Phelps: A fish out of water no more

April 9, 2015

Michael Phelps will return to competitive swimming next week after having completed his six-month suspension for DUI.

Phelps will join a field that includes longtime friendly rival Ryan Lochte and Katie Ledecky at the Pro Swim Series in Mesa, Ariz. April 15 through 18.

After last competing at the Pan Pacific Championships in August, Phelps was arrested in September and suspended by USA Swimming in October.

He’s not on the roster for the World Championships in Kazan, Russia this August, but does anyone doubt that Phelps – the only U.S. men’s swimmer to post a world-leading time in an Olympic event in 2014 – will be there? ...

Seems like old times: For Phelps, Fed – and Caro

August 25, 2014

There’s so much going on in swimming and tennis right now that my head is spinning. So let’s plunge right in, shall we?

Down Under, Michael Phelps was back in a big way at the Pan Pacific Championships, winning gold in the 100 butterly, 4 X200 and medley relays and silvers in the 200 IM and the 4X100 relay.

It’s a measure of just how talented the 29-year-old is that he can take a year and a half off and already come back this far. You have to credit part of that to luck, fate, Providence, whatever, particularly when you consider that Missy Franklin, the darling of the last Olympics and worlds, missed Pan Pacific with a sore back – at age 19. Indeed, the pictures of Phelps smiling on the medal stand, looking at his gold medal for the 100 fly, in which Ryan Lochte finished second (seems like old times) said it all.

This has been a good moment for “old timers.” Federinas, along with the press, have practically anointed a resilient Roger Federer winner of this year’s US Open, which gets underway in earnest Monday, Aug. 25.

Phelpte shows glimmers of former glory

August 12, 2014

The U.S. national championships have been a disappointing meet for fans of Phelpte, the Michael Phelps-Ryan Lochte rivalry. (Also known as Phlochte, which sounds better.)

Anyway, Phelpte, Phlochte, it boiled down to the same thing: Phelps finished second in the 100 butterfly, perhaps his signature event; sixth in the 100 back and seventh in the 100 free. Lochte was second in the 100 free and third in the 200 back.

The only time the old rivalry kicked in was in the 200 IM, in which Lochte bested Phelps, with both posting among the fastest times in the world this year. They didn’t race next to each other, however, in the center of the pool, eyeballing each other as they used to, matching stroke for stroke, breath for breath. Instead they were in outside lanes, where mere mortals dwell.

"I guess we can say this is kind of our off-year," Lochte said of himself and Phelps. "Well, I can say that." (Love Ryan, and the way he can defer to Michael in friendship while still holding his own.)

Bottom line...