Michael Phelps Quashes Comeback In Baltimore Sun Profile

In a profile in the Baltimore Sun, Olympic hero Michael Phelps says he’s in better shape now than he was before his 2014 comeback from retirement, but soundly stifled any speculation about a second comeback.

Phelps, now 33 and retired exactly two years as of today, said he’s stayed in much better shape than he did after his first retirement following the 2012 Olympics. The Sun profile says he’s “obsessed with riding his Peloton exercise bike” and that he’s stayed at the same weight he swam at in Rio. Phelps admitted that physically, a comeback would be easier this time around – but insisted that he’s not interested in the grind of returning to pool training at his previous levels.

“It would be a lot easier for me to come back than it was for the last one, just because of me being in so much better shape now,” he said in the Sun piece. “But I have zero goals to make me want to go through that grind again.”

Phelps joked that longtime coach Bob Bowman has tried to coax him out of retirement, but Bowman said he’s supported his famous pupil in retirement.

“He’ll text ‘100 free?’ ” Phelps told the Sun. “And I’m like, ‘Bob, shut up. Leave me alone.’ ”

“Did he say I want him to swim? I don’t think I really do,” Bowman said later in the profile. “There’s a delicious irony in the fact that because he’s been on Peloton and takes care of himself really well, he’s in way better shape than he was when he came back in 2013. And I see him swim, you see the stroke and it’s like, ‘Wow, that’s not really too bad.’ But no, I definitely do not want him to have to go through all that.”

The profile serves to quell what is almost inevitable comeback speculation at the end of every season of American swimming. This time around, it’s perhaps even more inevitable for fans to toss around the idea, given that Phelps has already returned from retirement once along with the fact that the first rumblings of that comeback started with some lackluster relay performances by the Phelps-less American men.

In July 2013, Phelps had been retired for about a year following the London Olympics. NBC pulled in the swimming icon for an on-air interview during the 2013 World Championships, where the U.S. men watched France erase a lead and chase them down for gold in the 4×100 free relay for the second-straight year. It also extended the U.S. men’s gold medal drought in that event at World and Olympic meets to three years (2011 Worlds, 2012 Olympics, 2013 Worlds).

A visibly frustrated Phelps told Rowdy Gaines on-air that he wished he’d been on that relay. Thus started a cycle of speculation over a Phelps comeback, speculation that ultimately paid off when Phelps re-entered the USADA testing pool in November and returned to competition in early 2014. Phelps would come back and win just two individual golds at the 2016 Rio Olympics, but swam key legs on all three relays, leading to an American sweep of the men’s relay golds.

But that was 2013. It’s now 2018, and the Americans aren’t coming off an international performance that was widely disappointing, particularly due to some egregious flubs in the relay events, men’s relays in particular. Er… aren’t they?

The timing, then, of Phelps statements this week are extra important. The 23-time Olympic champ has been particularly adamant that this retirement is for good. The Sun profile does note that Phelps’ occasional swims at Arizona State are anything but casual, reporting that he “often asks Bowman to time him,” and that he ended up competing against Australian Olympian Grant Hackett when Hackett was in town. But that’s perhaps to be expected from a swimmer whose legendary competitive spirit isn’t likely to go completely dormant, even in a for-good retirement.

Phelps remains steadfast that his competitive career is over, that he’s on to new and bigger challenges.

“The medals were a part of changing the sport. It was a steppingstone to changing the sport,” Phelps says at the end of the profile. “I still have that journey, but I’m now trying to conquer a bigger, more powerful, more exciting mountain. Doing something that no one had ever done before in the pool, we’ve done it. So now it’s, ‘What’s next?’ ”

You can read the full Baltimore Sun profile, where Phelps and Bowman share lots of fun details about the iconic moments of Phelps career, here.

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CanadianShark
5 years ago

I always wonder what that 200 FL in Beijing could have been. The way Phelps and Bowman were confident in producing a record that would last “generations” makes me believe he wanted to swim 1:50-low or even a mind-bending 1:49.

On another note, I would have loved to see a fresh Beijing Phelps take a crack at the 400 FR. It was obviously next to impossible due to his schedule, but considering his speed in the 200 FR and his endurance in the 400 IM, he might’ve added another WR to his name. The backstrokes would have been interesting too.

phelps swims 200 breast rio
Reply to  CanadianShark
5 years ago

49.5/1:51.1 for the 100/200 fly, 3:39 400 fr were his goal times in 2008.

phelps swims 200 breast rio
Reply to  phelps swims 200 breast rio
5 years ago

60 Minutes interviewed Phelps and Bowman after the 2008 Olympics. Bowman brought out Phelps’ list of goal times for the year.

tea rex
5 years ago

Enjoy the rest. 2024 will be here sooner than you realize 🙂

Dara Torres went 24 years between her first and last Olympics, but probably couldn’t have if she was full-on training the whole time.

StinkTrap
5 years ago

I’d like to see him get into Triathlons…

yinz
Reply to  StinkTrap
5 years ago

Well, prior to reading your comment I was thinking: “Is MP talking about triathlon challenge?”
He is still occasionally swimming, but he lives on a bike (albeit stationary) to stay in great form. Go figure …

tea rex
Reply to  StinkTrap
5 years ago

2/3 of it would be as good as anyone in the world, but I just can’t see that lanky torso helping him through a 26-mile run.

Mark
5 years ago

To be honest the US will need him if they are to stand any chance of beating Great Britain in the medley relay!!!

sven
Reply to  Mark
5 years ago

Nah.

straightblackline
Reply to  Mark
5 years ago

They don’t need MP. Peaty is an amazing breastroker but Great Britain is so weak in backstroke that the best case scenario is that he pulls them level. The USA has a stronger butterfly leg and although Duncan Scott is a great talent in freestyle you can’t really say he’s better than anything the USA can put up.

CHDH
Reply to  straightblackline
5 years ago

I mean Scott is better than all US freestylers bar Dressel, who’ll be swimming fly, and Adrian, whose not getting any younger.

CanadianShark
Reply to  Mark
5 years ago

I was thinking about this last night. I’m not sure if Phelps could pull off a faster 100 free split than Adrian, but if Dressel has broken the 100 free WR by 2020 and is capable of a 46-low anchor or even a mythical 45-high, Phelps could swim the fly leg and potentially pop off another 50-low.

I was all for Phelps coming back after 2016, but following 2017 worlds, I realized the new generation has finally caught up to him, with Dressel hot on his WR heels. Phelps seemed to acknowledge this last year, however he hasn’t brought them up in this interview. I think he’s keeping the door open just in case he wakes up one morning and… Read more »

Caeleb Dressel Will Win 9 Gold Medals in Tokyo
Reply to  CanadianShark
5 years ago

If Dressel goes 45.9, 48.9, and 20.7 in his life, I will be satisfied with this planet.

He said What?
Reply to  CanadianShark
5 years ago

Please, God in Heaven, let him wake up one morning ready to “do this”.

MTK
Reply to  Mark
5 years ago

With Dressel putting up much faster textile 100fly than Phelps ever has, I think medley relay is where they would LEAST miss Phelps. 4×100 and 4×200 they’ll probably miss his 47.low and 1:44 splits – but they should be able to get 4 guys that are close enough to that.

DLSwim
5 years ago

He’ll do a comeback… in the 10K!

bayliss
5 years ago

200 Fly 1:51.51
200 Back- 1:54.65
200 Breast- 2:11.30
200 Free 1:42.96
400 I.M. 4:03.84

It will be a long time before someone is able to cover that ridiculous composite time across those five events.

Tm71
Reply to  bayliss
5 years ago

Not in our lifetime. If he would ever make a comeback which I doubt, he would just do the 100 fly and 100’ftee to be in the relay pool. Amazingly those were the two events he had his narrowest wins in Beijing. We certainly know he loves the challenge!

25 free champ
Reply to  bayliss
5 years ago

He’s like a MA but with 200s. Amazing the versatility of the Michaels.

swimcoach
Reply to  25 free champ
5 years ago

MA has a long ways to go until hes in the conversation about being comparable to Phelp.

tea rex
Reply to  bayliss
5 years ago

If anything, I think MP underperformed in the IMs relative to what he could do in a full 200 of each stroke. Nobody can approach MP’s best fly and freestyle. Even look at the next best IMers.

Lochte – only slightly better in the back, but no competitive 200 fly or breast times.
Hagino – only slightly better in the back, but no competitive 200 fly or breast times.
Kalisz – only slightly better in the breast, but no competitive 200 bk or free times.
Seto – maybe slightly better in the breast? but no competitive 200 bk or free times.

SuperSwimmer 2000
5 years ago

That widely disappointing meet where they won 43 medals?

How much does CD bench
5 years ago

With Kalisz pushing the 1:55 barrier in the 200 IM, CD sub 50 in the 100 fly, tons of young 200 fly talent… plus lots of 1:45 200 free talent and 48low/soon to be 47 high 100 free talent (apple/pieroni/haas/seli/CD…), a spot on the team (even relay only) wouldn’t be a guarantee for MP

MTK
Reply to  How much does CD bench
5 years ago

I think 200IM still looks pretty safe. Kalisz is the only one under 1:56.5 since Phelps retired. I know that there are some up and comers and some good talent approaching prime years, but I doubt many of current group will ever break into the 1:55s.

Hswimmer
Reply to  MTK
5 years ago

Devine will get there

Caeleb Dressel Will Win 9 Gold Medals in Tokyo
Reply to  Hswimmer
5 years ago

Phelps could still be a 1:54 though

Walter

1:49 without all the other events. 🙂

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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