Michael Phelps has a relatively long torso and relatively short legs. At 6 foot 4 inches, he has a torso of a man who is 4 inches taller and the legs of a man 8 inches shorter. His disproportionately large chest enables him to power through the water, while shorter legs produce less drag (or water resistance). Oh, and that’s before we get to his size 14 feet and 6-foot 7-inch wingspan. Phelps was built to swim fast. Based on nothing more than his physical attributes, it would not be a stretch to infer he had a natural endowment for moving through water. Having cultivated and trained those latent characteristics, Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time, sporting 23 gold medals. I would not be remiss in suggesting he was born with a natural advantage.
