Saturday was a legendary day for the U.S. Olympic's Men's swimming team and one that marked Michael Phelp's last lap around the Olympic pool.
Swimming the butterfly leg for the team's 4x100 meter medley relay, Phelps helped the team win gold and marked his last Olympic meet.
Phelps, who has publicly stated this to be his last Olympics, has won a total of 22 medals, 18 of those gold. At 27-years old Phelps has gotten more medals than any other Olympian in history. A fete that will put him in the history books forever.
He says he is now ready to leave the pool. "I told myself I never want to swim when I'm 30," Phelps said to reporters. "No offense to those people who are 30, but that was something I always said to myself, and that would be in three years. I just don't want to swim for those three years."
Phelps also received a statuette that recognized his place in Olympic history, he said to The New York Times, "It's kind of weird looking at this and seeing 'Greatest Olympian of All Time.I finished my career the way I wanted to. I think that's pretty cool."
Phelps' medal tally and career has influenced and inspired swimmers from around the globe, including Missy Franklin, 17, who has competed in seven events in London, which is more than any female Olympic swimmer.
She said to The New York Times, "He has done a world of difference for swimming," Franklin said. "He has really brought swimming onto the scene and gotten so many more people involved. Just what he's done is incredible, and he's kind of made people rethink the impossible - rethink what they can do and how they can push themselves."
Though Phelps' Olympic tour may have stopped here, he has an inspired a generation that will not soon be forgotten.
