"They shoved us out of the door for years"- Michael Phelps claps back at Team USA's interim CEO's statement

Former swimming sensation Michael Phelps recently shared his thoughts on the statement issued by Team USA Swimming interim CEO Bob Vincent. Vincent had responded to the criticism of Team USA's performance at the World Aquatics Championships held this year in Singapore.

Former swimmers like Phelps, Ryan Lochte, and Rowdy Gaines criticized the current performance of Team USA at the World Championships in Singapore, saying it was not up to the mark. The interim CEO of USA Swimming responded by issuing a statement on behalf of the organization, where he mentioned,

"We respect and value the opinions of Rowdy, Michael, Ryan, and all USA Swimming alums. We acknowledge that their comments come from a place of passion and genuine desire to see USA Swimming succeed. We are saddened and disappointed at the timing of the comments. The USA Swimming team battled severe illness in Singapore, and these comments added public scrutiny to an already challenging situation for our athletes and coaches." [via SwimSwam]

Phelps responded to the same by writing in the comment section of Big Friendly Swim Podcast's Instagram post,

“maybe a false statement , bc I know they didn’t reach out to rowdy. They’ve shoved us out the door for years. Treated me like a piece of meat thro my career. Hopefully it changes someday….”

Screengrab of Michael Phelps' comment on the Instagram post [Image Source: Instagram]

Team USA finished outside the top two in the World Championships medals tally for the first time since the 2022 edition. The American swimmers managed to get just 32 medals overall, though the 10 gold medals made up for the otherwise not-so-impressive show at the World Championships.

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When Michael Phelps responded to Lilly King's criticism over Team USA's performance

Michael Phelps responds to Lilly King's jab about his comments on Team USA's performance at World Championships 2025 [Image Source: Getty]

Michael Phelps previously responded to his former teammate Lilly King's comments over his statement. The 28-year-old swimmer had called out Phelps over his comments on Team USA's performance at the current edition of the World Aquatics Championships.

King tagged Phelps and Lochte on August 2 in one of her Instagram stories, after Katie Ledecky had won her seventh consecutive gold medal in the Women's 800m freestyle event, and Team USA had broken the world record in the mixed freestyle relay event.

King wrote in the caption of her Instagram story,

“@mphelps00 @ryanlochte Y’all been real quiet tonight”

Phelps responded to the same in the comment section of SwimCellys, which had reposted the status. He wrote,

“We should be so proud of how the team swam as a whole …. Right?"

The Olympic champion swimmer clarified that his comments were never aimed at the swimmers themselves, but the administration behind them. In his words,

"Apologies for having higher expectations for the leadership of the team. My opinions were way off. USAS has what they finally want, me to ‘stay in my lane.’ They will continue to help the kids reach childhood dreams by their continued support 😳”

Michael Phelps had won his first gold medal at the 2001 edition of the World Championships held in Fukuoka, Japan. He won a total of 33 medals in the long course edition of the World Championships and one gold medal in the short course edition of the World Aquatics Championships.