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U.S. TEAM OLYMPIC TRIALS: SWIMMINGJune 23, 2012Bob BowmanMichael PhelpsOMAHA, NEBRASKA THE MODERATOR: We're going to get started here. We have Michael Phelps and Coach Bob Bowman. I probably don't need to do introductions for either one of these two, so I'll start with an opening question. I know you're coming off a long training trip in Colorado Springs. How did that trip go and how does it feel to be back in Omaha. MICHAEL PHELPS: It's good to get out of Colorado Springs, no offense but it was a long six weeks, and it was good. I've said this to you guys before, when I'm out there, it's a lot better training than I do anywhere else, so we were able to get a lot of training done and hopefully catch up to where we hopefully left off when I was swimming well. Hopefully I can start swimming well again. I'm very happy we were able to do some things that I think are going to affect how I swim here and hopefully in the future. Next couple of weeks that is, nothing after that. THE MODERATOR: Bob? BOB BOWMAN: I thought the time in Colorado went really well, and we're happy to be here, looking forward to it. Q. Michael, if you were chasing Mark Spitz in 2008, who or what are you chasing now? MICHAEL PHELPS: I think you guys thought I was chasing Mark Spitz; I was trying to do my own thing in 2008, so I'm doing my same thing now. I have goals that I want to achieve and that's what I'm trying to do. Whether it's times or other things, that's what Bob and I have been working on and trying to "fix" over, I guess, I would say four years, but we all know that's not true, it's really only been the last year and a half, so we're trying to accomplish those things and I'm a lot more confident now than I was. Obviously I tried to get away with faking as much as I could, and I saw the results were pretty crappy, so I think I have been able to do things that are hopefully going to be able to show good results this week. Q. Michael, are you chasing Ryan Lochte at all? Where do you feel the rivalry is now and is it more intense than ever as we're here at trials? MICHAEL PHELPS: Obviously he has kind of destroyed me over the last several years at major meets. He won World's last year in the 200 Free and out touched me in the 200 IM, so we have had closer races than we have in the years before, and he is the World Record Holder and the World Champion in a couple of events so I think we're‑‑ obviously he has been lighting up the swimming world in the last couple of years, and I guess you could say people are trying to catch him. But it all goes back to what I am here to do, and I have goals and things that I want to achieve, and if I achieve those and still get beat, it happens.  I can control myself and the that's the only person that I can control. Q. Wu Peng has defeated you two times in the 200 Fly over the last 14 months. How well do you expect him to do in London? MICHAEL PHELPS: After he beat me the first time last year in Ann Arbor, that was the first time in quite some time that I had lost that race and that was frustrating. This year in Charlotte I wasn't too satisfied with the time, and it was kind of my own fault that I swam that slow, so that's why being able to come down from Colorado ‑‑ afternoon spending six weeks up there, I think I'm going to be better than I was there and I think being able to make progress is something that we can look at as making steps in the right direction. He's somebody who we have had a lot of races together and at high levels, Grand Prix's, at every level. We're going to have more races over the next couple of weeks, and I look forward to it. Q. Not everyone seems to be convinced that you're swimming the 400 IM, so with mere hours now before you would have to scratch, are you or aren't you? MICHAEL PHELPS: We got a couple of hours to decide, don't we? We got a couple of hours. (Laughter.) We have 24 hours, you guys. Q. When is the mustache coming off? MICHAEL PHELPS: Whenever I shave. I can't give that away. If I shave tomorrow that would mean I'm swimming the 400 IM, if I shave on Monday, that means I'm not. It will come off when the rest of my body hair comes off. Q. How do you manage to get yourself motivated again, I mean, to be back on the right track this year? MICHAEL PHELPS: I had always said that‑‑ and I still say and I believe it more now than I really ever have, that there comes an end to everything, and for me and my career, I never want to look back and say "What if I did this one way and that one way," I want to do everything I ever wanted to do before I retire. Two years after Beijing it was pretty clear that I wasn't doing everything that I could do. It just kind of hit me, and going to workout wasn't pulling my hair, it wasn't annoying, it was something that I knew I had to do to be able to do the things that I wanted to accomplish‑‑ to be able to accomplish my goals. We had a good training group, we have had a great training group, and I think that was one of the reasons, you know, really having Allison Schmitt ‑‑ when Allison red shirted and moved to Baltimore, having her there was wonderful, kind of lightened things up a little bit, and she is a jokester, and that's something cool we have in the pool now. There is really no days during the week that she isn't telling a joke or she is not laughing at something that's not funny! She just starts laughing. BOB BOWMAN: Pretty much everything! MICHAEL PHELPS: So it's cool to have that attitude in the pool every day, and she is there helping me, and I'm there helping her, and she has been a huge part to lightening things up in the pool at workout, making it more fun. Q. Bob, he says about a year and a half, obviously people take a break but train for a longer than a year and a half to get to the level he wants to be at. How difficult and realistic is that to compress what I'm sure you would have liked to have a longer period of time to do? MICHAEL PHELPS: Bob stressing out? BOB BOWMAN: If you could have asked me that in 48 hours, I would be able to tell you, but what this has forced me to be able to do is do some things differently, take a risk on some things. People said, "Oh, you're going to Colorado for six weeks"? Well, I think that works for us, and we did it. So I think we tried some things, and they're working. The benefit Michael has is there was a year and a half of where he was not too great, but that's in the middle of twelve years, the first ten of which were better than anybody ever had, so there is stuff in the bank there and the foundation is there. I've seen enough in practice to think he is going to be pretty close to his times. We will see which side, the better side or on the "not quite there side!" Q. I wanted to ask you about Nick D'Arcy. Do you see him as a threat? The Australian public is divided about whether he should be going to London. Do you think he should be going to London? MICHAEL PHELPS: That's none of my business, what he does and what he doesn't do. What anyone chooses is their decision. Nick and I have had the chance to race a couple of times, and before I met him I remember him‑‑ I remember picturing somebody a lot bigger than what he is. I'm not‑‑ he's not very tall, but he's talented. He has control and speed and he finishes.  He's definitely somebody who is a strong 200 flyer. If I'm to where I want to be, then I think that's the only thing that matters, and it all goes back to I can't control what anyone else does. Anybody can be there and whoever is there that day, they will be the race. Q. Are you happy to be swimming against him in the pool in London? MICHAEL PHELPS: I'm happy to be swimming against the best swimmers in the world. I think that's one of the best parts about our sport is we have a chance to on international ground to swim against the best people that that country brings to the pool. Q. With this Olympics being your last, you have one last chance to add to your legacy. What is most important to you? Is it records that will stand the test of time? MICHAEL PHELPS: It's accomplishing the goals that I want. You guys love that answer, don't you? No, obviously there are things that I want to do, and from a competitive part of my career, I don't have a very big window to be able to accomplish them, but those are goals that I think I can accomplish, and I've always said I happened to be the first to do something, so you guys can use your imagination. I'm not going to say anything but I have always wanted to be the first person to do something. Q. When you were in Colorado Springs for that extended period of time, is it more physically getting yourself ready or mentally getting yourself ready for what's to come? MICHAEL PHELPS: I think it's a combination of both. That's one of the biggest things is being able to spend time to make sure you're doing everything in the pool and being able to get yourself mentally ready, being able to, you know, picture the race how you want it to go, how you don't want it to go, how it could go. There are a lot of things we worked on when we were out there, and I worked on when I was out there. I think those things are going to be big factors in this week. Q. When we were here four years ago our topic was the "8 for 8" thing, whether or not that was your goal. Is it a relief to know having done that, that won't be the topic this time? And also if you do do something that we will talk about for the first time, will it be easier to do this time than the last time? MICHAEL PHELPS: I'm sure there will be some topic that you guys will start talking about throughout the week! (Laughter.) It is wild, Bob and I came in yesterday and we were thinking on the ride in how crazy it was that four years ago we were here and how fast it's gone by. But I said this before, and I'll say it again, these last four years have been more relaxed than the previous four, and I think it's made it more‑‑ I don't want to say more "fun" but we have been able to joke around more and relax. I think that's something that has been enjoyable, after having the stressful week we had here four years ago of trying to make sure everything was perfect. I think it's crazy. I've been getting text messages from a bunch of friends saying, "It's crazy, four years ago, we're back again, this is your last one!" It's what I've been saying throughout the last couple of meets, all of the memories have been building up, and I've had a lot of memories out of Trials, ones that I competed in, ones that my sister competed in, so it's a mixture of everything that's going to sort of come with this week that we're about to do. Q. Bob, all of Michael's struggles post‑Beijing notwithstanding, are there any ways in which you feel he's better, stronger, different in a good way now than four years ago? BOB BOWMAN: I think he's actually physically stronger and he has more power when he swims, and part of that is maturation and part of that is we focused on that aspect of his swimming and for some unknown reason his breaststroke got good. MICHAEL PHELPS: I don't know how that happened. We haven't done any breaststroke. BOB BOWMAN: There are definitely ways he's better‑‑ MICHAEL PHELPS: We're talking about for the 200 IM‑‑ BOB BOWMAN: For a 50, it's good! One thing I wanted to add, I'll give you a goal in mind for this one, and that is that we are enjoying this Olympics. Hopefully we get there, we enjoy this week, and truly get to soak it in. Our Olympic experience has been like this: In 2000, it just kinda happened and we were happy just to be there. We didn't have a bit of pressure, wanted to do well, came back hungry. By the time we got to Athens, we were saying, "Do you think he could swim all these events"? And quite honestly, I don't remember Athens; it was a blur. He got beat in the 200 free, we didn't care, everybody else seemed to, and by the time we got to Beijing it was more than work! I would like for us to be able to savor this experience and get all the best parts of it out again. Not that we didn't get good things out of it before, but when you're that hyperfocused, it's tough. You look back and it's over! Q. Bob, Michael talks about and swimmers talk about focusing on times and their own accomplishments, their goals, they can't control anybody else, but in general or specifically for a guy like Michael at this point in his career, when you do have another swimmer like, for instance, Ryan right now, does it do anything? Is it still about your time and your goal or to have another guy‑‑ BOB BOWMAN: Honestly I think it sets the bar a little bit. Michael is not affected by those things. I used to be more worried about those things when they are right behind you, as opposed to right now where we get to be on the catching‑up side, so I think that plays into your preparation somehow. Specifically at the time of the event the only thing they can do is swim as well as they can, and they have to swim in the circumstances that they are presented with, so the bottom line is we just try to control what we can control. Q. Speaking of Ryan, how do you balance that relationship? Seems like you guys get along well but then you get in the pool and you want to beat his pants off. How do you bring yourself to do that? MICHAEL PHELPS: I think it's the same thing with any competitor or any kind of competition. I mean, I could ask you guys, do you guys want to write the best story? Every one of you wants to say, yes. We all want to be the best we can be and we want to win; that's just how we are. When Ryan and I get in the pool, sure, I don't want him to win, he doesn't want me to win; it's the same thing. But out of the pool we can sit there and all play our Spades and we can joke around and have fun and we can relax. It's kind of like when we step on the pool deck, that's our field, our battlefield, and we do everything we can to try to get our hands on the wall first. For me I think it's going to be easy. Q. Michael, you talk about goals, you talk about doing things no others have ever done. You're well aware that no Olympic athlete has ever won the triple, which is the same race three times in a row, and that would be the 400 IM, your first opportunity, which means you have to swim it here to do that. MICHAEL PHELPS: That's right. Q. If you do not do that, next person in line to do that is Kitajima, so how does that play into your decision? MICHAEL PHELPS: You can ask me that in a couple of days. Q. Follow‑up question, then‑‑ figured that. MICHAEL PHELPS: You guys are going to try and no one is going to get it! Q. Bob, reflecting on 2008, what one gold medal race stands out in your head? MICHAEL PHELPS: The easy one is the 100 Fly, right? That was probably a big one. For me it's the 200 Free. I think it's the best race he ever swam, I think that was his best race, technically, strategically, the time, everything about it. So that's my favorite. Q. Michael, is the level of excitement you have for competitive swimming back to where it was four years ago in Beijing? MICHAEL PHELPS: I think it's kind of interesting, Bob‑‑ the last couple of days in Colorado felt like they took forever, like the last week was just like‑‑ BOB BOWMAN: Because you're only swimming for about an hour, right, you don't‑‑ MICHAEL PHELPS: We sat around, played video games, did this‑‑ didn't do anything, really, but there were times when it was like‑‑ even though we didn't have workout at seven or eight in the morning, I was still up at 6:15, like I just randomly would always wake up early in the morning every single day. That was showing me that I have what I used to have, being excited, going into meets. I guess I didn't realize it until Bob sent me a text saying, "It's kinda cool, we're getting here"! BOB BOWMAN: I think about three days before, suddenly it hit me ‑‑ I get up at 4:45, and I think about three days before we left, I was just thinking about some things, looking at this, and I texted him and I said, "For the first time I think I'm excited about this meet," it just kinda hits you. MICHAEL PHELPS: And I was like, oh, maybe that's the reason I can't sleep, I'm getting up all the time, I can kinda feel the excitement. And I'll say when I walked into the pool yesterday afternoon, we swam in the competition pool, and it kinda just brings back all the memories, walking up the steps, going from the ready room into the‑‑ onto the pool deck, and it's kind of like the lights in the stands were dark and the spotlights were on the pool, so it's kinda like it gives you the feeling of you're walking into "The Show" kinda thing. You're back in that. So I definitely felt that yesterday and feels good in the water, surprisingly. Haven't felt very good in the water over the last couple of years. I feel relaxed, I feel like I can swim my strokes again, so it will be a matter of time till we see what will happen. Q. Your Coach Bob Bowman was talking about the difference in 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012. How is it like to be you in those sequential Olympics? Can you tell your story? MICHAEL PHELPS: Obviously in 2000 I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I walked out on to the pool deck and didn't tie my suit, so I kind of was not fully there. BOB BOWMAN: Yeah, he didn't tie his suit‑‑ he took the wrong credential‑‑ MICHAEL PHELPS: I was obviously not all together, I wasn't fully engaged in everything that I was doing. It was all just a learning process, that was my first international trip, my first National Team. I was just kind of thrown into the show, and I didn't know what I was doing, really. That was the first one, and the second one was I remember swimming at Trials and just swimming thousands of events, like event after event after event after event, like I had the triple, I had so many events, and I was like, oh, why not? Bob is putting me in these events, might as well just swim 'em! And I started swimming them and swimming them well‑‑ BOB BOWMAN: Good 'ol days! MICHAEL PHELPS: Yeah, doesn't happen anymore. Now I fight it! What's this one? But in the 2004 Olympics, I wanted to swim the 200 Free, I wanted to get in there with the best, and we kinda learned that I could juggle a bunch of different things as long as I stayed on top of recovery and making sure I'm doing the right things in the pool and out of the pool and preparing myself for each race. And leading into 2008, we tried to‑‑ obviously we saw we could juggle a bunch and do it at a high level and everything had to be exactly perfect for us to be able to do what we wanted to do and everything fell into place. Obviously now, like I said, it's a bunch more relaxed, laid back and I think somebody said‑‑ I think Eric did. I was talking to her Erik Vendt the other day. I haven't talked to him in forever, and we finally caught up and we were Skyping, and he was working in Hong Kong. And he said, "This is just your time to see what kind of finish you want to put on top of your chocolate Sunday, how big do you want your cherry to be, how much chocolate did you want to add, and I started thinking about it and I was like, okay, we've done a lot of cool, amazing, exciting things and now it's just time to have fun. And I think that's‑‑ like I said, we're more relaxed and we'll see after this week what size cherry I want to put on top of my Sunday. Q. When Ryan was in before you, he said all the talk surrounding this rivalry and the potential for what could happen in London could drive this sport to new heights, could take it to places it's never been. Do you agree? If so, what could you guys do to take this sport to new places? MICHAEL PHELPS: I mean, you guys are probably going to have a field day. You guys could have a field day. I was talking to somebody about it and sort of‑‑ this is really, you know, what something needs to grow, a rivalry, a friendly rival rivalry or whatever it is. I think, for me, I want to change the sport of swimming and take it to a new level, it's the one thing I've wanted to the my entire career. Clearly the sport has changed tremendously. We used to have Trials in a 4,000 spectator swimming pool, and now we're going to have over 10,000 people here. That's something that has changed already, and from being on Prime Time in Beijing, who ever would have thought that Prime Time swimming would be such a hit. We have been able to grow the sport so much and taken it so far. This is something new, something ‑‑ being able to have a rivalry of‑‑ I don't want to say like the "Clash of the Titans" but, like, two big athletes, and swimmers, but more than that. I mean, it's more than just Ryan and I getting into the pool, we have the rest of the world and the rest of our country to battle as well. You know, that's something that's going to be exciting for people to watch and for people to get involved with. I think it's also been cool being‑‑ I'll say it, like I was never a fan of Twitter, but I started liking it a little bit more. It's always funny to see and read some of the comments that people‑‑ like if somebody Tweets something like the comment that they say or they will tag Ryan and I‑‑ I don't want go into details, some of them are funny, some of them frustrate me, but that's how it works. It's been cool just to be able to see how much people actually are excited for this week and hopefully London. Q. Michael, and Bob if you could weigh in. You talk about enjoying the ride because you've accomplished so much already. Is there any pressure not to end it‑‑ you talk about the Sunday. I'm sure you don't want to go there and win a bunch of bronze medals. Do you worry that this one more time could hurt your legacy or is there any pressure not to end on a bad note by your standards? MICHAEL PHELPS: That's the one thing that‑‑ I think I said this to somebody before. You know what, if I go out and do the best that I can and don't medal or get a bronze or a silver, at the end of the day there aren't many people that can say they have this. So if I did everything that I could, then that's fine. I just want to go out and challenge myself. I think over the last two years, year and a half that I haven't done that as much as I have in the past, but I feel like I've set myself up to do something that I can look back at when I retire in 20, 30, 40 years down the road and say "That was a pretty good career," and if somebody says it's a failure, I don't care. If I can say I've done everything I can and I've been happy with my career, that's all that matters. BOB BOWMAN: I don't think anything he could do or not do will change his legacy. He's the greatest Olympian of all time today, he will be after this summer, I think. The one thing that I think I'm the most proud of Michael about, which took me forever to realize, is he's accomplished all these things, he's decided to do other things, he came back to it, but he did it absolutely his way, the way he wanted to do it. He made all those decisions, he stood by them, he never made an excuse, he's always been straight upfront about where he is, what he's done, what he wants to do, and I think that's admirable. However this ends up, it will be exactly the way he and I chose to make it end up. If it's good we made good choices, if it's not, probably could have done better, we will just think about the other ones, they were pretty good. Q. Michael, in an effort to be part of the media that's going to have a "field day" with this rivalry, as you said, does it bother you when Ryan says this is "his time" and he doesn't lose to people more ‑‑ once you beat him he doesn't lose to them again. Do you care about that although all? MICHAEL PHELPS: Obviously I see what people say about me, I see how they say it. I hear people say it. Does it bother me? If it does, it's used as motivation. That's how it's always been. I can‑‑ I mean, I can remember back in 2003 when Doug Frost said, I was "unproven on international ground"‑‑ BOB BOWMAN: No, Don Talbot‑‑ MICHAEL PHELPS: Sorry, Don Talbot ‑‑ there are a lot of people who have said a lot of things, but Don said that, "He is unproven on international ground." What did it do? It motivated me. Thorpe said, it couldn't be done, what did it do? It motivated me. So it excites me. Obviously it frustrates me sometimes, but it's used as motivation. I think that's the biggest thing I have been able to learn over the past, and I have never once said anything publically, I never will, that's not how I am. I let the swimming do whatever talking it needs to, has to, will do, whatever. That's how I've always had my career and that's how I'm going to finish it. A lot of people can talk the talk but sometimes they can't get in and walk the walk. There is no need to put yourself out there if you don't know if you can really do it. THE MODERATOR: Thanks everyone. Michael, best of luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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