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Phelps looking forward to slimmed down schedule
2009-07-24
ROME (AFP) - In a year of turmoil and transition, Michael Phelps is hoping his scaled-back World Championships campaign will prove less stressful than his eight-gold Olympic performance in Beijing. "It has been a long year, good times, bad times, a lot of really high points and a lot of low points," Phelps said of 2009, when he returned to the water after the longest layoff of his career. He found himself tabloid fodder but is now poised to tackle three individual events and almost certainly three relays in the world swimming competition that runs from Sunday through August 2. "I don't think I have a full day off, but it is going to be a little different," said Phelps, who was greeted by the usual horde of camera- and microphone-wielding media at a press conference at the Foro Italico on Friday. "I think it's going to be not as stressful, maybe not as tiring - we'll see." Phelps has dropped the gruelling 400m individual medley and the 200m medley for this meet. And he hasn't added the individual 100m freestyle - one of swimming's marquee events and one which Phelps has indicated he would like to pursue. Earlier this year he unveiled a new sprint freestyle stroke designed to eventually put him among the world's best in the event, but he withdrew from the 100 free a the US trials with a stiff neck. Phelps was clearly irked by comments from two-time 100m free world champion Filippo Magnini, who said the US superstar was ducking an event packed with sprinting talent. "It wasn't an excuse as it was stated in the paper by one of the athletes," Phelps said. "I actually wanted to swim that race. But we didn't want to possibly jeopardize something in the future. That was something that we decided that was best for me." No doubt Magnini's remarks will provide more motivation for Phelps, who appears to have lost none of his drive to win in the wake of his Beijing triumphs. Phelps admitted that after taking six months off it was tough to get back in the water. And when he did, he found his progress disrupted by the publication in a London tabloid of him holding a marijuana pipe. The ensuing furore cost him a three-month ban from competition by USA Swimming, even briefly had him questioning his desire to continue swimming until the 2012 Olympics. But on Friday he sounded as keen as ever. "These parts of meets, where you're just waiting, it feels like it takes forever," he said. Phelps has already proved himself ready to take on the world, capturing the 100m butterfly world record he had long coveted at the US championships earlier this month. He'll also race the 200m butterfly - with an eye on improving his own world record - and the 200m freestyle. All three were among his eight-gold campaign in Beijing. US team chief Mark Schubert said he wasn't surprised to see Phelps back in world record-breaking form, despite his slow start to the year. "He has a huge background behind him and I don't think it takes him as long a time to get back into good shape as it did when he was younger," Schubert said. "I think it's a tribute a lot of hard work not just this year but previous years."
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