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PHILLIPS 66 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPSAugust 5, 2014Bob BowmanMichael PhelpsIRVINE, CALIFORNIA MICHAEL PHELPS: I don't know if you heard the news today. It's been a great partnership even just from the beginning, being able to have a company that really cares about being able to grow the sport of swimming and the input that Bob and I both have on moving forward and getting better products and better suits and better caps and goggles is I think something that's very exciting for the both of us and also being able to come back to this meet. First time in a couple years, first time back in this pool for a couple years. I think it's something that I'm looking forward to, and tomorrow is a little different start than we've had in the past starting with the 100 Free. It will just be interesting to see how the rest of the week plays out after that. Q. (No Microphone)? MICHAEL PHELPS: We really have no idea. I mean, this will be the first time to really swim I guess this many events at this level. First time being shaved since the Olympics, and I have a lot more hair than I did then, so I think that could be a little different feeling. I mean, really, I have no idea what we would add if we would add anything. That would be up to Bob. BOB BOWMAN: We have to kind of see what the quality of his times are and that kind of thing. MICHAEL PHELPS: That's more his call than mine, I think, at this point. Q. What event feels best to you right now in this come back or what stroke feels best? MICHAEL PHELPS: I consider probably the 100 Fly feels the best. Just sort of comfort. BOB BOWMAN: It's the only thing he's done. MICHAEL PHELPS: Yeah, pretty much. That's what I've done, yeah, or what I've raced the most since I've come back. Felt pretty good yesterday in the water. Hopefully, I can hit a wall and turn, and not botch a wall like I have in the past couple races. Q. How has it changed at all how the butterfly feels and how that 100 feels? MICHAEL PHELPS: I guess we really haven't done too much different stuff. I guess trying to work on more explosive stuff. Ken's got us doing shorter and faster reps. Other than that, I really don't know that really much has changed. Q. It feels the same? MICHAEL PHELPS: Feels the same, yeah, pretty similar. BOB BOWMAN: Looks the same, fortunately. Q. If you can listen to a stroke almost like a music major, can you relate that to Michael, and is there a difference now? Does he sound different in the water now than he did before? BOB BOWMAN: I could relate to that a little bit. Also you have to catch him at the right time. Now I have a big group, rarely get them by themselves so you can hear them. I would say things are a little different but not that much. If you ever read the book "The Talent Code", there is a lot of myelin wrapped around those firing patterns, so it's pretty much the same. I think your stroke's pretty much the same. Might not be as well conditioned, but they will be. Q. At its best, how would you describe what his strokes sounded like? BOB BOWMAN: The thing I liked most about Michael, all of his strokes when they're going well, they're very quiet. So if you just hear his hand slipping in the water, that's usually really good. If you hear a big splash or clunking, that's not so good. Q. Why did you decide to come back to swimming? Was there a definitive moment, like a day or moment where you're like I'm going to come back or anything that really moved you to come back? MICHAEL PHELPS: I mean, after spending so much time out of the water, it was just kind of I found myself really out of shape, and I decided just to hop in the water and just to splash around just to try to get some activity. I mean, I was golfing a lot, but besides that I wasn't doing anything else. So I just decided to splash whether it be a 1000 or 1500 here and there. Then I called Bob, and I was just like, well, we had talked and decided to take it slow and just see what would happen. Like I said, I've said a hundred times really, probably more since my first week back, that I'm just enjoying myself. To be able to have the group that we have now and to be able to come to work out and not have Bob sort of, I said it before, pulling teeth and pulling hair and trying to get me into the water. It's kind of been sort of my choice on what I've done and what I've wanted to do, and when I've done this and when I've done that. It's just worked a lot easier and it's fun. It is enjoyable for me to be back in the water and to be able to race at this level again, so I am excited to be back here at Nationals and excited to get the meet started. Q. Just to follow up, do you feel any different about the sport now in your comeback than all the years that you were swimming before? Is there anything that you're noticing more or feels different to you at all? MICHAEL PHELPS: Not really. I still have goals and things that I want to achieve, and I enjoy competing more than anything else. I really don't see too many changes I guess between now and then. Q. What is the timetable for you to start racing in the new suit? When will everything be ready to go? MICHAEL PHELPS: I'll be able to wear the new suit at the beginning of the year in January. They've gone through all the FINA approvals, and we're just trying to work on some small things and some sizing things that we found last week when we were working together. Q. Have you ever met Usain Bolt? MICHAEL PHELPS: No. Q. Is that something you would like to do maybe at an Olympics before you guys both retire? MICHAEL PHELPS: Sure. I mean, you definitely would want to meet the fastest man in the world. I mean, I've never really‑‑ I don't even know if he stays in the village to be honest. Normally you see athletes that you pass and you say hello to. I've never seen him, never walked past him. Yeah, I don't know. Q. From one elite athlete to another, what do you make of him, just the electricity the guy has? I don't know if you see at races he does like 45 minute victory laps where everybody wants selfies with him. Obviously, it's different from swimming, but what do you make of the guy? MICHAEL PHELPS: Obviously, he's a very talented athlete, and the fastest man to ever walk the Earth. I don't really know what else to say (laughing). Q.  You said a couple of races you've tensed up a little bit. MICHAEL PHELPS: Yeah. Q. Why and when was the last time you can remember having that problem? MICHAEL PHELPS: I'm not sure I really ever had that problem. BOB BOWMAN: Never had it. MICHAEL PHELPS: So I think that's just something that I probably just need to realize more just to keep myself relaxed and just really go out and do what I know that I can do and stay focused on what I'm doing, and not what anybody else is doing. So I think that's something that I've never seen. Bob had noticed and said something to me after Atlanta. So just being able to‑‑ BOB BOWMAN: It was only in one race in Atlanta. It was the 100 Free. MICHAEL PHELPS: That's it. Q. Do you want it too much? BOB BOWMAN: He just got real serious. Warming up like this. MICHAEL PHELPS: I just don't need to do that. I've been able to stay so relaxed and swim better relaxed. BOB BOWMAN: He had to take on the French. He was getting nervous. Q. So your signature event is going to be run tomorrow. You owned that race for so long? MICHAEL PHELPS: The 100 Free? Q. 200 Fly? MICHAEL PHELPS: I was like wait a minute. What? Which race? Q. Is it sort of a surreal feeling to watch that race go on without you? MICHAEL PHELPS: It's kind of wild. I was telling Bob this the other day. It's kind of crazy. If you look at the times where swimming in the world right now, I mean, I can still remember Malchow destroying me going 1:55 flat over and over and over again before I made the 2000 Olympic team. BOB BOWMAN: Right after it too. MICHAEL PHELPS: Right after the 2000 Olympic team, and the fastest time in the world is like 1:54 high, so it's kind of wild to see that that hasn't really changed that much. But it will be interesting just to be able to watch. We have two guys that I train with that are swimming the 200‑‑ three guys, right? Three of them, Chase, Tom, and Tom. BOB BOWMAN: No, no, just Chase and Tom. Oh, yeah, three, Tommy, yeah. We've got three Toms. MICHAEL PHELPS: Yeah, there are three guys tomorrow that are racing it, so it will be fun to watch. I've been able to help Tom a little bit just looking at stroke and just kind of helping him a little bit along the way of, I guess, helping him to workout and encouraging him to workout. So it will be fun to see what they go out and do tomorrow. It is nice not being in that race, I will say that. Q. Bob hasnÂ’t been able to talk you into that one? BOB BOWMAN: He's not doing that.  That race requires certain things that we haven't done for like six years. MICHAEL PHELPS: Yeah, I haven't done much training for that race. BOB BOWMAN: It's kind of smoke and mirrors in London. MICHAEL PHELPS: I'm not anywhere close to being able to swim that race at the level I would want to swim it at. Q. If you could go back ten years to the kid that was getting ready for his first big Olympics where you were on top of the world, what are things that have changed the most in terms of diet, preparation, being on the deck? Just something that you did then that you wouldn't do now, or just something that strikes you as the most different? MICHAEL PHELPS: I mean, I'll say like the biggest thing really when I came back that changed was probably my diet. BOB BOWMAN: Yeah. MICHAEL PHELPS: I was 30 pounds overweight, 30 pounds heavier than I am now when I got back in the water. It was different because I was eating whatever I wanted, and I wasn't exercising. But I knew that to be able to get back into the shape where I wanted to be in that some things did have to change. I did have to start putting better, cleaner, I guess, food into my system. I actually went through a phase where I cut out red meat for six months just to see what it would do, and I was eating more chicken and more fish and more salads, just eating cleaner and fresher. I saw a little bit of a difference, and I started sort of gradually adding red meat a little bit here and there back into my system. But other than that, that's probably the biggest change that I could see. Back then I was eating all fast food, any fast food, it didn't matter. At that age I could eat anything, and it would be burned off instantly, so now it's just always paying attention to what I'm putting into my body. Q. Quick follow‑up, when was the six month period when you didn't have the red meat? MICHAEL PHELPS: I pretty much just ended it. It was just something that I tried just to see what really it would do. Q. What are you swimming in here? What kind of equipment? The other question is are you a little ahead of where you thought you would be at this point? Your butterfly times are pretty good. Are you pleasantly surprised? MICHAEL PHELPS: The first question is what am I swimming in here? I'm wearing my Aqua Sphere cap and goggles. Suit? I'm not quite sure yet. I think it‑‑ I don't really know. BOB BOWMAN: He's been kind of alternating. He just decides on the day what he's going to wear. MICHAEL PHELPS: No, I mean, I feel like obviously it could be better. It could be worse. I think over the last really since Colorado, I think it's been pretty decent where I've been training and where I am. BOB BOWMAN: I don't think we'll really know until after this week. After this week we'll have a good picture of if he's ahead, behind. Q. You said that the butterfly was the stroke where you felt more comfortable, which is the one where you feel less comfortable at this point? MICHAEL PHELPS: I don't even know. Freestyle's been off over the last couple of weeks. No, I don't know. My freestyle stroke has been a little different, but it felt a little off. It felt better today than it has over the last couple weeks. BOB BOWMAN: His freestyle has been off and on, because we always did everything for a 200 before, and then the 100 kind of came out of that, and now we've been really trying to do it for a 100, and it's not‑‑ he's just getting used to that, the tempo and stuff of it. Like in that first turn today I said it looked like you're doing the 200, do another one like a 100. That kind of stuff. Q. Why did you choose to race the 100 Back, because you were not used to doing that? MICHAEL PHELPS: I've never really been able to swim any back stroke before at an international meet or a big meet just because the schedule always conflicts with my other races, so it was kind of a cool area and a cool spot in the meet where we were able to throw in a 100 Back. I swam a decent 100 Back in Atlanta, so I don't know. Something we've never done. Why not try it now? Q. You like this? MICHAEL PHELPS: It hurts a lot more. Backstroke always hurts a lot more than any other stroke. It always destroys your legs, but it's interesting. It's more exciting for me having a different event and a fun event that I've never really had the opportunity to swim. Q. Since you're not doing the 200 free, is it something you still want to do on a relay coming up if you do make the Pan Pac's team? MICHAEL PHELPS: That is the coach's decision who should be in that relay? Q. Did you think of maybe hey I'll do the 200 Free because of the relay or do the events you think you'll do best at? MICHAEL PHELPS: Yeah, that's how we've always done it. We've always set up our schedule how we felt most confident and how we think we can really succeed. I mean, if they want to put me in a relay, if I do make the team, then that's their choice. Obviously, I love being in relays and I enjoy being in relays, but I think the coach always makes the best decision for the team. Q. The input you'll have on this suit, how does it compare to the input you were able to have on your Speedo suits back in the day? MICHAEL PHELPS: Bob and I really have never had the joint I guess partnership and being able to have so much input and give so much feedback on some of the small things that we've been able to do so far with Aqua Sphere, and I think that is something that excites me. Being able to have such hands‑on interaction with them and really helping them build a product that we think is the best. Q. Were there talks with Under Armour of getting into this field? BOB BOWMAN: We're still partners with Under Armour, but it's kind of like everybody does their thing. Under Armour is very good at clothing and performance apparel, other companies are good at making suits, so I think it works well. Q. Bob, it's two years out to the Olympics today. I was wondering if there was a period or time you had in mind that you all need to sit down and talk about his intentions for the Olympics? BOB BOWMAN: I think we'll see how it goes this week, and maybe if there is anything after that, we'll see how that goes and kind of go from there. But we just talked about it yesterday. I think it's a nice little milestone, and it goes really quickly. It was funny, I was talking with Gregg Troy yesterday, and he said the days can be so long, but the weeks and months go by really quickly, and that's true. Q. Then I was just wondering how much you two kept in touch during Michael's break? BOB BOWMAN: Actually, more than we did when he was swimming. Q. Is that right? BOB BOWMAN: Yeah, I'd send a text, and he'd actually respond. Normally he'd just ignore it. When I was coaching him and I needed vital information to get through, he would just like‑‑ MICHAEL PHELPS: Or if he wants to get a response, he knows how to get one. He just presses my buttons until I get so ticked off that I fire one back at him. Q. I guess the nature wasn't always about swimming? MICHAEL PHELPS: No (laughing). Q. As Michael's coach, what was it like when you knew he was going to be coming back? What were your feelings? BOB BOWMAN: My feelings were if he did it for the right reasons, I would support it. If he was doing it just because‑‑ like I don't think he's doing it because he's bored or there is nothing else to do. I think he's doing it because there is some unfinished business he thinks he can accomplish in the pool. It just sort of grew out of his fitness. And I think the discussion we had was once it became apparent that he was going to train enough to be able to compete, then what were you going to do and why were you doing it? And I was happy with that. So I didn't really have that much problem. When he first came to me I was like what is going on? There is no way you should do this because he was so unhappy going into London, and I haven't seen any of that now, so it's good. I support it. Q. Michael, what unfinished business do you think you might have? MICHAEL PHELPS: How did I know that was the follow‑up question? BOB BOWMAN: I teed it up for you. MICHAEL PHELPS: Thanks. Q. Do you have any unfinished business, Michael? MICHAEL PHELPS: There are always things that I still want to do and still want to achieve, and that's part of the reason why I'm still here. You're not going to get what it is. You guys know me too well. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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