Winner of 14 Olympic gold medals, Michael Phelps has admitted that he is struggling to find his form on freestyle as he makes final adjustments in readiness for US trials in Irvine from Tuesday to Saturday next week.
Those trials, he adds, will be more of a mental than a physical challenge. In an interview with his local paper, The Baltimore Sun, Phelps says: "I don't think I've ever felt this bad in my freestyle stroke. I just feel like I can't swim it. I don't know what it is. A lot of little technical things that hopefully we can fix between now and nationals. ... I think just overall there's a lot of conditioning things that I think I can change between now and London."
He hinted at the post-toil-of-many-years motivational issues that have dogged him since he took a long break after those phenomenal days in Beijing that sent him soaring beyond the achievements of all other Olympians on gold-medal count.
"It's all on me and the inconsistency of workouts," Phelps said. "Not really putting in the yardage that I need to do to be able to compete at the level that I want to compete at. I think the six months off after Beijing, and then the however [many] months, days, weeks off I decided to take this year, everything is stacking up. If you look at it before that, I didn't really miss any time at all. It was pretty much just eight to 10 years straight."
Phelps understands well the importance of next week, critical not only to this summer and Pan Pacs but to his selection to Shanghai world titles in 2011, by which time he would be wanting to try out his London 2012 programme or thereabouts.
"I think this summer is important for me both for next year, but also leading into London," Phelps told the Baltimore paper. "To be able to set up an event program that we can try a couple times before we go to London, and see what works, and see what event program works, I think this is going to see where we stand. I can already say there are going to be a lot of things we're going to have to fix in order for me to be as prepared as I want to be not only for next summer but also going to London. I think it's going to be exciting for me to be able to rest and compete against the guys who are competing for spots on the world championship team next year and also the Olympics."
The week ahead would be "more of a mental challenge than a physical challenge. I think not being in the best shape that I could be in, and that I should be in, in my eyes is really going to be a test of how strong I can be mentally and how much I can work my mind to get through these next couple of weeks."
He repeated that his London 2012 target "is a very hard goal". Retirement is likely after London 2012 but Phelps put that moment in this context: "If I can get to a day in my life, in my career where I can say, 'I've done everything that I've ever set my mind to,' then I think I can look at that and say that's a good career."
The judgment of others is far less important to Phelps and coach Bob Bowman than how they feel themselves but 'Good' is likely to fall a little shy of the critiques that will follow the career of the greatest Olympian of all-time.
