2024-07-31 23:30:03
From rap legend to lap legend, there was no doggie paddling in the shallow end of the pool when Olympic special NBC correspondent Snoop Dogg got into water with the G.O.A.T., Michael Phelps.
In a fun promotional video for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, Snoop lived out one of his lifelong swimming dreams, made possible by the one and only Olympics icon. Cited by Snoop as the O.G., the keeper of 28 Olympic medals — 23 of which are gold — thrilled to pleased to see the musician flaunt his freestyle stroke in the pool.
Of course, it wasn’t as easy as Phelps made it appear.
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Snoop Dogg and Michael Phelps get ready to swim
Snoop arrived at the private indoor pool prepared, representing Team USA with a customized red, white, and blue swimming robe. Phelps was also ready, wearing a sporty navy jacket and a white top emblazoned with the U.S. flag.
“See, me and M.P., we go back like the backstroke,” Snoop told cameras.
He asked Phelps about the key to gaining speed in the water, to which Phelps said it was all about wingspan and lung power.
“I definitely have lung power,” Snoop joked. “And I do have a swimmer’s body.”
The men stood side by side to demonstrate their “twin”-like physiques.
Snoop does the freestyle stroke
The pair stripped down to their swimsuits and placed their swimming caps on their heads, though, unlike Phelps, Snoop declined to use a pair of goggles. The rapper then went under the water before breaking out into an arm-over-arm freestyle stroke, becoming winded when he reached the other end of the pool.
“Swimming’s tough, huh?” Phelps laughed.
“It is!” Snoop responded.
When it was Phelps’ turn to swim underwater, Snoop called his display “gangsta.”
Snoop put on his goggles for the second lap, and the men kicked off the pool’s side and swam simultaneously. The “Drop It Like It’s Hot” singer remarked that Phelps made the sport look all too easy, realizing that lung power was no joke as far as competitive swimming went.
Still, Snoop was as proud as punch, high-fiving the athlete when successfully completing their swim.
“As you see, I’m in gold-medal condition,” an out-of-breath Snoop told NBC Sports. “And he’s still in gold-medal condition … as we speak.”
The men smiled as Snoop gave a shoutout to the Phelps family, “and to the team that’s gonna give me some oxygen right now.”
Michael Phelps to the 2024 Olympic swimmers
The legendary Phelps retired following the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, but that hasn’t stopped him from remaining a visible presence in the sport, joining NBC’s swimming coverage in the City of Light and supporting his fellow athletes. In a July 27, 2024, sit-down with NBC News correspondent Lester Holt, he said he held high hopes for Katie Ledecky, Kate Douglass, Jack Alexy, and Hunter Armstrong.
“It’s kind of really anyone’s ball game,” said Phelps.
He added what he thought was the “greatest thing” about the current lineup of competitive swimmers.
“You really see the younger generation that’s stepping up,” Phelps continued. “It doesn’t matter if they’re racing Katie Ledecky; it doesn’t matter if they’re racing Caeleb Dressel; they think they can beat them, and that’s the kind of attitude and the mentality we need to have when we’re going up and racing the best in the world.”
