Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Rumors have been swirling since Tuesday that Michael Phelps had withdrawn from the Minnesota Grand Prix that begins today at the University of Minnesota natatorium in Minneapolis. Late last night, those rumors were confirmed by the Minnesota Daily News.
There is growing frustration in and amongst the swimming community as this is the third time that Phelps has withdrawn from an event this season. The general feeling is that if Phelps doesn’t want to swim, that’s fine. But if people expect him to be at these meets, he needs to be there. This song-and-dance about withdrawing at the last minute, long after the event has been hyped through the roof and tickets have been sold and flights booked, gets a collective eye-roll from the swimming community.
Phelps has still not competed since August at the Pan Pac Championships, where he had a few good swims (notably in the 100 fly), but left the meet feeling very much disappointed in his performance. If Phelps, who can do whatever he wants and will still go down as the greatest swimmer in history, was serious in his comments about “growing the sport,” he would be better about showing up for these events. Selling glorified hottubs for the wealthy to swim in their backyard doesn’t grow the sport, showing up at meets like this grows the sport.
Luckily, the new best swimmer in the world, Ryan Lochte, will still be at this meet, along with a number of other swimming superstars like Ricky Berens, Missy Franklin, Liz Pelton, and Chloe Sutton. There will also be many of the biggest college stars in the midwest in attendance, like Michigan freshman Kyle Whitaker and Minnesota breaststroker Jillian Tyler.
This year’s Grand Prix series comes within a $20,000 prize, and certain other Grand Prix meets (notably the Charlotte Ultraswim) come with even bigger prizes. Swimmers are awarded 5 points for an event win, 3 points for a silver, and 1 point for a bronze. Last year, Chloe Sutton took home the check. The year before, Mary Descenza was the recipient, and in 2008, the last year Mr. Phelps took the event seriously (and the last year where $20,000 was worth his time), he won the money.
it ain’t all bad..instead of one foot of snow,
http://www.tmz.com/2010/11/14/michael-phelps-brittny-gastineau-dating-couple-video/
Wow, so much for spending the time training…
No offense to some of the comments, but it’s his decision whether he wants to swim in the meet or not, not other people’s. And you guys, including me, have no idea what it would be like to be the greatest olympian of all-time and not miss a single day of practice for five years, and go through what he did to get where he is. Like Kate said, before all of you start making accusations and pointing fingers, realize that you’ve never been in his shoes, in fact no one has but him.
Phelps isn’t training this weekend. He hopped a plane to LA, probably to meet up with a friend. I agree with a lot of what has been said above. He has lost his passion for the sport and keeps his toe in mainly for the money and because it is what is expected of him. He’ll train the bare minimum to be competitive in London and sweep up a few medals. It’s unfortunate, because I still think he’s the most talented swimmer on the planet (props to Lochte for the amazing work ethic, but I still think MP has him on talent) and he could still improve a lot and blow people’s minds if he wanted to.
Frankly, he’s exhibiting… Read more »
I would guess that he stayed home to train. It’s not the first time this has happened. But if he just got back from China, a quality block of training will do more good than going to swim three 100s at a meet. It was probably a wait-and-see thing from the start. To be honest, this may (keyword may) prove that he is serious, if he realizes that an extra good weekend of training beats 600 yards of racing. London is his focus, and I truly believe he has enough passion for London (and to an extent, Shanghai) to put in decent performances. Not 2008 performances but good ones nonetheless. Lochte is the best swimmer in the world. But something… Read more »
Pan Pacs were over Mid August, so my calculations, he has taken almost 3 months off…big difference…he has procrastinated getting in shape (he admits this) for a couple years now….and his one month turned into longer…much longer
There is NO PASSION, just dollar signs!!
I don’t think people necessarily ‘messed up’ MP’s entries, that would be silly. I think someone (by someone I mean BB) deliberately made that entry in an attempt to persuade Phelps to show up there, even though they knew his opinion all the time.
Look, I’m not saying Phelps’ decisions make sense swimming wise or training wise. Nevertheless, they make sense to him and that’s all that matters. You can accuse him of this and that, but you cannot blame him for not showing up when he didn’t have any plans to swim at that meet in the first place.
Um MIss5, people don’t mess up the entries for the best swimmer (alleged) in the world. The GP Series is on the OME system. More than likely, BB is in charge of MPs entries. There are a ton of steps involved in the system. If you don’t have to go through the system (which is possible) a representative of MP has to call the meet host and tell them what he is going to swim, which for this meet was the 100FR, BK, & Fly.
Taking a month off? That rules out any seriousness of SC Nats. What was he doing in September and October other than working on his short game? Why train September and October to take November… Read more »
Don’t you think you’re being unfair a bit? If you follow Michael Phelps appearances and interviews, you’ll know that he said (a month ago, during Delaware swim clinic) that he would TAKE A MONTH OFF. He never planned to swim in Minnesota and if people expected him to be there, well it’s not his fault. Maybe people from NBAC who put his name there without his approval should answer that question.
Article: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/nation/phelps-has-eyes-on-world-championships-olympics-105111879.html
Quote: “Phelps, who also posed for pictures and conducted a question-and-answer session with the youths, said he plans to take a month off, before getting back to serious training.”