Sun, May 17, 2009 page19

• Unshaven Phelps back in top form

  • AP
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  In his first swimming finals since the Olympics, Michael Phelps won both of his events less than an hour apart at the Charlotte UltraSwim on Friday.

  Sporting a goatee and an old-school swimsuit, Phelps won the 200m freestyle in 1 minute, 46.02 seconds, and the 100m butterfly in 51.72.

  In both races, Phelps easily broke meet records he set three years ago without having bothered to shave down and wearing a 2004 model leg suit — a real antique in the fast-changing swimsuit world.

  

  Michael Phelps prepares his goggles before the men’s 200m freestyle at the Charlotte Ultra Swim in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Friday.

  PHOTO: AFP

  The most decorated Olympian ever returned to the pool nine months since Beijing, showing he’s moved on after a British tabloid ran a photograph of him using a bong.

  Coach Bob Bowman, usually Phelps’ harshest critic, was downright giddy when he saw the times. He thought Phelps would be doing well to swim the 200m free in just under 1 minute, 48 seconds. He went nearly 2 seconds faster, even giving a little sample of the straight-arm, wind-milling stroke he plans to use in the shorter races as he surged toward the wall.

  In the fly, he swam the outward lap in 24.6 seconds and made the return in 27.1 for a total of 51.72. Doing some quick math on his worksheet, Bowman calculated that both laps were exactly 0.6 seconds faster than what Phelps did to win the gold medal in Beijing.

  Clearly, he hasn’t lost that remarkable sense of timing.

  “Mentally, he’s the best ever,” Bowman said. “We make a big deal about his physical [attributes], and it’s there. But it’s the way he approaches the race, the way his brain works in competition. That’s the way you would like every swimmer to think.”

  Phelps won the same two events at Beijing, part of his record-breaking haul of eight gold medals. He became a cultural icon in the US, but his career ran into an unplanned hurdle when the infamous photo was published in February.

  Even though no criminal charges were filed, USA Swimming gave Phelps a three-month suspension from competition. At first, he wasn’t even sure if he wanted to return to the pool. But after going into virtual seclusion for nearly a month, he said he had an epiphany one Sunday morning: He wanted to keep swimming until the 2012 Olympics.

  The Charlotte UltraSwim is his first step toward his London farewell.

  “I’m definitely ahead of where I thought I would be,” Phelps said. “After taking that much of a break, I didn’t know what to expect or where to really put myself.”

  He has three more events in Charlotte, none of them holdovers from his Olympic program. He was set to swim the 50m free and 100 backstroke yesterday and close it out with the 100 free today.

  After the turmoil of the past three months — his suspension ended just last week — Phelps was back in his comfort zone. During the morning preliminaries he smiled for the cameras, joked around with the other swimmers and paused to sign a few autographs.

  The only thing that caught him off guard was the amount off media attention, including reporters from Britain, France and Japan.

  “It’s kind of weird,” he said. “I feel like there’s more pressure than Beijing. I didn’t even see this many cameras in Beijing.”
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