Michael Phelps is giving himself one last chance to get his Olympic farewell right.
It seems an odd aim for the owner of a record 22 Olympic medals, 18 of them gold.
Four gold medals and two silver in London in 2012 seemed a fitting enough finale to a career that peaked with Phelps’s stunning eight-gold performance in Beijing.
Photo: AP
However, Phelps knew deep down that he could have done more four years ago, and that “haunted” feeling made it impossible for his post-London retirement to stick.
“I never wanted to have that ‘what if,’” Phelps said of his decision to mount a fifth Olympic campaign in Rio de Janeiro, at the age of 31. “This journey has been incredible. Being able to fall in love with the sport again is something that I have always wanted to do, and I did it on my terms.”
However, his comeback has been far from smooth — disrupted by a drink-driving arrest that sparked a painful period of self-examination.
Phelps has emerged stronger, his renewed relationship with his estranged father resonating even more after the birth of his own son, Boomer, with fiancee Nicole Johnson in May.
“It is a cool thing for Nicole and I, for where we are in our lives,” Phelps said.
His relationship with long-time coach Bob Bowman endures, with Phelps voicing absolute trust in Bowman’s ability to prepare him for his last Olympic hurrah.
He has a chance to make more history as he seeks a fourth straight gold in the 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley.
The only Olympians to win four consecutive titles in the same individual event are athletes Al Oerter in the discus (1956-1968) and Carl Lewis in the long jump (1984-1996).
Phelps would love to avenge his 2012 loss to South African Chad le Clos in the 200m fly — the first event Phelps ever swam in the Olympics — in Sydney in 2000.
At the peak of his career, Phelps said he was out to change his sport.
He has done so, raising swimming’s profile in the US with displays of individual excellence as well as thrilling duels with the likes of Ryan Lochte and Milorad Cavic.
The US Olympic trials are one testament to his success, drawing upward of 14,000 fans per session.
However, his more lasting legacy is found in the swimmers he inspired — some of whom, like Le Clos, he is to race in Rio and some of whom have yet to reach the international stage.
Once the most intimidating man in the ready-room, Phelps has said he wants to mentor younger swimmers. For the first time, he has been selected by his peers to serve as a captain of the US men’s team.
“I just want to be able to help some of the younger guys,” he said.
With swimming heading “in a direction I love,” Phelps said there is “still more” for him to do.
“Do I know what that is right now? No, but I still feel that we can do more to promote this sport, even to another level than where we are right now,” he said.
However, Phelps insists he knows what his future contribution will not include — another competitive campaign.
“This is it. This is it — no more,” he said. “The body is done. This is my last one.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier