Phelps winning streak in the 200-meter butterfly event at the Michigan Grand Prix that year spanned nine years and more than 60 competition.
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Chinese swimmer Wu Peng has come out of retirement at the 2023 Chinese Nationals. He is the one who ended the nine-year 60-win streak of swimmer Michael Phelps. Wu Peng was retirement in 2013 after World Championship. He mentioned that his career was ‘full of satisfaction. However, he will be back from his retirement in Chinese Spring Nationals in Qingdao.
He is most likely to compete in a shorter pool and looking to gain his spot in this year’s Asian Games held in Hangzhou. He gained this spot with an amazing swim of 23.81 in the 50 freestyle. This will the first big event for him after his retirement. While talking to a channel he said that he has gotten even fitter by losing six to seven kilograms of weight. He also said that his focus is on participating in 50m and 100m races.
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Wu may not have achieved his greatest successes on a grand scale; rather, they took place at two Grand Prix competitions held in the United States in 2011. Michael Phelps’s winning streak in the 200-meter butterfly event at the Michigan Grand Prix that year spanned nine years and more than 60 competitions. However, Wu outperformed Phelps in that match by approaching the blocks. The Charlotte Ultra Swim was their next competition, where Wu again defeated Phelps. Even though it did not foreshadow Wu’s Olympic success, it did indicate a weakness in the GOAT’s defenses that allowed Chad le Clos to beat him in the Olympic 200-fly final in London.
Wu was born on 16 May 1987 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. He was inspired to pursue swimming by witnessing the 1996 Summer Olympics, where a Chinese men’s swimmer finished fourth in 50 m freestyle and women’s secured gold. Wu told his father that he wanted to be the first Chinese man to take home an Olympic swimming medal.
He gained some wonderful experience and exposure in the National and Asian Games. His first Olympic participation came in the 2004 Athens Olympics where he reached the finals of the 200m butterfly. He was the bronze medalist in the 2005 World Championships. Moreover, he secured a gold medal in the short-course World Championships. He also added a silver medal in the 200 fly at the 2007 World Championships to his medal list. In his second Olympics in Beijing, he reached the finals of the 200m butterfly and finished fourth. His last Olympic event was in 2012 in London, where he did not manage to get to secure any position.
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