Michael Phelps rejoins NBC’s Olympic broadcast team for swimming coverage in Paris

Michael Phelps is back in the broadcast booth.

The American swimmer and most decorated Olympian of all time will return to NBC’s Olympic broadcast team for swimming coverage at the Paris Games, the network announced Friday.

“We are excited to have Michael return to our coverage across both daytime and prime time, and of course, the place where no one knows more about winning — at the pool,” Molly Solomon, executive producer and president of NBC Olympics Production, said in a statement.

Phelps, 38, will appear on Olympic daytime and prime-time shows for NBC and Peacock. He will also join play-by-play broadcaster Dan Hicks and analyst Rowdy Gaines in the booth for select Olympic swimming events at París La Défense Arena.

Phelps was a part of NBC’s swimming broadcast team during the Tokyo Games in 2021.

As a swimmer, Phelps competed in five Olympic Games. In 2008 in Beijing, Phelps won eight gold medals, the most for a swimmer at a single Olympics. In total, Phelps finished his illustrious Olympic career with 23 gold medals, three silver and two bronze.

Phelps will also join Hicks and Gaines in the booth for the conclusion of the U.S. Olympic swimming trials in Indianapolis starting Friday night. Phelps appeared in a segment during Thursday’s NBC broadcast, where he reacted to some trash talk about the U.S.-Australia swimming rivalry.

“I would literally make them eat every word they just said about me,” Phelps said.

“I would make them eat every word they said about me.”

Michael Phelps got FIRED UP about the USA vs. Australia swimming rivalry ahead of the pic.twitter.com/57cKaLvgtE

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) June 21, 2024

Significance of Phelps on NBC’s Olympic broadcast team

Phelps was a major viewership driver for NBC as a competitor and the Olympic audience is very familiar with him. Network executives like Solomon liked his work at the Tokyo Olympics as a commentator alongside Hicks and Gaines.

That’s a justified take. Phelps was good at offering layperson explanations of what was happening in the pool and he was not shy with opinions. I’d expect him to have forceful criticism on-air when it comes to the story of the 23 elite Chinese swimmers testing positive for a banned substance months before the Tokyo Games and how that will impact these Games. The content formula for covering the Olympics has always been to use Olympic champions on a broadcast and this is a continuation of that philosophy.— Richard Deitsch, sports media writer

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(Photo: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)