People experience life in a state of flux. As such, tables sometimes get turned, and roles get reversed. Michael Phelps once experienced this change firsthand during his last Olympic meet. And it involved another swimming GOAT.

The swimmer started his journey towards becoming the most decorated at the Athens Olympics in 2004. At the meet, he clinched eight medals, including six golds, putting him among the list of legends.

Two pictures showed how the roles had reversed for Michael Phelps

Phelps did not stop there. He went on to rise to the top of the list. And it was not only among swimmers. In subsequent meets, the Flying Fish dominated most of his events and made his mark as the most decorated Olympian in the history of the meet.

Following the Athens Games, the athlete began appearing for autograph signing events. During this time, a little child appeared amidst the queue of fans flocking to his station to get their swimming paraphernalia signed.

The kid was none other than the swimming GOAT, Katie Ledecky. But back then, nobody knew her. She had a few years left when she would dominate her events in the sport, much like the Baltimore Bullet. But her eyes had that spark of aspiration even then.

Sure enough, the roles had changed in a decade. In 2016, Phelps had a photo taken of him queueing up to get a poster signed by the very girl with the broad smile who could not contain her excitement at meeting the winningest athlete a decade earlier. This time, the Baltimore Bullet found himself at the other side of the table, flaunting a smile.

More on the photograph posted by Katie Ledecky

Ledecky merged both the photos into one picture and shared them on her social media account. It showcased how times change and also addressed the impermanence of things. The swimmer had an illustrious meeting at the 2016 Olympics. She won five medals at the meet, of which four were gold.

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When she posted the picture on Facebook, fans of the athlete swarmed the platform to comment and like the photo. It has garnered over 34k likes and numerous motivating and inspirational comments from fans and other athletes.

In recent times, Katie has added even more medals to her list of accolades. Apart from the Olympics, she has had an illustrious career at the FINA World Championships. This year, she added four more golds at the Worlds to become the female swimmer with the most medals at the meet.

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And now she also has the second-most world championship gold medals in history after Phelps.