“I would make them eat every word,” Phelps responds after watching the clip.
Michael Phelps wasn’t laughing after he was shown a video of an Australian swimmer complaining about the U.S. Swim team. In a new clip posted to the NBC Olympics and Team USA Instagram pages, the 23-time gold medalist becomes increasingly agitated as he watches a video of Australia’s Cate Campbell bragging about having beaten the U.S. team at the 2023 World Championships in Japan.
The clip is from a television interview Campbell, 32, did with Australia’s Channel 9 last year after the competition, in which Australia walked away with 15 gold medals to Team USA’s seven. In total, Team USA won 44 all-around medals to Australia’s 30 at the event.
During Peacock’s broadcast of the event, the streaming service showed a table with the rankings according to the total medal count instead of who had more gold medals, drawing Campbell’s ire.
“Such, such, sore losers,” Campbell said in the full 2023 clip, according to SwimSwam.com. “Australia coming out on top is one thing, but it is just so much sweeter beating America. There were a couple of nights, particularly the first night of competition, where we did not have to hear the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ ring out through the stadium and I cannot tell you how happy that made me. If I never hear that song again it will be too soon. Bring on Paris, that’s all I have to say. U.S., stop being sore losers.”
Campbell also said that the Americans were ringing a cowbell and chanting “USA! USA!” in the warmup area, annoying her and the other Australian swimmers. “I’ve never wanted to punch someone more,” Campbell said.
Phelps, who watched the clip with an increasingly intense look on his face, did not take Campbell’s comments lightly. “If somebody said that to me, I would lose it,” Phelps said after watching the clip. “I would make them eat every word they just said about me.”
Phelps said the American swimmers should watch the clip every day from now until they’re done competing at the 2024 Paris Games. The most decorated Olympic athlete of all time then calls out swimmers he went up against during his days competing, saying those like Australia’s Ian Thorpe and South Africa’s Chad le Clos would trash talk him.
“You guys all talked s— about me. And I had the last laugh,” Phelps said, smiling. “So for the Americans, if you see what I just saw, I would watch that thing every day to give me that little extra bit of just oomph.”
Phelps then shakes his head in disbelief about the video, struggling to get words out that express his frustration. “Well, the good news is the Olympics will be here shortly and we’ll be able to see what the results are.”
Phelps will be there firsthand to see how it all plays out, too. NBCUniversal announced on Friday morning that the legendary American swimmer will return to the broadcast booth to help cover Team USA’s swimming competitions.
“We are excited to have Michael return to our coverage across both daytime and primetime, and of course, the place where no one knows more about winning — at the pool,” Molly Solomon, the executive producer and president of NBC Olympics Production, said in a statement. “With his ability to analyze and entertain, our viewers are in for another gold-medal performance.”
The Olympics begin next month with the opening ceremony taking place on July 26.
To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, visit TeamUSA.com and come to people.com to check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. Watch the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, beginning July 26, on NBC and Peacock.
