SWIMMING: Michael Phelps explains tears following 22nd gold medal

You would think Michael Phelps has become accustomed to accepting Olympic gold medals. After all, he now has 22 of them.

But as “The Star-Spangled Banner” played Thursday for the 200 meter individual medley medal ceremony, Phelps could not hold back his emotions, and tears filled his eyes as his final Olympics approaches an end.

“Every single day I’m living a dream come true,” Phelps said later. “As a kid I wanted to do something that no one had ever done before and I’m enjoying it.

“Being able to finish how I won is just something very special to me and this is why you are seeing more and more emotion on the medal podium.”

After a dark period in his life following his retirement from swimming and DUI arrest in 2014, Phelps has matured thanks to his family and starting one of his own with fiancee Nicole and son Boomer.

“Every single time I come out [of the pool] I try to look up and see Nicole, my mom, Boomer and the rest of my family,” he said.

“It brings tears to my eyes because I want to hold him and hang out with him more.”

Boomer will have two more opportunities to watch his father try for gold — in Friday’s 100m butterfly and Saturday’s 4×100 medley relay. Then he and mom will have Phelps all to themselves.