Michael Phelps on his mental health as a male athlete in the past

Michael Phelps on his mental health as a male athlete in the past

Video Transcript

[CHEERING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

MICHAEL PHELPS: I was very fortunate to, you know, accomplish almost every goal that I ever wrote down on a piece of paper. It was incredible. It's a great feeling, especially looking back now and being retired.

Did I know that it was going to have all of these other stresses or these outside variables that are going to affect me and how I think or how I live my life? Like, I never would've thought about that.

I would know and expect that somehow mentally I would have a breakdown. I had a lot of them in my career. So it would just be something, like a funk that I would kind of fall into for a few days, and then I'd come out of it on fire.

If I did say something about it, then it would be a weakness. And I'm not supposed to show weakness. As a male athlete, we're not supposed to show that. That's allowing ourselves to become vulnerable. And in a competitive world, it's not the best thing.

So for me, to be able to see and hear stories, emotions that other athletes or celebrities or just random people who have shared the stories that they go through with me, it's really kind of amazing to see and to feel that I'm just a normal person. Because that's all I think I am.