Michael Phelps will be on the cover of Sports Illustrated for the first time since the 2012 London Olympics. This story is very different, however. It’s not about Phelps out-swimming the world or being America’s hero -- it’s about him conquering his demons and discovering a life after sports.
Michael Phelps pretty much didn’t train for the London Olympics
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James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
We were only given a small taste of the piece on Tuesday, but already it looks amazing. Here are three things that really jumped out to us based on what we’ve seen so far.
1. Michael Phelps barely trained and fought with his coach before the London Olympics.
We get into the parking lot, and I peel out and flip him the bird, and he flips me the bird. Well, he doesn’t come back for 10 days. He finally shows up on Day 11 because Matt Lauer was in town to interview him for the Today show. They had no idea. That’s what our preparation was like for London.”
2. Phelps survived rehab by turning it into a sport -- one that changed his life.
About five days into his stay, Phelps says, he began to loosen his resistance. He started to view his rehab as a competition. “I thought, O.K., I’m going to go with this. I’m here for 45 days, let’s see what I can get out of it.” The walls, decades in the making, began to crumble.
“I wound up uncovering a lot of things about myself that I probably knew, but I didn’t want to approach,” he says. “One of them was that for a long time, I saw myself as the athlete that I was, but not as a human being. I would be in sessions with complete strangers who know exactly who I am, but they don’t respect me for things I’ve done, but instead for who I am as a human being. I found myself feeling happier and happier. And in my group, we formed a family. We all wanted to see each other succeed. It was a new experience for me. It was tough. But it was great.”
3. Phelps still swims a STAGGERING amount, and he might be as good as he ever was.
Bowman has modified Phelps’s program to accommodate his advanced (swimming) age and his dodgy (but structurally sound) right shoulder. Instead of swimming 85,000 meters a week, he swims 50,000-60,000, still high-volume but not as high as it once was. He needs—and is allowed—more recovery from tough sessions. “My goal now is to have the speed and quality,” says Bowman, “but make sure he can recover fast enough to keep it continuous.” When Phelps was younger, he lived largely on his cardiovascular engine and stroke technique. At age 30, and with lower training volume, the engine is a little less potent. (After a recent 3,000-yard ladder session Phelps’s pulse rate dropped more slowly than the younger swimmers’ in the group; Phelps shouted, “Old man can’t get the heart rate down!”) But he is stronger and gets more power from each stroke, a different way of getting to the same place.
The important thing is that Phelps is happy and has found peace. It was something we hoped for him in 2012, when it was clear he was struggling. This full story is going to be amazing.
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