Michael Phelps Results from Sunday at Phillips 66 National Championships 2015

Michael Phelps is officially back, and there is no stopping him at the Phillips 66 National Championships in San Antonio.

The 18-time Olympic gold medalist dominated the competition Sunday in the 200-meter individual medley with a time of 1:54.75 for his third victory of the event. Phelps finished nearly four seconds ahead of second-place racer Will Licon (1:58.43) and almost set the world record in the process.

Ryan Lochte holds the 200-meter individual medley world record at 1:54.00, but Phelps’ Sunday time was the fastest fans have seen this year.

It continued a theme of dominance in San Antonio for Phelps. He won the men’s 200-meter butterfly Friday and took home the 100-meter butterfly Saturday, both in commanding fashion. If nothing else, the Baltimore native has left little doubt throughout the Phillips 66 National Championships that he is still one of the best swimmers in the world and is a true threat in the 2016 Olympics.

Eric Gay/Associated Press

Phelps didn’t turn in a dominant performance in Sunday’s qualifying heats, but he was still good enough for third place at 1:59.63 behind Licon and Austin Surhoff. Phelps clearly conserved enough energy to turn on the jets in the finals and simply had an extra gear that Licon, Surhoff and the rest of the competitors did not. 

Here is a look at the top finals and qualifying times, per OmegaTiming.com:

Place	Swimmer	Time
1	Michael Phelps	1:54.75
2	Will Licon	1:58.43
3	Travis Mahoney	1:59.41
4	Austin Surhoff	1:59.44
5	Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez	1:59.81
6	Joseph Bentz	2:00.16
7	Max Litchfield	2:00.93
8	Ryan Harty	2:02.99

Place	Swimmer	Time
1	Will Licon	1:58.50
2	Austin Surhoff	1:58.80
3	Michael Phelps	1:59.63
4	Joseph Bentz	2:00.93
5	Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez	2:01.14
6	Travis Mahoney	2:01.26
7	Max Litchfield	2:01.47
8	Ryan Harty	2:01.78

Phelps’ performance in the finals was breathtaking, and he actually was under world-record pace throughout the first 150 meters and just missed out at the end. Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports was certainly impressed with the 30-year-old on the comeback trail:

USA Swim Foundation was there for the victorious moment, and the swimmer even caught the attention of San Antonio councilman Ron Nirenberg in the process:

Phelps was banned from the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia, because of his second DUI arrest, but he has sent a statement around the world to his biggest rivals. Sunday’s win marked the third time he topped the winning worlds mark, including Lochte's winning mark of 1:55.81 in the 200-meter individual medley.

Phelps' performances in San Antonio serve as the biggest stage he will be on before the actual 2016 Olympics, and the 18-time gold medalist looks more than ready to compete against top-notch competition.

He demonstrated versatility in the medley with all four strokes and was absolutely dominant in the butterfly events Friday and Saturday.

Travis Rockhold of ESPN Radio pointed out that Phelps certainly sent a message:

Phelps discussed his comeback status in San Antonio, per Wayne Drehs of ESPN.com:

"

It just shows you that anything is possible if you do want something bad enough. I went through a lot. And to be able to train like I did to get ready for this—I mean, I can do whatever I put my mind to.

And this next year is going to be pretty damn fun. 

"

It’s hard to argue against that right now.