News Round-Up:

USA: Nathan Adrian will swim only the heats of the 100m free at the Santa Clara meet this weekend because he'll be heading off to his brother's wedding straight after prelims. Adrian is the subject of a fabulous piece in the San Francisco Chronicle today that starts like this: "In a luxurious, cliff-hanging mansion in the Oakland hills, the concept of Spartan Olympian training is taking a severe beating. Four swimmers, Cal graduates, have lived here for a year while training for the Olympics. Their temporary home has 5,000 square feet, six bedrooms, and a living room in which you could play badminton. We know this because they have." Read on.

Mind Games: Nothing like a good needling to draw fuel to the attention of Michael Phelps, chief devourer of sugar, spice and all things nice and nasty on his menu of motivation. Calling him vulnerable might work too. That was the line from Geoff Huegill, a man with little more time on his hands after missing the Aussie cut for London 2012, when asked about the greatest by a News Limited reporter Down under. "He's put it out there that he doesn't want to keep swimming after London so the question is how long has it been a struggle to get to the pool. It's one thing to have the drive and hunger to want to push yourself but what is the drive and motivation after winning 14 Olympic gold medals. Phelps has already stated he wants to move on so mentally he's been struggling to define that motivation." I'd put my money on the American having settled his mind on why he's still hard at it and gunning for the last goals in the race pool on the way to legacy. Recall Rome 2009, when he'd said he was not quite himself and struggling to find motivation and then Milorad Cavic suggested he might like to wear the full booster body instead of his LZR Racer? Both men and their suits went under 50sec in the 100 'fly, gold going to the vulnerable American turned gladiator once more.