Michael Phelps Will Race in 7 Olympic Events, Withdraws from 200-Meter Freestyle

Michael Phelps will not attempt to repeat his Olympic performance from four years ago, when he won eight gold medals. Phelps' coach Bob Bowman wrote on Twitter that the 27-year-old has taken himself out of the 200-meter individual freestyle race.

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@MichaelPhelps will be removing the individual 200 freestyle from his Olympic program. This will give him a full slate of 7 events.

— Bob Bowman (@coach_bowman) July 2, 2012"

That leaves Phelps with "only" seven chances to win gold at the London Games, which get under way with the opening ceremony on July 27.

There was a time, before the U.S. Olympic Trials started, when Phelps could have competed in 10 Olympic events this year, according to Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports.

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Yahoo! Exclusive: Michael Phelps enters 7 events for U.S. Olympic Trials, could conceivably shoot for 10 medals if he swims entire program.

— Pat Forde (@YahooForde) June 19, 2012"

Even a superhuman like Phelps would have had to pull a rabbit out of his hat a few times to have enough energy and stamina to make it through 10 events, so that never seemed like a viable number.

Qualifying for eight events put the spotlight right back on him, especially after what he did in Beijing and his narrow defeat of Ryan Lochte during the 200-meter free at the trials.

Now, with Phelps declaring that he won't run in the race, some of the pressure has been taken off his back. He is just two medals away from setting a new Olympic record, trailing only Larisa Latynina's 18.

Focusing on seven events and not stretching himself too thin puts Phelps in the perfect position to be the star of the Olympics for the second time in as many Games.

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