Charlie Rose recently sat down to interview two of the sporting world’s bests, Michael Phelps and basketball coach Mike Krzyewski, to discuss a topic they are both very familiar with: greatness.
A custom link to the video has been embedded above, but if that doesn’t work, you can view the video here.
Mike Krzyewski, often referred to as “Coach K,” is college basketball’s all-time winningest coach. He recently coached the United States men’s Olympic basketball team to a gold medal this past summer (his third gold as head coach), and returns to Duke with a 1,018-310 career record (945-251 at Duke). He has five NCAA championships as Duke’s head coach, and has been named the National Coach of the Year eight times. You can read more on his website here.
Most of those in the swimming community are familiar with Phelps’s success, but as a quick refresher, he is the all-time most decorated Olympian ever. He leads in total medals (28), total golds (23), and the most golds at a single Olympics (8).He has competed at the last five straight Olympics. He is also the reigning world record holder in the 100 meter butterfly, 200 meter butterfly and 400 meter IM, and has been named World Swimmer of the Year seven times.
Coach K, who has always been a class act, was quick to gush about Phelps, saying he had the “X factor.” Phelps, in turn, attributed his success to his own coach, Bob Bowman. He pointed out that exceedingly few athletes stay with the same coach for 20 years, and that his best swimming years (2007, 2008) were accomplished after he agreed to do things Bowman’s way. Since the time he met Bowman as an 11-year-old kid in Baltimore, Phelps said he has always trusted his coach.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway for swim fans is how Phelps discussed his current swimming status. He first stated that he wants to continue to bring more attention to the U.S. National Swimming Team, which he believes is the most dominant team in the world, now that he is “kind of out of the pool” (implying that he is not totally out of the pool). He then went on to say, “I am retired . . . technically, not retired, but I am retiring soon[.]” Phelps said he hasn’t signed the official papers yet, which only fuels the fire of speculation surrounding his retirement.
Regardless of when his official retirement occurs, Phelps said that he envisions his next career move to involve working with kids, and that his goal is to continue giving to the sport of swimming.
I would be very interested to see this goal sheet Phelps was talking about for this year. I think clearly the one race he was happy about was the 4 x 100 freestyle split.
doesn’t work in internet explorer but does in Firefox
Hilarious how Phelps nods his head when Coach K says he is one of the greatest athletes ever
Exceedingly few Duke basketball players stay with Duke for more than a year.
Said another way, it’s really really really exceedingly exceeding by a really lot that Bowman coached MP for so many years.
They don’t stay at Duke because they turn pro.
Kind of interesting that Phelps has not signed the papers yet to take himself out of the testing pool.
It is excellent but not really an interview than an interesting conversation between Michael and Coach K.
Where can the interview be found?
The video interview should be embedded just below the title. Simply click the play icon. If that doesn’t work, the original link is:
https://charlierose.com/videos/29280
It’s a fantastic interview (Phelps talks about watching Le Clos in the ready room before this year’s 200m fly), and worth the effort.
Got it! Thanks. Was looking on mobile the first time.