As Michael Phelps prepares to race six events during the season’s first stop of the USA Swimming Pro Series, the 22-time Olympic medalist graces the cover of Sports Illustrated. “Not take his own life, but something like the DUI, but worse”. “I think just reading things like that, it’s pretty cool, and it’s the first time I felt that way”. So I forced myself to do something that I really didn’t want to do, which was continue swimming. He told Sports Illustrated in a feature released Tuesday that following his second drunken driving arrest, he spent four straight days in his home after being pulled over in Maryland going 84 miles per hour in a 45-mph zone with a blood-alcohol level of 0.14.
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Among the burdens Phelps tackled in therapy, he admitted, was his strained relationship with his father, Fred, who divorced from his mother, Debbie, when he was just nine years old. I said, ‘Yup, that’s me. I was in a really dark place, not wanting to be alive anymore.
Al Bello/Getty Images Gold medallist Michael Phelps of the United States celebrates on the podium in the medal ceremony for the Men’s 4x100m Meldey Relay final during the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Phelps, a Baltimore native, is close with former Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis.
With more medals than any other Olympic athlete, Michael Phelps could simply see the 2016 Games in Brazil as a bonus.
Phelps and those around him say he’s shed weight, stopped drinking and since last fall has dedicated himself once again to swimming after spending 45 days in rehab. “Some of the biggest learning experiences that I’ve ever had, finding out a lot about myself”.
Bowman has scaled back Phelps’ workload, and the one-time prodigy is more muscular and leaner – goodbye, booze weight – adding strength to make up for cardiovascular slippage.
And on training clean: “Haven’t had a single sip and will not have a sip …” With the Rio Olympics only nine months away, the meet gives fans an opportunity to see past and future Olympians, and swimmers a chance to earn qualifying times for the Rio Games.
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“I’m back to being the little kid who once said anything is possible”, Phelps says in SI. “The performances were there because I worked, recovered, slept and took care of myself more than I ever had”.
