Michael Phelps has settled the GOAT debate for good. The swimming legend has hailed basketball legend, Michael Jordan, as the real GOAT [Greatest Player of All Time] in a recent chat at an event organized by the Sports Illustrated magazine.
The magazine recently awarded Phelps the Muhammad Ali Legacy Award. He was awarded this recognition for his consistent campaign in raising awareness about the mental health of athletes.
Michael Phelps Reveals How Michael Jordan Inspired Him To Achieve Great Heights In Swimming
When asked in an interview who he considered the GOAT between LeBron James and Michael Jordan, the former swimming legend immediately backed Jordan and revealed how the basketball legend inspired him to achieve great heights in the sport of swimming:
“Michael Jordan for me was always the one I looked up to, and I wanted to do what he did in basketball, in swimming.”
READ MORE: Michael Phelps’ Former Coach Bob Bowman Warns Against Short-Term Fixes in High-Performance Sport
Phelps also denied any attempt to label himself as great, especially when the interviewing journalist did a direct comparison with Jordan. Although the NBA legend won only two gold medals in comparison to Phelps’ 23 gold medals at the Olympics, his legacy as a basketball player remains unchallenged.
Phelps Calls Out USOPTC Over New Policy Against International Swimmers
Phelps minced no words in his recent criticism of the US Olympic administration. The United States Olympic & Paralympic Training Center recently drafted a new policy in December 2025, under which only American swimmers would be allowed to use the national resources. Even if international swimmers were a part of American universities, they wouldn’t be allowed to use the American pools for training.
Phelps reacted to the same in his Instagram story [now expired], where he shared a SwimSwam post about the same. He wrote,
“What are our goals? I thrived training w[ith] all athletes. Never discriminated.”
This is not the first time the Olympic legend seemed angry with the US Olympic administration over their alleged ‘lack of concern’ for the athletes. Last year, when the US team delivered an average performance at the World Aquatics Championships, Phelps lashed out at the administrators, holding them responsible for the declining standards of US swimming in the past few years.
The American team ‘underperformed’ at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships. Although the American team clinched more gold medals than in the 2023 and 2024 editions, they finished first in the medal table, with a total of just 29 medals overall.
