Bob Bowman, coach and mentor to the most successful Olympian in history, was driven to distraction by the extent to which Michael Phelps stepped back in the wake of world championships in Rome last year but believes that taking stock in 2010 has been critical to the superstar's longevity in the sport and the goals the parters have for London 2012.

"If we wanted him to swim into London, we had to have this year (as a step back from pressure). Otherwise, he wouldn't have made it," Bowman told Rebecca Bryan at AFP during the US nationals in Irvine, California. The post-Beijing year of lay-offs, the Bong incident and then the bodysuits and Rome "was a whole year of turmoil after 10 years of back-breaking labour", said Bowman.

Phelps has gone on record far and wide to lament his lack of form so far this year. That lack of form is, of course, relative when it comes to the winner of 14 Olympic gold medals, setter of more than 30 world records and claimer of 49 Us titles over a decade.

The 25-year-old has been busy of late with non-swimming activities to "get back a couple of things I lost" during many a long year of the full-on regime needed to make him the extraordinary athlete he is.

Success has changed Phelps in terms of momentary motivation but natural maturity has played as big, if not bigger, role in the development of the most versatile swimmer the world has ever known. "He's a lot more stable, and I think he has learned a lot about his relationships in general," Bowman told Bryan.

He also admitted that his patience has been stretched in the past year: "I run my 100 percent programme - he was on another programme", but affecting the whole programme at North Baltimore as a result. "It affects everybody, not just Michael. He can't just drop in and drop out."

Phelps intends to drop out in a more permanent way after gunning for goals in London 2012 that only he and Bowman truly know the nature of. They are expected, fulfilled or not, to be as gigantic as Phelps suggests they are. Among the things he could aim for are the three events (discounting the 400m IM he says he will not race again) in which he could become the first man to join the Triple Crown Club inaugurated by Dawn Fraser back in 1964 when she retained the Olympic 100m free title for a second time. Since then, only Krisztina Egerszegi (HUN), over 200m backstroke, has matched that feat. 

No man ever has. Phelps could, over 100m and 200m butterfly and/or 200m medley.