Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps are two of the greatest Olympians of all time. In fact, there is an ever-going debate about who is the greater Olympian.

However, the one thing that is absolutely certain is that they both have etched their names in history. Phelps, with twenty-eight Olympic medals, and Bolt with eight straight gold medals, are both living legends.

Surprisingly, despite having competed at the Olympics in their disciplines for years on end, the two never met. At least, not at the Olympics. That’s right, the two great legends never met at any Olympics, and their eventual meeting was quite unceremonious.

How Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt met after the 2016 Olympics

It comes as a surprise for anyone to know that Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt never met at any Olympics. After all, they are both two of the greatest Olympians in history, and one would think they crossed paths.

However, that wasn’t to be, and Phelps and Bolt never met at any Olympics. Despite having participated in four Olympics together (2004-2016), Bolt never met Michael.

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In the end, the two finally met because of the 2017 Laureus World Sports Awards. Bolt was to win the Best Male Athlete award at the awards, and Phelps had garnered the Comeback of the Year award.

In fact, the two didn’t even meet at the award show itself. Their first meeting happened at the airport en route to Monaco, the venue for the award show. At the award show itself, Bolt shared how meeting each other had been “hard because we’re both so famous”. “We’ve never really crossed paths,” he said.

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Moreover, even Phelps expressed surprise at the fact that it took them so long to meet. “It was wild. We were sitting there and I was like oh, it only took twelve years for us to meet,” Phelps said.

Bolt reasons why he never crossed paths with Phelps

Usain Bolt tried to explain why he thought he never met Michael Phelps up until the 2017 Laureus awards. After all, two amazingly decorated champions such as themselves should have at least run into each other at an Olympics event.

“He (Michael) always starts off the Olympics,” Bolt had said at the Laureus Awards in 2017. “Then, when he’s finished swimming, I start running”.

Thus, Bolt believed the conflicting schedules of the Olympics were to blame for the two great champions never having met. Michael Phelps shared what he felt when he finally met Usain Bolt for the first time.

“I was like oh, I guess I get to meet Usain today,” Michael shared. When the two met, Michael even congratulated him for his achievements. “Fastest man in the world, congratulations, nice meeting you,” Michael had said.

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