During the past couple of days, the world saw how dominating Michael Phelps truly is in the water as he claimed his 23rd gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. But, according to the records released by USA Swimming, it seems that Kris Humphries of the Atlanta Hawks used to be way better than Phelps.
The records released by the organization showed the fastest swimmers from different age groups from 1904 to 1995, back when Phelps and Humphries were only around 10 years old.
And, as indicated in the document, Humphries topped three categories in his age class. The first is the 100-meter freestyle, where the NBA star clocked in at 1 minute and 2.39 seconds. Phelps, on the other hand, finished at ninth place with a time of 1 minute and 6.32 seconds.
In another event, the 50-meter backstroke, Humphries was named as the top swimmer again at 33.24 seconds while Phelps held the fourth place at 35.08 seconds.
In the other category, which was the 50-meter freestyle, Humphries finished at 27.71 seconds. Although Phelps was not on that category's list, Olympians Milorad Cavic and Ryan Lochte were there and they trailed behind the future NBA star.
According to NBA.com, before becoming a basketball player, Humphries was a competitive swimmer who was influenced by his family. According to the athlete, he only decided to switch to a different sport after getting tired of swimming and seeing Michael Jordan play.
"I was so good at a young age that I got a little burnt out," he told People. "I also grew up in the Michael Jordan era... for me, I watched [basketball] and saw it as a challenge."
"It's hard to stay focused on something when you have a ton of success at a young age, so I picked up basketball a little later and rolled with that," he added.
Although Humphries currently has a thriving NBA career with the Hawks, it still interesting to see what he can actually do in the pool as an adult if he didn't stop his training when he was still a kid. Perhaps he could have been the one taking home 23 gold medals or even more and not Phelps.
