Team USA swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, fronts Louis Vuitton’s new Core Values campaign.

The 27-year-old, arguably the biggest star of the London Olympics, appears in a new campaign promoting the brand’s high-end range of day bags and luggage.

Shot by Annie Leibovitz, Phelps appears only in a black speedo and some goggles, submerged in a stark bathtub beside a Vuitton tote.

In another image, Phelps is depicted chatting to Larissa Latynina, the former Soviet gymnast who, until July 31 was the most decorated Olympian with 18 medals – until Phelps proverbially lapped her.

Phelps follows in the footsteps of fellow celebrities Sean Connery, Muhammad Ali, Angelina Jolie and singer Bono in modelling for the brand’s Core Values campaign.

The initiative launched in 2007 puts the spotlight on exceptional people of truly global stature ranging in professions and backgrounds who beyond their celebrity status, “are individuals who are widely recognised to have lived full and interesting lives”.

Sources: latimes – Telegraph