Kris Humphries Was Once A Better Swimmer Than Michael Phelps
Kris Humphries is known for a lot of things–his short-lived stint as Mr. Kim Kardashian, his scoring and rebounding prowess with the now-Brooklyn Nets–but most people probably don’t know that at one point in time he was a better swimmer than Michael Phelps.
As a child Humphries was a swimming phenom, and had he not burned out on the sport and switched to basketball while he was still young it would likely be Humphries taking home gold medals, Fox Sports reported.
It all goes back to when Humphries was 10 years old, a pool rat who was actually ranked No. 1 in his age bracket. The person ranked No. 2 was a kid named Michael Phelps.
Kris Humphries has actually spoken in the past about his days swimming, talking about it in an interview with People.com a few years ago.
“I was so good at a young age (he outraced Phelps when he was 10 years old) that I got a little burnt out,” Humphries said. “I also grew up in the Michael Jordanera … for me, I watched (basketball) and saw it as a challenge. It’s hard to stay focused on something when you have a ton of success at such a young age, so I picked up basketball a little later and rolled with that.”
From there the paths of the Olympian and NBA star diverged. By age 15 Phelps was competing in the Olympics, while just a few years later Humphries was off to the University of Minnesota, where he would take Big 10 Freshman of the Year on the way to becoming a first-round draft pick.
The revelation about Kris Humphries’ swimming prowess came courtesy of NetsDaily.com, which tweeted the factoid on Wednesday.
At age 10, Michael Phelps was ranked #2 among swimmers of his age class. The #1 swimmer was Kris Humphries
— NetsDaily.com (@NetsDaily) August 1, 2012
Kris Humphries still holds two Under 10 swimming records: 50m FR 27.71 and 100m FR 1:02.39, set in 1995, besting Michael Phelps.
— NetsDaily.com (@NetsDaily) August 1, 2012
But none of the accolades on the court or in the pool can take away from Humphries’ other claim to fame–actually beating Michael Phelps. As ESPNNewYork.com pointed out, the two faced off before in a race, with Kris Humphries coming out on top.
