Watch Olympian Michael Phelps make an eye-catching appearance at the basketball

He was there to distract the opposition free thrower.

American swimmer Michael Phelps made a memorable appearance at a college basketball game last night.

The 18-time Olympic gold medallist is currently training at Arizona State University because his coach is based there. He was persuaded to help out the college basketball team by taking part in a tradition they have.

Video from FOX Sports.

The Sun Devils’ Curtain of Distraction is a long-running feature of their games, where they try and distract the opposition whenever they are given a free throw.

Phelps stripped down to his swimming shorts and danced around in front of the court, wearing several fake gold medals and surrounded by other, considerably less fit-looking, dancing men.

That definitely qualifies as distracting.

It's LIT. @MichaelPhelps joins #CurtainOfDistraction pic.twitter.com/EWvCDHJUT6

— Arizona State Sun Devils (@TheSunDevils) January 29, 2016

It did the trick too, Arizona state won the game 86-68.

It’s not the weirdest Curtain of Distraction the college have come up with though; a previous opponent was faced with this.