OMAHA — Michael Phelps is scratching from the 200 freestyle in the London Olympics and will enter seven instead of eight events as in Beijing, his coach announced Monday morning.
His coach, Bob Bowman, said on Twitter, “This change will allow him to focus more energy on relays for Team USA.”
Phelps, the American record holder in the event, won the 200 freestyle among his record eight gold medals in Beijing. He also won bronze in the event in Athens.
“It’s going to be better for me to have that day off,” Phelps told the San Jose Mercury-News. “Better in the long run. Better to make sure I do well in my other events.”
“I’m not swimming to make top eight,” he added later. “I want to win everything I can. Sure it will be challenging. I do have to hit turns right and have a good start and get out to a good 100.”
Bowman said the workload in London would be too much, particularly considering Phelps took a year and a half off after Beijing.
“We’ve all heard a million times how his preparation — I mean his four-year preparation for this — was so much different than Beijing,” Bowman said. “It would be illogical for him to do that program on lesser preparation. After what he did here, which was quite good, the level of swimming would not be acceptable in London in a lot of the events.”
Phelps, 27, is still ranked first in the world inthe 200 individual medley and the 100 and 200 butterflies. He’s ranked second behind teammate Ryan Lochte in the 400 IM.
However, Phelps didn’t come close this week to his world records in the 400 IM or the100 and 200 butterflies. Bowman also figures his competition in other countries, which held their Olympic Trials much earlier than the United States, will peak again for London.
“You have to look at it like this,” Bowman said. “We’re going to be adding the relays to what he did here. It’s going to take everything we’ve got to be competitive in some of those relays, particularly the 4×100.”
By eliminating the 200 freestyle, Bowman said Phelps can start competition on the second night of the meet July 29 with the 4×100 relay instead of doing the 200 freestyle beforehand.
“It helps him out in the middle of the program which will really help him out in the end,” Bowman said.
Asked about Phelps’ contribution to the discussion, Bowman said, “He said, ‘Whatever you think.'”
Ricky Behens, third in the 200 freestyle here, will replace him in the race.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299, or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
