The bounty hunters will don the silly shiny suits that take them to places they would not otherwise be, they will chase the money and the world records on the world cup circuit in Stockholm over the next two days and Berlin at the weekend - but the greatest Olympian of all time will continue to do what he does best: get ready for when it really counts.
In Stockholm at the press conference for the arena world cup, Phelps, who has won every big title and set world records in all his key events for the past eight years, said that the only thing now driving him were personal goals.
"The only thing that can drive me are personal goals," said Phelps, who looked relaxed, said that jet lag would not be an obstacle and described himself as being "good to go".
He was chasing "the things that I still want to achieve, still derive pleasure from..." And he would do so wearing the jammer of 2010. Why? Because it would be the suit "I will be swimming in for the rest of my career". It was time, he said "to get used to it".
But how did he view a 100m free race in which he would be in a textile jammer and the likes of Eamon Sullivan may wear a LZR and Fred Bousquet may wear a supersuit that enhanced his performance in a truly significant way, a Swedish journalist asked.
"It does't really affect me," said Phelps with a smile. "They are swimming their races their way. I swim my races my way. I can't control anything anyone else does. I'm wearing the jammer."
At which point Bob Bowman intervened to explain the logic behind the greatest success story ever seen in swimming or Olympic sport. "The thing we're looking for in swimming is not from meet to meet to meet but for the long term. " This season was all about getting Phelps to his best in time for trials at US summer nationals next summer and the Pan Pacific Championships that follow, in a year that holds no long-course global championship.
What point would there be in wearing a shiny suit now? None, was Bowman's view. "If he wears the old LZR in November, we won't have any idea of comparison of what he does in January," said Bowman. There would be no relation of performance through the season, because shiny suit efforts cannot be compared to the real thing. "That's the logic behind it," said Bowman.
Phelps is on world cup tour not only for self: he is there to provide leadership and example to USA Swimming’s 2009 National Youth World Cup Team of 46 promising talents. Phelps will race the 100m free, 100m back, 100m IM, 100m fly and 200m IM in Stockholm then switch to the 200m fly, 100m and 200m IM, 200m free and 200m back in Berlin.
He spoke on a day when Paul Biedermann, Phelps's German nemesis in a rocket suit in Rome, told his national media that a muscle strain looked like it had been brought under control and that the "showdown" (perhaps it will be nothing of the kind...) he had aimed for with the American in Berlin at the weekend looked more likely to happen.
Few reports in the German media today mention the suit, what was worn and was was not worn. They don't mention the significance of the suit in Rome, nor Phelps's challenge to all to wear the suit of 2010 this side of FINA's deadline. That is mainly because the round-up columns of newspapers have become the common haunt of swimming reporting at a time when world records are ten a penny and hardly the special moments that they once represented.
Bowman and Phelps know that they are heading into what will be an uneven situation on the world cup, as some swimmers and teams and federations continue to have their eye on the financial rewards and funding that can flow from what amounts to a somewhat false claim to be "the best in the world" or "stronger than ever before" in terms of national programmes.
Let's face it. Any victory over Phelps while he wears textile jammer and those ahead wear the suits of 2008 and 2009 will go down as a Pyrrhic victory. The Americans know it. Which explains their cool approach to the death throes of the dragon that has scorched a hole in swimming history these past two seasons.
Five world records fell in Moscow at the weekend. Of course, they ought to go down as world best times and FINA's technical swimming committee ought to draw a line in the record books and recognise those who will break "true" records in future, while honouring those whose true records were surpassed under wholly different circumstances.
There are those in swimming who still say "we should not be unfair to swimmers". They do not point out, of course, that the swimmer makes a conscious choice and knows full well that the world record of the moment does not mean that they are a faster swimmer than the man or woman who held the world record in their event at the end of January 2008.
One reader noted this week how sad it was that Ian Crocker's 100m fly mark of 49.07 had fallen to Russian Evgeny Korotyshkin in 48.99. Why sad? Nothing personal to the "holder" but sad because the two times are not comparable. The Russian wore a booster suit, Crocker wore a textile brief in NCAA racing back in 2004. No comparison whatsoever. A tale of two sports. Which cuts to the heart of the problem that ill start to fade from January 1, 2010, provided that the panel of experts working for FINA is successful in monitoring "technological" developments and engineering that transcend a definition of "textile".
For now, the "record-breaking" will continue apace until the last race of the season, it seems, particularly so as swimmers target the money they can earn from FINA, the international federation that allowed the suits circus but finally grasped the nettle in Rome and is working its way back to a fairer future for the sport.
The rule that counts is clear: Sw10.7 states that no swim suit may aid speed, buoyancy, or endurance". If material cover of thighs is said to be a problem when FINA's panel of experts deliberates on the issue, then the cut of suits would have to alter once more. That should hardly be controversial: there are few voices left who want anything other than full praise and reward to go to the swimmer (as well as coach and supporting entourage) for excelling at swimming. The only aids to performance should be those delivered by nature and legitimate nurture, is the thing that FINA nations voted for in truly overwhelming numbers at Congress in Rome.
Meanwhile, at a time when bounty hunters are abroad, we honour those who last swam to a world record without any assistance from one or two suits in a short-course pool (with the current shiny suit best time in brackets) ... some of the gains speak for themselves, and that thought is all the more poignant if we were to note the personal improvement of the "holder" of the current record in a fair few cases:
Men
Freestyle
- 20.98 Roland Schoeman RSA (20.30)
- 45.83 Stefan Nystrand SWE 44.94
- 1:41.10 Ian Thorpe AUS (1:40.83)
- 3:34.58 Grant Hackett AUS
- 7:25.28 Hackett (7:23.42)
- 14:10.10 Hackett
Backstroke
- 23.23 Thomas Rupprath GER (22.75)
- 49.99 Ryan Lochte USA (49.20)
- 1:49.05 Lochte (1:47.08)
Breaststroke
- 26.17 Oleg Lisogor UKR (25.43)
- 57.47 Moses USA (55.99)
- 2:02.92 Moses (2:01.98)
Butterfly
- 22.60 Kaio Almeida BRA (22.06)
- 49.07 Ian Crocker USA (48.99)
- 1:50.73 Franck Esposito FRA (1:50.53)
Medley
- 51.52 Ryk Neethling RSA (51.15)
- 1:52.99 Laszlo Cseh HUN (1:51.56)
- 3:59.33 Cseh
Women
Freestyle
- 23.59 Therese Alshammar SWE (23.25)
- 51.70 Libby Trickett AUS (51.01)
- 1:53.29 Trickett (1:51.85)
- 3:56.09 Laure Manaudou FRA (3:54.92)
- 8:08.00 Kate Ziegler USA (8:04.53)
- 15:32.90 Ziegler
Backstroke
- 26.83 Li Hui CHN (26.17)
- 57.75 Ilona Hlavackova CZE (56.15)
- 2:03.62 Natalie Coughlin USA (2:00.91)
Breaststroke
- 29.90 Jade Edmistone AUS (29.36)
- 1:03.86 Leisel Jones AUS (1:03.72)
- 2:17.75 Jones (2:16.83)
Butterfly
- 25.33 Anna-Karin Kammerling SWE (24.75)
- 55.95 Trickett (55.68)
- 2:03.53 Otylia Jedrzejczak POL (2:03.12) - 1.31sec slower than the world long-course record
Medley
- 58.80 Coughlin (58.51)
- 2:07.79 Allison Wagner USA (2:06.01)
- 4:27.83 Yana Klochkova UKR (4:25.60)
