Michael Phelps Finishes Rio Olympics With 6 Medals: 'This Is Exactly How I Wanted to Go Out'

The Olympian took home five gold medals and one silver medal in Rio

Photo: CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/Getty Images

U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, says he is completely satisfied with his swimming career and ready to hang up his googles to focus on family when he returns home from Rio.

The 31-year-old athlete told Lester Holt of NBC Nightly News: “This is exactly how I wanted to go out” in his first sit-down interview since racking up six medals at the 2016 Games.

The Olympian took gold in the men’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay, 200-meter butterfly, 4×100-meter medley relay, 4×100-meter freestyle relay, 200-meter individual medley and claimed silver in the men’s 100-meter butterfly.

But, Phelps is “ready for something different” he told NBC in a post-race interview.

“My swimming career might be over,” he said. “But I have the future ahead of me. It’s not the end of a career, [it’s] the beginning of a new journey.”

In a Sunday press conference, Phelps echoed this sentiment again – and told reporters he couldn’t wait to get back to a normal, daily routine with his newborn son Boomer and fiancée Nicole Johnson.

“Being apart from [Boomer] for the last three weeks, four weeks from when I saw him last, he’s grown so much. I changed a diaper last night,” Phelps told reporters of spending the night with his family after finishing his final race. “He was just sitting there looking at me, smiling the whole time. It brought a tear to my eye, just because he hasn’t seen me in a while and it was so cool to see him smiling back at me and laughing and giggling.

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“I picked him up after I was done and just held him. That’s something I’m really, really looking forward to, just watching him grow up,” continued Phelps.

“I want to be there very step of the way. I don’t want to miss a thing.”