​ Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Phelps Ends Retirement

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Most people were shocked to hear that 22-time U.S. Olympic medalist Michael Phelps was retiring at the young age of 27.After all, he's been hailed as one of the greatest swimmers of all time, holding more gold medals (18) than any other athlete. However, Phelps admitted that he wanted to end his career on a positive note rather than pushing himself for another four years. He had already done the impossible, so why not call it quits?

After calling it quits and announcing his retirement two years ago, Phelps has been busy launching a chain of swim schools for children while teaching the importance of water safety. He's also starred in a number of television commercials and even participated in the reality television show “ The Haney Project ” with coach Hank Haney.Whether you support his decision to retire early or not, there's no denying the fact that Phelps has kept busy with a wide variety of projects.

Earlier this month, however, Phelps announced plans to end his retirement by competing at the Grand Prix in Mesa, Arizona. The now 28-year-old Olympic athlete will compete in a 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle swim as well as a 100-meter butterfly swim. It's the first competition he's participated in since 2012 so many people – including myself – are eager to see him perform.

News of Phelps' return to competitive swimming leaves one major question unanswered: Will he compete in the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics ? Neither Phelps or his coach have directly answered this question but it's certainly a possibility. If the young swimmer returns to the scene, it would be his fifth run at the Olympics.

“I don't think anybody knows.” said Bob Bowman, Phelps' swimming coach, when asked by Reuters about the athletes plans to return to compete in the 2016 Olympics. “ Certainly he has done some training and gotten into decent physical condition and thought it would be fun to try some racing and we will find out next week how that goes.I don't think we can really call it a comeback yet. We'll see how next week goes and take it from there but [Rio] is a possibility since he decided to consistently train .”

If Phelps decides to take another shot at the Olympics, we'll likely hear about it soon.Phelps is known for announcing his decision to compete early, building up anticipation for the event.