Swimming in ink: Memorable Sun front pages featuring Michael Phelps at the Olympics

20 photos

You don’t become the most decorated Olympian of all time without ubiquitous worldwide press coverage — hardware equals headlines — but we can safely say the ink chronicling hometown hero Michael Phelps in the pages of The Baltimore Sun could fill entire swimming pools. A record 22 Olympic medals, including 18 golds, will do that. Search “Michael Phelps” in The Sun’s print archives and you’ll find more than 1,500 articles mentioning him, a total which isn’t comprehensive for the newspaper and doesn’t include any website or mobile content. Ninety-nine front-page (1A) stories* have at least mentioned Phelps, though he’s obviously been the main subject of many of those. Not bad for a 27-year-old, huh?

As Phelps begins life after competitive swimming, we take a look back at The Sun’s coverage of his Olympic medal-winning races in Athens, Beijing and London, highlighting the print covers and stories.

*The first Sun front-page story on Phelps, “Local swimmer, 15, headed for Olympics,” ran on Aug. 13, 2000, after “Little Phelps,” a rising sophomore at Towson High, qualified for the Sydney Games, becoming the youngest member of the U.S. men’s swim team since 1932. “‘Little Phelps’ has made a big splash in the swimming world,” reads the lede.

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Below is a breakdown of each of Phelps’ 22 Olympic medals, with links to The Sun’s print stories and covers (for the Beijing Games, instead of the daily stories, we’ve used in-depth race recaps that ran in a special section following the Olympics).

Which Phelps cover is your favorite and why?

For me, it’s a tie between the “8th Wonder” special section from the Beijing Olympics and the recent, “Amazing ride” front page from the London Games, which ran the day after Phelps broke the record for most career Olympic medals.

It certainly has been an amazing ride for Phelps, and an incredible amount of media coverage, but don’t expect the latter to end anytime soon. We’ll just have to wait and see what’s next for the former “Little Phelps.”

OLYMPICS RACE MEDAL COVERAGE
2004 Athens 400M Individual Medley Gold Sun story | Print cover
2004 Athens 4x100M Freestyle Relay Bronze Sun story | Print cover
2004 Athens 200M Freestyle Bronze Sun story | Print cover
2004 Athens 200M Butterfly Gold Sun story | Print cover
2004 Athens 4x200M Freestyle Relay Gold Sun story | Print cover
2004 Athens 200M Individual Medley Gold Sun story | Print cover
2004 Athens 100M Butterfly Gold Sun story | Print cover
2004 Athens 4x100M Medley Relay Gold Sun story | Print cover
2008 Beijing 400M Individual Medley Gold Sun recap | Print cover
2008 Beijing 4x100M Freestyle Relay Gold Sun recap | Print cover
2008 Beijing 200M Freestyle Gold Sun recap | Print cover
2008 Beijing 200M Butterfly Gold Sun recap | Print cover
2008 Beijing 4x200M Freestyle Relay Gold Sun recap | Print cover
2008 Beijing 200M Individual Medley Gold Sun recap | Print cover
2008 Beijing 100M Butterfly Gold Sun recap | Print cover
2008 Beijing 4x100M Medley Relay Gold Sun recap | Print cover
2012 London 4x100M Freestyle Relay Silver Sun story | Print cover
2012 London 200M Butterfly Silver Sun story | Print cover
2012 London 4x200M Freestyle Relay Gold Sun story | Print cover
2012 London 200M Individual Medley Gold Sun story | Print cover
2012 London 100M Butterfly Gold Sun story | Print cover
2012 London 4x100M Medley Relay Gold Sun story | Print cover

ALSO SEE

The Sun’s Michael Phelps online section

Photos: Michael Phelps’ 22 Olympic medals

Michael Phelps timeline

Michael Phelps’ 40 favorite things