le Clos out-touched Phelps by 0.05 seconds, 1:52.96 to 1:53.01, in the London 200-metre butterfly; he had grown up idolising Phelps and called him his hero.