And today the 23-year-old from Baltimore has yet another accomplishment to add to his social media resume: one million Facebook fans! With a little prodding from the social network (the site has been congratulating him and directing US users towards his fan page - see below), Phelps is now second only to Barack Obama in fans, and is quickly approaching 50,000 wall posts too.
Beyond the Fan Page, Phelps actually uses Facebook, and alluded to the sudden surge he was seeing in friend requests in an interview with NBC’s Bob Costas over the weekend. How long will Phelps mania last? According to Google trends (which only updated thru Sunday), news references for the athlete have finally leveled off, but given Phelps is on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week and the Olympic closing ceremonies still await, expect him to swim right past Obama and become the most popular Facebook user of all-time.
