The Olympic flame that burned inside Michael Phelps
the last two Olympics ratcheted down to a dying candle. Who could blame him? His record eight gold medals in Beijing topped all of South America.
With 16 total Olympic medals — a record 14 gold — the only water he wanted to dip into was a nice, hot bath. For two years, his status dropped to mere mortal. He started to lose. A hungry rival, Ryan Lochte, was threatening to knock him off the top of the American podium.
The Olympic Trials are five weeks away, and the world is back on notice. The candle has turned into a blowtorch. Phelps, 26, is hungry again.
“The last couple of years my training hasn’t been great,” Phelps said last Sunday at the U.S. Olympic Media Summit in Dallas. “It’s going to be a fun summer. I’ve been able to get the excitement back in the water.”
Beijing’s record haul earned him a $1 million bonus from Speedo, one of his sponsors, and he turned much of that into his Michael Phelps Foundation, which supports swimming to youth. He got into philanthropy. He got overweight. And, anyone with YouTube knows what else he got into.
But getting photographed holding a bong at a frat party wasn’t what caused him to lose his first race in four years when Germany’s Paul Biederman beat him in the 200 freestyle at the 2009 world championships.
At the 2010 nationals, Phelps lost to Lochte in the 200 individual medley and took fourth in the 200 backstroke. Later that year in the Pan Pacific Championships, he didn’t even make the final of the 400 individual medley.
“After 2008, I just didn’t want to do it,” Phelps said. “I knew deep down I wanted to, but I didn’t put in the work. There were times I wouldn’t come to practice, and it didn’t excite me. It wasn’t interesting. I was just going through the motions.”
It was especially hard on Bob Bowman, his coach since he was 10 who said he had a plan for London the day after Beijing.
“I was clearly frustrated for a couple of years,” Bowman said. “I’m the kind of person who wants to be as prepared as we can possibly be. I wanted Michael to do as much training as possible to overcome things that might come up down the road.
“When I didn’t get to do that, it was tough on me.”
Phelps’ results this season show the light is on. He has won 11-of-15 Grand Prix races and is undefeated against Lochte. What turned on the switch? Phelps swears it wasn’t Lochte saying, “It’s my time now.” Phelps has always battled a stopwatch more than opponents.
It could be his legacy. His 16 Olympic medals are two short of the record of U.S.S.R. gymnast Larisa Latynina.
Phelps won’t swim eight events, and he’s sticking to his tradition of not revealing what events he’ll swim. But somewhere in his home, he has a list of goals for London. That’s what has brought him back.
“I want to accomplish things I have in my mind and heart,” Phelps said. “If I do that, that’s all that matters to me. Once I hang my suit up, I want to look back and say I’ve done everything I could in my career.”
Kemper qualifies again. Hunter Kemper of Colorado Springs hadn’t raced a triathlon since breaking his elbow in a competition in Myrtle Beach, S.C., in October. But last Sunday at the ITU World Triathlon in San Diego, he qualified for his fourth Olympic team by placing fifth.
“It’s a tremendous day for me,” he told reporters. “I didn’t know if I would actually be back here. I went through so much. … It’s been a struggle.”
The U.S. qualified two for the Olympics when Manuel Huerta of Miami finished ninth, 10 seconds ahead of Kris Gemmell of New Zealand.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson @denverpost.com
