One Of Michael Phelps’ Longest-Held Swimming Records Just Fell To A 10-Year-Old Named Clark Kent
Looks like Michael Phelps lost one record and to a 10-year-old boy! Clark Kent Apuada won the second best 100-meter butterfly, beating out Phelps who has been holding that title since 1995.
According to CNN, Clark swims for the Monterey County Aquatic Team and over the weekend, he competed at the Far West International Championship in California where he won the 100-meter butterfly in 1:09:38. He broke Phelps’ record by 1.1 seconds. Clark also won 6 other races at the meet.
They call Clark “Superman” or, at least, he wants everyone to start calling him that. “Most people just call me Clark, but now, when I beat Michael Phelps’ record, they start calling me Superman,” he said. “I thought to myself yeah if I had positive thoughts, positive things would happen.”
Even his coach is impressed with him. “It’s the coolest thing in the world because that’s all he talked about,” said Travis Rianda, Apuada’s swim coach, to CBS News. “It wasn’t like, ‘I want to be better than Michael Phelps,’ or anything like that. His first goals were, ‘I want to be a scientist, an Olympic gold medalist for the United States and I want to be a black belt.’ He’s on track for all three of those.”
One of the more impressive things is that Clark has only been swimming competitively for four years.
“I love swimming because I have a lot of people supporting me and my coaches are always there for me and my parents are always there,” Clark said.
Swimming isn’t just all he does either. Clark has a few other fun hobbies. “He does piano lessons, he does martial arts, and at school if there’s a computer class, coding, or STEM programs he’s always joining,” Clark’s father, Chris Apuada, said.
Always the good sport, Phelps actually sent a tweet to congratulate Clark for beating his butterfly record.
Phelps on Wednesday wrote, “Big congrats to #clarkkent for smashing that meet record!!! Keep it up dude!!#dreambig”
Big congrats to #clarkkent for smashing that meet record!!! Keep it up dude !!#dreambig
— Michael Phelps (@MichaelPhelps) August 1, 2018
Perhaps he used the hashtag #dreambig because Clark said it. According to CNN, he gave this advice to others, “Dream big and always focus on your dreams and have fun.”
Phelps has won 28 Olympic medals. Phelps is also the most decorated Olympian of all time. Taking those things into consideration, we’re sure Phelps is doing just fine handling the loss.
