Michael Phelps Trivia
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46 free Michael Phelps trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Sep 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 46 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In 2017, Phelps raced a computer-generated version of which shark?
Great white
Great white: the computer-generated shark, its pace based on real sharks, beat the 28-time Olympic medallist over 100 metres, even with Phelps wearing a monofin.
Q 02What treatment left the purple circles on Phelps's shoulders and back at the Rio 2016 Olympics?
Cupping
Cupping pulls the skin up into cups with heat or a pump, rupturing tiny capillaries; athletes use it for recovery, and Phelps was the most prominent athlete showing the bruises in Rio.
Q 03Greg Harden, who counselled Phelps, famously mentored which NFL quarterback?
Tom Brady
Tom Brady, whom Harden began counselling as a college quarterback, later wrote the foreword to Harden's 2023 book, Stay Sane in an Insane World.
Q 04In which city was Phelps born?
Baltimore
Baltimore is where Phelps was born; in 2015 he left his hometown club and moved to Arizona to keep training under his longtime coach.
Q 05Which coach trained Phelps from the age of 11 through his entire career?
Bob Bowman
Bob Bowman coached Phelps from age 11 to Rio, and when a German in a polyurethane suit beat him in 2009, Bowman threatened to pull Phelps from international meets.
Q 06Phelps was diagnosed with which condition as a child?
ADHD
ADHD, along with his protruding ears, made Phelps a target for bullies at school.
Q 07Phelps began swimming after which relatives joined a local swim team?
Sisters
Sisters Whitney and Hilary joined first; Phelps was a little scared to put his head underwater, so he started with backstroke.
Q 08At 15, Phelps became the youngest American man on an Olympic swim team in 68 years; at which Games?
Sydney
Sydney 2000 was his debut, where Tom Malchow won the 200-metre butterfly; at the next Games, in Athens, Phelps won that title himself.
Q 09Phelps won seven golds at the 2007 Worlds; what cost him an eighth?
A relay team disqualification
A relay team disqualification: a teammate left too early at a changeover in the medley relay heats, which Phelps had sat out; a year later he won all eight in Beijing.
Q 10Three days after Phelps became the oldest individual Olympic swimming champion in Rio, which American took that record?
Anthony Ervin
Anthony Ervin won the 50-metre freestyle at 35, sixteen years after winning the same event as a 19-year-old, having quit the sport for years in between.
Q 11In which event did Phelps win his first Olympic gold medal, at Athens in 2004?
400-meter individual medley
The 400-meter individual medley opened his Athens bid for the single-Games gold record; that bid stopped at six golds, and he won eight in Beijing.
Q 12At Athens, Phelps gave up his medley relay final spot so which teammate could swim for gold?
Ian Crocker
Ian Crocker, whom Phelps had beaten by four hundredths of a second in the 100 butterfly, swam the final, and Phelps still got a gold for swimming the heats.
Q 13Which American swimmer's single-Games gold-medal record did Phelps break at Beijing 2008?
Mark Spitz
Q 21Phelps finished fourth in his first final at London 2012; which American teammate won that race?
Ryan Lochte
Ryan Lochte won that final, but days later Phelps turned the tables and beat him to win the 200-metre individual medley.
Q 22Which South African beat Phelps by five hundredths of a second in the 200-metre butterfly at London 2012?
Chad le Clos
Chad le Clos had named Phelps as his sporting hero before the Games, then came from third at the final turn to touch him out.
Q 23Which Soviet gymnast's all-time record for most Olympic medals did Phelps pass in London?
Larisa Latynina
Larisa Latynina came to London hoping to present Phelps with the medal that broke her record, but Olympic rules did not allow it.
Mark Spitz was expected to shine in 1968 but won only relay golds; at Munich four years later he won seven golds, all in world-record time.
Q 14Which US swimmer anchored the Beijing 4x100 freestyle relay, running down Alain Bernard by 0.08 seconds?
Jason Lezak
Jason Lezak began the anchor leg almost six-tenths of a second behind and still touched first, keeping Phelps's bid for eight golds alive.
Q 15What 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.
Q 16Which Serbian swimmer did Phelps beat by a hundredth of a second in the Beijing 100-metre butterfly?
Milorad Čavić
Milorad Čavić lost 50.58 to 50.59, and Serbia's protest was overruled after officials reviewed the finish.
Q 17In 2008 Phelps volunteered for Project Believe, a programme of extra drug tests run by which body?
USADA
USADA's Project Believe tested athletes beyond WADA rules, and Phelps said he joined to do more tests and prove he was clean.
Q 18Phelps's LZR Racer swimsuit, launched before Beijing 2008, was tested in which organisation's wind tunnels?
NASA
NASA shared wind tunnels at its Langley Research Center; suits like the LZR Racer sent world records tumbling, and swimming banned them from 2010.
Q 19In 2019, which American broke Phelps's 100-metre butterfly world record, which had stood since 2009?
Caeleb Dressel
Caeleb Dressel had won relay gold alongside Phelps in Rio, then broke his old teammate's record at the 2019 World Championships.
Q 20Which sponsor dropped Phelps after a photo of him using a bong went viral in 2009?
Kellogg's
Kellogg's dropped Phelps after the photo spread, and USA Swimming added a three-month suspension from competition.
Q 24Why was Phelps left off the U.S. team for the 2015 World Championships?
A second DUI arrest
A second DUI arrest, in September 2014, brought a six-month USA Swimming suspension and kept Phelps off the 2015 Worlds team; he then spent weeks in rehab.
Q 25Rio 2016 was Phelps's fifth Olympics; which woman was the only U.S. swimmer to get there before him?
Dara Torres
Dara Torres came out of retirement twice to reach her fifth Games, and at 41 she won three silver medals in Beijing.
Q 26What honour did Phelps receive at the Rio 2016 opening ceremony?
He was the U.S. flag bearer
He was the U.S. flag bearer, chosen by a vote of fellow Team USA members, and Phelps said this time he wanted to walk in the opening ceremony and take it all in.
Q 27The Rio ready-room meme of Phelps glowering at a shadow-boxing rival spread under which hashtag?
#PhelpsFace
#PhelpsFace caught him glaring at the rival who had beaten him for the 200-metre butterfly title in London; in Rio, Phelps won it back as that rival finished fourth.
Q 28Phelps's Rio 200 fly win made him the oldest man to win individual Olympic swimming gold, beating whose 1920 record?
Duke Kahanamoku
Duke Kahanamoku, the Hawaiian who defended his 100-metre freestyle title in 1920, went on to popularise surfing around the world.
Q 29By winning a fourth straight 200 IM in Rio, Phelps joined which two track-and-field greats?
Al Oerter and Carl Lewis
Al Oerter won his 1964 discus gold despite a torn rib injury, and Carl Lewis took his fourth long-jump title in 1996; Phelps matched them in Rio.
Q 30Phelps's 13th individual gold broke a 2,000-year-old record for individual Olympic titles held by which Greek?
Leonidas of Rhodes
Leonidas of Rhodes won the stadion, diaulos and hoplitodromos at four successive ancient Games from 164 to 152 BC, a 12-title record that stood 2,168 years.