Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
BETH HARRIS
Associated Press
LONG BEACH, Calif. - Michael Phelps launches his two-month countdown to the world championships this weekend, with the landmark meet in Australia representing the start of what he calls "the biggest two years of my swimming career."
The world championships are the most important meet outside the Olympics, allowing Phelps and his rivals to size each other up 1 1/2 years before the Beijing Games.
"This worlds sets up everything that happens at the Olympics - for endorsements, for my swimming career, for my times, for what events I'm going to swim in Beijing," he said Friday. "It could make me or break me as an athlete."
Phelps has hopes of again chasing Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals in Beijing. He fell just short in 2004, earning six golds and two silvers in Athens.
"Getting so close in '04 and still having that fire and that desire is something that excites me," he said.
But a second attempt hinges on how Phelps performs in Melbourne, where he may swim five individual events and the relays.
"If I have a world championships sort of like I had in '03, then I think it's a very good possibility," he said. "If the event program doesn't go as well as planned, then it'll be too hard at the Olympics."
Phelps believes Beijing represents his final shot at matching Spitz because he'll be 23 at those games.
"After this Olympics, I think I'd be too old," he said. "I don't think my body could handle it."
Phelps tests himself starting Saturday in the year's first grand prix meet, with races in yards instead of meters. He's entered in seven individual events and could swim two relays. His only question mark is the 100-yard freestyle.
"I get to see where we are and see what we need to tune up for worlds," he said after a light workout at the indoor pool. "I can't believe we're less than 60 days away to Melbourne. That's going to be a pretty big meet for all of us."
The 21-year-old swimmer is set to try the 100 and 200 breaststrokes this weekend, events he estimated he hasn't raced in about two years.
"If I want to get faster in the individual medleys, my breaststroke needs to improve," he said. "I've been talking trash to the Michigan breaststrokers already."
Phelps trains in Ann Arbor, Mich., with fellow Olympians Klete Keller, Erik Vendt and Kaitlin Sandeno, all of whom are competing here, and the university's team.
Also in the pool will be the Texas-based trio of backstroker Aaron Peirsol, breaststroker Brendan Hansen and butterflyer Ian Crocker, along with five-time Olympic gold medalist Natalie Coughlin and Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte.
"It's like an older NCAAs because all these guys are pros," said Phelps, who never swam collegiately before becoming a paid professional.
Sandeno and Ous Mellouli of Tunisia won the women's and men's 1,000 freestyle Friday night.
This weekend Phelps is enjoying a rare break from coach Bob Bowman, who stayed back for a Big Ten meet between Michigan and Indiana.
"Bob texted me the other day and asked if I missed him," a grinning Phelps said. "I typed back, `Ummm...not really.'"
Jon Urbanchek, who preceded Bowman as Michigan coach, is supervising the Club Wolverine swimmers.
"He's so much more relaxed," Phelps said. "If (Bowman) came out here, he'd run us up the wall."
Phelps and his Club Wolverine teammates arrived directly from an altitude training camp in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. In between workouts, he tried his hand at beach volleyball and gained a lightly sunburned face in the process.
"After refried beans and eggs for 18 days straight, we were all sort of ready to have our omelet or sausage or bacon," he said.
Sporting a goatee, longer-than-usual hair, and the No. 20 jersey of Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed, Phelps talked enthusiastically about trying to catch as much of Saturday's Indianapolis-Baltimore playoff game as he could before his events begin.
"The only sport I watch from beginning to end is football," he said, predicting the Ravens' defense would overwhelm Colts quarterback Peyton Manning.
On his way to the pool Friday, Phelps passed the shoreline parking lot where the 2004 U.S. Olympic trials were held in a temporary pool.
"Now all you see are light posts," he said. "It seems like it was yesterday. It goes by quick. It's sort of like a roller coaster."
A whiplash ride he wants to be on in Beijing.