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Michael Phelps - "Staying Off Booze Helps!"

Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, is making his fifth Olympic appearance this year in the 2016 Rio Olympics. Even though he may be the greatest swimmer of all-time, it's not easy swimming competitively when you're thirty years old.

But once again, it's Michael Phelps we are talking about. The man knows no limits.

Despite his illustrious career in swimming, Phelps got in trouble several times due to drugs and alcohol. And after he received his second DUI and went through a 45-day rehab period in 2015, he vowed that he would not take a sip of alcohol until the 2016 Olympics were over. And he has kept his promise and is looking better than ever as he gets ready for Rio.
During an interview last weekend, Phelps said,
"Not having a drink for over a year-and-a-half, it's incredible. It's not only my body -- on a lot of different levels. It's been amazing. I can really tell the difference with my body, sort of not carrying that weight on my back."

And this is why I have huge expectations for one of my favorite athletes of all time.

Michael might not be the same Michael he was eight years ago when he won those nine gold medals. But just by standing up to his mistakes and taking a shot at the thing he does best...the thing he loves the most, I respect the hell out of him.
This must have been a tough decision for Michael to give up alcohol. I believe however that this was probably the best choice he could have ever made in his lifetime and it will not only inspire and change his life, but also the lives of others all around the world. It certainly has changed and inspired my own life.

Thank you Michael.

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DavidGom
Glad to see him back in the water. And can't believe he won all those medals even after drinking a shit ton. Imagine what he could've achieved if he hadn't drank his entire career.
alywoah
This is awesome. Yeah, sometimes alcohol can hold you back....especially if you're a serious athlete that trains everyday.
mchlyang
@DavidGom Def talented. But he also put in a shit ton of work!
mchlyang
@alywoah Yeah. But I wouldn't be so against having a drink or two once in awhile. But the fact that he's totally staying off alcohol shows you how dedicated he is for the upcoming Olympics!
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Every little girl dreams of how it'd be to live a day as a mermaid. Their wavy ocean hair and sparkling fins are equal parts luxurious and ethereal. They can breathe underwater, they make friends with fish, and - let's be honest - they're way cooler than just being some storybook princess. With this in mind, it makes sense why FinFun is so popular. FinFun is a UK-based company that specializes in creating swimmable mermaid tails suitable for the 'landlubber' with dreams of grandeur. For about $40 - 60 USD, you can buy a child- or adult-sized a shimmery 'monofin' made out of a lightweight polyester-spandex blend. Since 2010, the company has been selling a steady stock of these tails. However, it wasn't long before some parents and local governments were pushing back. Above, you can see a PSA created by an outraged parents' group with an alarming video of a time one girl almost drowned in her family pool by wearing the monofin design. In addition, several major cities in Canada banned the tails from their local pools, citing that the tails are most popular with small children, commonly "weak swimmers" who cannot swim well with their legs bound together in such a fashion. The City of Edmonton's Rob Campbell, supervisor of aquatic strategies, added that swimming with a monofin "promotes breath-holding which can result in blackouts.” The official FinFun website responded by creating a 'safety' section of their website, complete with a swimming 'test' you should do with your child prior to purchasing a FinFun mermaid tail for them. The company adds that monofins ARE safe for use, claiming: "Our tails and monofins meet the Child Protection Safety Commission requirements (CPSC) for the United States and Australia and over a period of four years and over 500,000 FinFun mermaid tails sold we have had zero reported incidents involving our tails." Is banning mermaid tails from city pools a move that's too cautious? Or is using one as dangerous as it seems? Would you buy one for your child? Let me know in the comments below, and for more WTF News, follow my WTF Street Journal collection.
[Ladies' Week] Dara Torres - "Age is Just a Number"
So, @shannonl5 planned this awesome event, "Ladies' Week" (check out ~Announcing: Ladies' Week Event!~ just in case you haven't heard about it!). And in celebration of this awesome event, I wanted to start out with a female athlete that has inspired me: Dara Torres! Just in case you guys have never heard about Dara Torres, she is a former competitive swimmer who is also a twelve-time Olympic medalist and a former world record-holder in three events (50-meter freestyle, 4x100-meter freestyle relay, and 4x100-meter medley relay). But her medals and world records don't capture her whole story. There's more. Torres has competed in five different olympics: 1984 Los Angeles, 1988 Seoul, 1992 Barcelona, 2000 Sydney, and 2008 Beijing. That's right. Five different Olympics over the span of twenty-four years. She was 17 when she competed in her first ever Olympics and she took home a gold medal. She was 41 when she competed in her last one and took a silver medal home. Her life was definitely something you would not call perfect. She was already the oldest member on the U.S. swim team at the age of 33 during the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She could not get pregnant at the age of 35. She was divorced twice by the age of 37. She had her first daughter at the age of 39. Her father also passed away that same year. But as Torres put it perfectly, "But when I was 41 and I woke up in a dorm in the Olympic Village in Beijing, I didn’t feel old. I felt merely—and, yes, happily—middle-aged. ‘The water doesn’t know how old you are.’" For her, age was just merely a number and her dedication and passion for swimming gave her the courage to try out for the 2008 Summer Olympics despite the personal barriers she faced. Torres wasn't quite finished though. After the 2008 Olympics, she underwent a knee surgery, but jumped back in the pool as soon as she was ready to swim once again. And she competed in the U.S. swimming trials to earn a spot on the 2012 London Olympics team for the 50-meter freestyle. She however was denied a spot. Jessica Hardy won first place with 24.50 seconds and Kara Lynn Joyce took the remaining spot. Dara was nine-hundredths of a second behind her sixth Olympics. She was 45 at the time. Even though she did not make it for the 2012 Olympics, she had no regrets, because she gave everything she had. She simply hugged her daughter, Tessa, and congratulated her fellow swimmers. [Video: 2008 Beijing Olympics Women's 4x100 Freestyle Relay Final/Torres's Last Olympic Medal] She has been such an inspiration for me and people all around the world. We sometimes put a limit on ourselves without even giving our best shot. Torres however never, ever made any excuses and simply focused on achieving her goals. I would like to end this card with my favorite Torres quote: "You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams."