Michael Phelps “Pretty Disappointed” in Team USA Men’s Swimming Results

Michael Phelps isn’t freestyling his constructive criticism to Team USA’s swimmers.

The Olympian—who won 28 medals during his Olympic career, including 23 gold—recently got candid with his thoughts on how the men on Team USA swam at the 2024 Olympics.

“For me as a whole,” he told USA Today Aug. 5, “I was pretty disappointed to see the U.S. swimming results.”

The 39-year-old did note that the team had “a few standout swims,” pointing out Bobby Finke‘s performance in the 1500-meter freestyle where he not only won gold, but set a new world record.

“He was prepared,” Michael added. “Hopefully the other athletes are more prepared going into ’28.”

As he explained, that preparedness is needed, especially for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, as more and more countries are swimming on par with Team USA.

“One of the things that I’ve always said over the last couple of years is the rest of the world is catching up,” he continued. “I think a lot of the things that we’ve done as a country for so long, the other people are catching up. They’re doing the same thing. Hopefully we’re able to make that transition leading into 2028.”

And Michael—who shares children Boomer, 8, Beckett, 6, Maverick, 4, and Nico, 6 months, with wife Nicole Phelps—is hopeful that a new swimmer will come along and try to break his Olympic records.

Victor Boyko/Getty Images for Sports for Peace

“Everyone thought what I was trying to do was impossible,” he explained. “And if somebody is trying to do it now, you guys will all say it’s impossible.”

But as he said, “records are made to be broken. You know the records that I was chasing throughout my career motivated me. So hopefully I can motivate somebody to do the same thing.”

And Team USA did set three world records at the Olympics in Paris, and took home a total of 28 medals (eight gold, 13 silver and seven bronze), including four gold for Katie Ledecky and three gold for Torri Huske. In the end, the team won 10 more medals than any other country. And the coaches were incredibly proud of what their teams accomplished.

“I think the meet was great,” women’s head coach Todd DeSorbo said, via USASwimming.com. “There was a lot of talk about a slow pool, but there were a lot of Olympic records set by all countries, including the U.S. I think it is great to come out on top, the gold medal standings and overall medal standings.”

Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Gretchen Walsh, Torri Huske, Team USA, Swimming, 2024 Olympics

Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

He explained that this is a “young team, with a lot of ups and downs,” but was still impressed that they still managed to be the best.

And men’s head coach Anthony Nesty added, as coaches, “we always want to be better.”

“This meet is about being resilient and overcoming bad breaks and trying to be better every session,” he continued. “I think we caught our stride on the second half of the meet and the results showed.”

To see all the gold medals Team USA won at the 2024 Paris Olympics, keep reading.

(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)