Michael Phelps Talks DUI, Rehab, and His 5th Olympic Games

With the 2016 Rio Olympics right around the corner, Olympian Michael Phelps sat down with Matt Lauer on Today for an exclusive interview, in which the swimmer opened up about his struggles over the past several years. On Sept. 29, 2014, Phelps was arrested for a DUI, his second offense. “I sent myself down a downward spiral. I think it was more of a sign than anything else that I had to get something under control, whatever it was,” said Phelps. “I look back at that night and everything happened for a reason.”

Phelps subsequently checked himself into a rehab center in Arizona for 45 days after the incident. Lauer asked Phelps directly whether he was an alcoholic. “I don’t know. I honestly don’t know,” Phelps answered. “I know I have probably moments where I have gone off the deep end, where I shouldn’t. I would say binged more than anything else.” Phelps insisted he didn’t have a drinking problem, but Lauer pressed and asked if he checked himself into rehab because he had a drinking problem or because he had a public relations problem. “I checked myself in because I think I was at a point in my life where something needed to change,” Phelps responded. “And I needed to figure things out. I thought of myself as a swimmer and nobody else.”

With 22 medals and an all-time Olympic record of 18 gold medals, Phelps doesn’t have much left to prove. But that hasn’t stopped him from going all out for his fifth, and likely final, Olympic Games. “I want to be here. That’s the difference. I had no desire to go to work out before,” said Phelps. “I want to retire how I want to retire. I have a great opportunity to do that.”

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