2012 Summer Olympics: Michael Phelps Sounds Like an Athlete Ready to Retire

Michael Phelps may only be 26 years of age, but when you've been swimming since you were seven years old that can certainly take its toll.

Phelps has said he plans to retire after the 2012 London Summer Olympics, and his comments to ESPN's Rick Reilly recently back that up.

Phelps said, via ESPN:

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"I'm so sick of the water. Even when I go to the beach with my friends. They're like, 'Why won't you get in?' And I'm like, 'Do you have any IDEA how much of my life I've spent in the water?'"

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Phelps first appeared in the Summer Olympics in 2000. At 15 years of age, he became the youngest male to make a U.S. Olympic swim team in 68 years. It was the beginning of a long reign as the supreme swimmer in the world.

Since then, Phelps has racked up an astounding 14 Olympic medals—six at Athens in 2006 and eight at Beijing in 2008. His eight gold medals were the most in a single event in Olympics history.

So when Phelps says he's tired of the water and he wants to retire, it's completely believable. He's been competing at such a high level for so many years that it has to wear on him mentally, as well as physically.

Phelps raced in the 200-meter butterfly and the 200 freestyle recently at the Charlotte Grand Prix, finishing second in both events. He says he's only warming up, but you wonder if he's lost some of the fire he once had.

Whatever happens in London, one thing's for sure: Phelps is one of the greatest swimmers of all time, if not the greatest. What he has done throughout his career has defied logic. He's made Olympic swimmers look like average competition.

Phelps will go down in history, and while you would love to see him swim for another four years, part of you is glad he's going out when he still has some fire in his belly. It would be hard to imagine an uninspired Michael Phelps.