Just as a fair warning the below is just a quick post about Michael Phelps’ individual events in the Olympics thus far, there will be another post that would focus on the relays that he has participated in the past as well as which he is expected to participate in the upcoming Olympics.
With Michael Phelps choosing to drop the 200m freestyle from his swimming card for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, I thought it would be interesting to go back in time and watch his progression from the first Olympic Trials that he participated in: the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia:
During the 2000 US Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, Michael competed in three events and how he fared:
| EVENT | PRELIM | SEMIS | FINALS |
| 200 Meter Butterfly | 1:58.61 (Q) | 1:58.24 (Q) | 1:57.48 (Q) |
| 200 Meter Individual Medley | 2:06.91 | ||
| 400 Meter Individual Medley | 4:25.97 |
So way back when, Michael only qualified for one events in the Olympics, but considering he was only 15 at the time… well what would you expect? He was making his mark on the scene and the world wasn’t going to forget Michael in the years to come.
Since then Michael has expanded his swimming dance card to the point that he was able to compete up to eight events per Olympics. Below is a table of all the events (individual only) he has competed in during the past three Olympic Trials (2000, 2004 and 2008) broken down by event.