As Other US Swimming Stars Fade, Michael Phelps Remains Remarkably Dominant
OMAHA, Neb. — When we first saw Michael Phelps years ago, he was a blank slate. He was swimming, swimming, swimming with one thought of one thing: winning gold. As time passed, things changed, and he kept winning gold. He lost interest, felt a void, turned to alcohol, suffered from depression. And he won gold.
Now we're seeing the Phelps who is cleaning himself up and carrying on. And on Tuesday at the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials, a few days from Phelps' 31st birthday, we saw this generation of American swim stars struggle and look old. And then Phelps jumped in the water.
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And he completely, calmly demolished everyone. He advanced to the finals in the 200-meter butterfly, and let me just save you the suspense: He'll finish first and make the U.S. Olympic team that goes to Rio de Janeiro this summer. He'll make it in however many events he chooses to make it in.
"Honestly, I didn't really feel that good the whole race," he told Bleacher Report. "It was decent."
One man's decent is another man's gold medal.
The story of the day at the trials will be the downfall of the faces of U.S. swimming. And yes, Missy Franklin has not made the team yet (but she will), and Natalie Coughlin hasn't made it, either (and she probably won't). On Sunday, surfer dude/swimming icon Ryan Lochte failed to make the team in the 400-meter individual medley, meaning he won't defend his Olympic gold in that event. On Tuesday, he needed to finish in the top four in the 200-meter freestyle to get on an Olympic relay team.
He finished fourth, barely made the team, hobbled down a set of stairs on his pulled groin muscle and said, "I'm just happy that I'm going to Rio and I'm representing my country at the highest stage of sport. I'm really honored."
He was not happy or honored. He said that while frowning.
Lochte is 31 and is part swimming giant, part old guy. That's why he pulled a muscle trying to compete in the grueling 400-meter IM in the first place, a young man's event that he said he would do because it's "fun." And it's why he still managed to get to Rio anyway. He might make it in the 200-meter IM, too.
But swimmers aging should not be such a shocker. Last time most people saw these swimmers, it was four years ago. What did you expect would happen?
There are two absolutes: People get older. And Phelps keeps winning gold.
"I just didn't want to do it," he said the other day in Omaha, talking about his efforts going into the 2012 Games. "That's it. I wasn't happy doing what I was doing. I sure as hell wasn't training. We all saw that."
No, we didn't. Phelps still won four golds and two silvers in London. Sure, that wasn't the eight golds he won in 2008 in Beijing, but who thought that was from personal issues?
"I tried to fake it pretty much," he said. "That's what I was doing."
How does Phelps keep doing this when others grow old? Through all those Olympic gold medals—now 18 and counting—and all his personal issues, that is his ultimate legacy.
This isn't a guy who just shows up to work every day for years. In fact, he missed plenty of days of work, calling in indifferent. Yet he's a guy who dominates his sport endlessly through incredible personal highs and lows.
Sometimes, superstar athletes burn out and pay the price for never having learned the skills of how to be an adult, never learning how to cope with problems when people are coping with them for you. (See: Tiger Woods.)
Some superstars don't fall off, of course, and they keep winning until they get old. Others are crushed under the singularity of thought and it finishes them off.
Phelps fell off the cliff and kept grabbing gold on the way down. And now, getting old for a swimmer, he seems to be back up again, with a baby, Boomer, who was born in May, an upcoming marriage and, he said, 21 months of sobriety.
He said he was in the warm-down pool with Lochte and Elizabeth Beisel the other day "and it was actually enjoyable. It wasn't like a fake laugh. I was actually enjoying myself, and we were telling jokes with one another."
Still, going into the trials, Phelps admitted he didn't really know what to expect. His longtime coach, Bob Bowman, said the same thing while sitting next to Phelps.
"That makes me feel good," Phelps said sarcastically.
Now, they know. Same as always. In the next few days, plenty of new, young American stars will emerge. We'll get to know them in Rio. In fact, Phelps will get to know them there, too.
"There have been a couple of people coming up to me and asking questions," he said. "This guy asked me today, 'What do you think about before you swim?' I was like, 'Nothing.' He was like, 'Are you kidding?' I said 'no.' But I've told a couple of swimmers just kind of turn your mind off; you've done the work to get here, so it's time to get in the water and let it loose.
"I see a lot of new faces. I don't even know half of them. I think it's good for our sport. I think it's interesting and also exciting just to have new faces of people really pumped to come up in the sport. For me, it's a good thing to see as I'm on my way out."
On the way out. He has a few more golds to win first.
Greg Couch covers the Olympics for Bleacher Report. Follow him at @gregcouch.
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