The video above is courtesy of Michael Phelps‘ Facebook page.
On Sunday afternoon, Olympic great Michael Phelps sat down to answer fans’ questions on Facebook Live. In the video, he talked about how things are going with Boomer, his training in the lead up to Rio, and the challenges that lie ahead at the Games, specifically the men’s 400 free relay.
Phelps plans to swim all 4 events that he qualified for in Rio: The 100 and 200 fly, 200 IM, and 400 medley relay. He also talked about the 200 free, which he scratched at Olympic Trials. While it should be a fun race to watch, he’s glad he isn’t doing it. Phelps wasn’t happy with his performance in that event this year, and wants to go into Rio with a lighter schedule.
One of the big questions as we head towards the games is whether or not Phelps will be on the 400 free relay. Phelps says it’s a coaching call that will be made at game time. He knows the Australians are going to be tough to beat, and he feels confident that the staff will choose the 4 guys who give them the best chance of winning gold. If they put him on the relay, he’ll gladly take the spot. Even if he doesn’t get the chance to swim it, he’ll be happy to see some of the younger guys step up and build on what the USA veterans have done at the last few Games.
In regards to his training, Phelps says he tapered a little bit for trials but he isn’t sure exactly when he’ll start to taper again. He’s still lifting and will have at least couple more weeks of hard training before he starts to back it down. One of his concerns as he starts to taper is maintaining his weight, as he feels he was too skinny in Omaha last month, and is trying to add on a couple of pounds before Rio.
Also making appearances in his video were Boomer, Nicole, and his training partners Conor Dwyer and Allison Schmitt. The group will travel to two training camps starting Tuesday, first going to San Antonio before heading to Atlanta. Dwyer has been racing Phelps during practice since he joined him last week, and will probably be training in Michael’s group at camp as well.
Since he last checked in with fans, Phelps says Boomer has grown a lot. He’s happy to be hearing more of Boomer’s voice now that he’s started cooing and interacting with his surroundings more, and you can hear some of the sounds Boomer makes in the background. According to Phelps, Boomer is in the 75th percentile in weight, so he’ll grow into a big guy and his name will be fitting.
Phelps reiterated that Rio will be his last Olympic Games, as he wants to grow his family and turn the page. He isn’t sure where he sees himself in 10 years, but one thing is for sure: You won’t see him doing any triathlons. Phelps may be good at swimming, but he joked about how horrible he is when it comes to running and biking. If he does any land sports, it’ll probably be golf. One of his goals for after Rio is to get down to scratch, meaning he’d be able to play with a handicap of zero on all rated golf courses.
On July 21st, Phelps will be doing another Facebook live video before Rio, but that will be his last one for awhile. Athletes have to be careful about what they post on social media because of rule 40, which doesn’t allow them to promote non-Olympic sponsors during the Games.
Very surprised he is not resting already.
Pokémon Go YESSSSS
Don’t let Lochte anywhere NEAR Pokemon Go between now and Rio!!!!
A little bit tapered. See? See? Imagine his performance in Rio when he is fully tapered, hopefully got better on turns since trials, and has Cseh and Le Clos to amp him up.
He better start tapering soon. He’s in a pretty big fatigue hole.
How long do you think a 31 year old needs to taper? I’m think two and a half weeks.
Then it looks like he’ll be a half week short. It’s 4 weeks until the 200 fly and less until the 400 free relay. He’s saying he has a couple more weeks of hard training and he’s still lifting. That would be 2 weeks of serious rest while also absorbing the effects of travel along the way.
I hope he doesn’t pull a 2012 Lochte and not rest enough. Neither Bob nor he has ever been through this taper schedule for a prolonged event at 31. They hit it right last summer, but he got to loaf prelims and there weren’t semis or relays.
Hey , nobody can complain about Lochte’s anchor – watch again , it took a 46. for Agnel to get back
on Lochte on the second 50 . If TeamUsa had more pure sprinters in that relay , Big chances are that they would have won with a 47 low split anchor . Not fair to judge Lochte’s performance ….
It wasn’t his anchor in the free relay. It was his poor showing in the 200 back, 200 IM, and even nearly being outsplit by a woman in the last 100 of the 400 IM. He was basically fried after the 400 IM final-free relay double for the rest of the meet. He dug a huge fatigue hole with his power lifting routine, which obviously was a bit out of place for a guy doing middle distance events. He did not hold up through the meet nearly as well as Phelps had held up in Beijing.
1. Lochte swam a textile WR in the 400 IM, which doesn’t suggest a bad taper. 2. He stayed out late after winning the 400 IM, which didn’t help the relay the next day. 2. He still went fast (for him) on the 4×100, certainly fast enough that the US coaches would’ve expected a win given the lead he had (translation: Agnel’s godliness could not have been anticipated). 3. He handled the 200 Back/ 200 IM double pretty well, matching his winning time from Beijing in the Back, and crushing his Beijing time in the IM. Few swimmers have ever had a better Olympics, frankly.
What about the 800 free relay
Your future 100/200 free times tend to be very correlated based on your historical performance. If he plans on throwing down a 47 low on a reply split, I don’t see why he can’t throw down an equivalent fast 200 free relay split..
The references to bad swims is like comparing apples & oranges, those were untapered times. I’m sure there would have been an equivalent bad swim in the 100free that same day.
I predict he’s in either both the 400/800 free relay or neither. But not one over the other
I disagree: I wouldn’t be surprised to see MP skip only the 4×200. MP can’t be certain he’d dip under 1:45 with a rolling start, and Lochte + Dwyer + Haas + Conger look fast enough for gold. It really strikes me now how little MP cares about the medal count. His priority is winning his individual events and getting a best time.
Saw on Instragram that Kevin Cordes was also training with their group. Smart choice given the upcoming relay exchange.
Thanks for frightening me by reminding me about that.
The sun makes a huge difference, really.
I think the best part is that 95%+ of us fat Americans are beside ourselves when he says he wants to “gain weight” going into Rio
That was by far the most relatable part of the interview for me ????
Those question marks were supposed to be an emoji not sure what happened