This article is part of HuffPost’s Reclaim campaign, an ongoing project spotlighting the world’s waste crisis and how we can begin to solve it.
As a swimmer who once ate 12,000 calories a day to fuel his journey to Olympic glory, Michael Phelps isn’t one to waste food.
“I always had been taught as a kid to eat everything on my plate,” he told The Huffington Post recently. “I know exactly how hungry I am and that’s exactly what I put on my plate.”
Now retired from competition, he’s still conscious of putting every morsel to use. “We always save our leftovers,” he said. “For somebody who travels so much, it’s easy just to throw something in the microwave for us.”
If more people were like Phelps, perhaps we wouldn’t be in such a crisis. According to the United Nations, one third of the food produced globally is wasted every year.
Phelps devoured the competition as well in his Olympic career. He won 23 Olympic gold medals and 28 medals overall, including six last summer in Rio.
He appears to be making a splash in the new phase of his life, too. Phelps and now-wife Nicole welcomed a son, Boomer, last May, and he’s devoting lots of energy to his foundation, which promotes swimming and swimming safety for kids.
Phelps was making the media rounds last week after he appeared with the foundation and a sponsor, KRAVE Jerky, to present a $20,000 check to the Boys & Girls Club of Harford County, Maryland, near his native Baltimore.
But future public appearances won’t involve him competing in the pool. He told HuffPost while he finds swimming laps a few times a week “relaxing,” he’s sticking by his decision to retire.
“I’m done,” he said.
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