Michael Phelps is never really satisfied with his swimming – USA TODAY
MESA, Ariz. — There are two things to know about Michael Phelps as he stands about one month until U.S. Olympic swim trials, and with almost two months until the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro:
1) He is svelte, sleek and powerful, and feeling as strong as he did in the lead-up to Beijing in ‘08.
2) He is nitpicking, finding fewer and fewer things to criticize after his most recent races.
After he swam the 200-meter individual medley in 1:57.90, the third-fastest time in the world in the event this year and Phelps’ fastest since 2003, Phelps critiqued his freestyle stroke.
“My freestyle isn’t that great,” the 22-time Olympic medalist said. “I’m never really too satisfied. I always like to have something to work on. My freestyle has come a long way over the last couple of months and it’s hopefully going to make an even bigger leap.
“I see I have speed and that was something I was kind of lacking for a while. I think the rest will just come.”
Phelps and his longtime coach, Bob Bowman, didn’t have many negatives to analyze after a meet in mid-April in which they focused on Phelps’ 200-meter races — the freestyle, butterfly and IM. He won two (butterfly, IM) and missed the ‘A’ final in the 200 free, though he ultimately swam a 1:48.21 in the ‘B’ final, the third-best time of a strong American field at the Mesa Arena Pro Swim series event. It was a meet that served as an unofficial tune-up to Olympic trials, which begin June 26 in Omaha.
When they don’t have many flaws to find, they nitpick, instead choosing specific areas such as a particular stroke or a type of turn to focus on in the weeks that follow.
In Mesa, Phelps looked good — really good, in fact. The 30-year-old said he hasn’t felt like this both physically and mentally since 2007-08, when he trained for and won those eight gold medals. His move to Arizona, which has been his home for almost a year, has been good to him. Phelps followed Bowman, who is now the head coach at Arizona State, to the desert to train together like they always have. The move was well-timed; it came after his arrest for drunken driving back home in Baltimore in September 2014, which led to a six-month suspension from USA Swimming and Phelps checking himself into a treatment program.
Since then, he said he has stopped drinking and he’s settled into life in Scottsdale with his fiancé, Nicole Johnson, who gave birth to their child, a son named Boomer, earlier this month.
Phelps insists Rio is his final Olympic Games. It’s unclear exactly what program he will swim at trials in June, or which events specifically he’s hoping to swim in Rio — outside of the butterfly, of course, and relays.
But what is getting clearer and clearer each time he dives into the pool is this: He’s ready, and thinks he’s getting close to having the final pieces of his own puzzle, one that he pieced together to perfection back in 2008.
“Did I ever think I’d be back to that level? No,” Phelps said. “But I think after last summer, after that little surprise — the first race at nationals (a 1:52.94 to win the 200 fly, his best time since breaking the world record in a high-tech suit six years before) — after that, I was like, ‘This is for real again.’ That was something I missed because it had been so long since I’ve felt that way.”
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