Phelps travelling to Rio on ‘own terms’

Olympic swimming legend more motivated than in 2012 London Games

TORONTO: Having ended his career once in London on what he considered a sour note, Michael Phelps enters the Rio de Janeiro Olympics pool for his second swansong determined to bow out on his own terms.

Inspired, motivated and sober, Phelps heads to Rio with the chance to add to his record total of 22 medals and to pen the happy ending he feels he denied himself four years earlier.

At the 2012 London Olympics, which he also declared would be his last, Phelps won four gold and six medals but walked away filled with the regret that he simply went through the motions rather than embracing the moment.



“Going into ‘12, I just didn’t want to do it,” said the 31-year-old at the US Olympic swim trials in Nebraska last month. “I tried to fake it. I wanted to get in and out as fast as I could and really wanted nothing to do with it. That haunted me for a while.”

He added, “Being able to fall in love with the sport again is something that I’ve always wanted to do again and I did it on my terms.”

Team’s co-captain

While Phelps has been a hero for a generation of American swimmers, he has now finally become something of a mentor and elder statesman of the US team.



At each Olympics the US swimming team picks a captain and until a July training camp in San Antonio, it had remained one of the very few honours not bestowed on Phelps.

Now, chosen as co-captain of the men’s team for the first time, he is eager to assume the leadership mantle in Rio.

“This time around, I just want to be able to help some of the younger guys,” said Phelps. “Just being able to help them just kind of stay in their relaxed zone, not get worked up because it is the Olympics.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2016.

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