Last chapter of Michael Phelps’ Olympic career will be written clean, focused and on his own terms

BALTIMORE — For a beast of a man, an athlete who has made the Olympic Games his own personal splash pad, Michael Phelps carries with him some heavy regret.

Yes, the Baltimore native is the most decorated Olympian in history, a winner of 22 medals (and counting, presumably). And yes, the 31-year-old will be watched in Rio de Janeiro next month like few other athletes.
But if this is indeed going to be Phelps’ “Last Goodbye” — as the artistic Under Armour commercial so vividly will serenade television viewers throughout the Rio Games — there is some unfinished business as well.
Outside of the pool, Phelps likes to think of himself as a new man now, determined to put some of the turmoil of his past behind him. He is sober, fit and lean like never before. A humiliating drinking-and-driving charge from 2014 is also in the rearview, while the focus is on his newborn son, Boomer and fiancé, Nicole.
In the pool, there is the regret of the London Olympics four years ago where Phelps admits with frustration that he essentially gave away medals in the 400-metre medley and 200-metre butterfly by not preparing properly.
For a guy who has struck Olympic gold 18 times, the mere idea of having more to prove seems ludicrous. But Phelps admits a brilliant career has been accomplished despite not going all out, all the time.
“It’s kind of a crappy way to go out and retire and kind of know that you still had more in there and that you could do better,” Phelps says. “That’s something I didn’t want. I deserve the results that I got in London. I didn’t put the work and the time in to deserve any better. I take the full blame. I never want to look back 20 years down the road and say what if I had done this, what if I had done that.”
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Although he declared his retirement after the London Games, something burned in Phelps. Those London results didn’t sit well for a number of reasons. There was friction with his long-time coach, Bob Bowman. There was the issue of motivation and the arrogant belief (though not without some truth) that he could beat the best in the world with minimal preparation.
It wasn’t until the aftermath of in evening in September 2014 that the comeback got serious, however.
After a solid night of drinking and gambling at Baltimore’s Horseshoe Casino, cops caught the decorated Olympian’s Ranger Rover weaving and speeding through the Fort McHenry Tunnel heading out of downtown. He was arrested on a DUI charge, pleaded guilty and was given probation. He spent time in a rehab facility in Arizona and emerged from the entire experience a new man.
Without preaching, Phelps talks of the alarm-clock effect of the arrest. He re-evaluated his personal life and re-focused his athletic pursuits and now. He has qualified for three individual events and could take part in three relays to add to his medal-laden legacy in his fifth Olympic appearance.
“I’m going because I want to,” Phelps says. “I want to go and swim again. I got hungry. I fell back in love with the sport again. I just want to look back and show I’ve got nothing else to prove — 100 per cent, first time ever.”
Phelps drops the “100 per cent” line several times during his media appearance at the Baltimore headquarters of Under Armour, one of his main sponsors. The genesis, he said, came from a friend who challenged him shortly after he decided to come back for one more Olympics.
“A buddy of mine from Michigan sat with me and dared me to give 100 per cent,” Phelps recalls. “I’ll never forget him saying that to me because nobody has ever said that to me in my life. He was daring me.
“It’s really weird to say this, but I don’t know really the last time I gave 100 per cent, the max.”
Indeed, since firmly committing to qualifying for Brazil, Phelps has been working like a man possessed. He is focused, more in tune with what he puts in his body, more attentive to Bowman and ultimately committed to peak one final time in his brilliant career.
“What he’s done this past year and a half is remarkable,” says Keenan Robinson, Phelps’ dry-land trainer. “He lived through the Beijing to London (Olympic quadrennial) where he did whatever he wanted. He had already set the standard so high.
“But it’s not like he just shows up, falls in the water and medals fall out of the sky. From my standpoint, he’s on track and he’s on pace. We won’t know for sure until Aug. 14 when the Games are done, but until then we’re going to make sure we check all the boxes possible.”