Michael Phelps explains reason for secret marriage before Rio

Michael Phelps: Swimmer explains reason for secret marriage

Olympic gold medalist swimmer Michael Phelps says the reason he secretly got married over the summer was to make it easier for his son and fiancée to travel to the Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro.

Phelps married his fiancée, Nicole Johnson in June, after the couple had their first child a month earlier.

"We wanted to try to make it as smooth as we could for them to travel,” Phelps said, according to USA Today. “It was small. It was our closest friends and family there. It was perfect.”

Phelps went on to win five gold medals and one silver in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

“It was small,” Phelps said. “It was our closest friends and family there. It was perfect,” Phelps said.

Phelps, a 28-time Olympic medalist with 23 golds, said he is retired from competition. Phelps said he officially removed himself from the drug-testing pool, in which testers have to know an athletes whereabouts and can test them at any time.

“I said to (longtime agent) Peter (Carlisle), I was like, ‘Get the papers, can we just sign these things, so I don’t have to do the daily updates and everything?" Phelps said. "It’s good. I’m still in the pool (for fun). I’m still not coming back.”

– Scooby Axson