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What, me worry? Golden boy Phelps OK with silvers
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Michael Phelps lost two of four races at the Santa Clara Grand Prix Sunday, adding them to two defeats in the same events -- 100-meter freestyle and 100-meter backstroke -- in Charlotte this spring.
If anyone's concerned he's not the same dominant swimmer who won a record eight Olympic golds in Beijing, they're seriously in need of a summer diversion. Go find an Oprah Club book, your nearest gelato shop, a nice margarita.
Phelps is doing what great athletes who want to keep doing great things do. He's tweaking his stroke, replacing items on the menu, finding another challenge.
It's three years until London. Let's cut the guy some slack. Or, in the words of swim coach Teri McKeever, two-time Olympic coach, when she saw another coach wearing a t-shirt reading "London's Calling" at this weekend's Santa Clara meet: "Can we give it a rest?"
The fact that Phelps lost (some call it "coming in second") the 100-meter free to Canada's Brent Hayden, the defending world champion, and the backstroke to U.S. teammate and rival Ryan Lochte means little.
Phelps was coming straight off three weeks of intense altitude training in Colorado Springs, where three-a-day workouts are generally the norm. That means he wasn't rested. He wasn't shaved either, with that awful 70s 'stache living proof Phelps is not at his peak. He's working on his new freestyle stroke. And he's not a natural sprinter. He won the 200 butterfly and 400 free Saturday.
Still, it had to irk him that Hayden felt the need to offer advice to a guy who has won 14 Olympic golds in the past two Games.
"He's not really much of a sprinter,'' Hayden said. "Work on that front-end speed. Everyone knows he's got the fastest back-end of that race.''
It's a little like telling Mike Tyson he should do something about that high-pitched voice.
Phelps' coach, Bob Bowman, seems content with where Phelps is right now. For a better indicator, tune in at swimming's world championships July 26-August 2 in Rome.
"For me, it's about seeing where we are and where we have to improve on," Phelps told the Associated Press. "The wins are going to be more down the road.''
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