2016 U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS
- Sunday, June 26 – Sunday, July 3, 2016
- CenturyLink Center, Omaha, Nebraska
- SwimSwam Preview Links and Schedule
- Psych Sheets
- NBC Broadcast Schedule
- Day Six Finals Live Recap
After his second victory of the week, this time in the 200IM, Michael Phelps once again sat down with the media for a press conference. This time Phelps was by himself, without coach Bob Bowman. You can watch the full press conference above.
Phelps on racing Ryan Lochte in the 200 IM:
I mean, like I said before, you know, racing somebody like him, you know, it doesn’t really matter where he is in training, he’s somebody who is always really tough. And, you know, we do race each other very well and like you saw, we raced each other until the last stroke.
After being asked if he would help his son, Boomer, with swimming:
Boomer got in the water once; he was not happy with me. The water might have been a little too cold, so I think we’re going to try heating our pool up a little bit more, and maybe he will like that. He loves the bath, so he does like the water. He kinda just plays with the water faucet. I don’t know if he will be a swimmer. If he is, I’ll give him some pointers.
“My legs don’t usually hurt so much when I’ve tapered”…proof he is not swimming unrested!!
There are levels:
Unrested
Slightly Rested
in Between
Mostly Rested
Rested
One thing I found interesting about these interviews is that when asked why the times are a bit slower than last year and 2012 despite the work he’s putting in, he says that he trusts Bob and hopes he knows what he is doing. You could read into it that this isn’t a normal taper. Perhaps they did a short rest similar to winter nationals.
I’m sure there was some amount of rest before trials but having heavy legs could very well indicate it wasn’t a full taper. That would also explain why he did swim the 100/200 free.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MvKyj-Nji4