By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: 17:48 EDT, 12 August 2025 | Updated: 17:48 EDT, 12 August 2025
OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) - The Baltimore Ravens got their chance to swim with Michael Phelps.
A couple of weeks after players shot video asking the 23-time Olympic champion - and Baltimore native - for swimming lessons, Phelps showed up at practice Tuesday. Then the team posted video of players swimming and diving - or at least leaping off diving boards - at nearby Loyola University.
In one video posted by a reporter for the team's website, Phelps let everyone else have a significant head start before diving in and racing them. At least some of them did beat him to the end.
Phelps also toured the smaller pools at the Ravens´ facility, and he spoke to the team on the practice field along with former Ravens star Ray Lewis.
"I´m not going to say I´m a big swimming fan, but I know Michael Phelps," defensive coordinator Zach Orr said. "I think it was neat having him and Ray come talk to us, because the message was the same. That´s one thing you notice when you listen to the greats. When you study the greats, you wonder, `How do they do such great things in the highest tense moments?´ And it all leads back to the work that nobody sees, and that´s what Michael Phelps talked about. Ray talked about preparation. Michael Phelps talked about preparation as well."
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FILE - United States' Michael Phelps reacts after winning the silver medal in the men's 100-meter butterfly final during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 12, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
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