“I’m honoured to be chosen, proud to represent the US and humbled by the significance of carrying the flag and all it stands for”, the 21-year-old told ESPN.
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His selection was an obvious choice.
Phelps asked Bowman, his long-time mentor, for his thoughts on being on his feet for hours at his first opening ceremony, given he may be selected for the 4×100 metres freestyle relay on Sunday’s second day. Phelps is scheduled to compete in the 200-meter butterfly, 200-meter individual medley, and the 100-meter butterfly in Rio.
With the 400 IM no longer part of his program, he was available to lead the American team into one of the world’s most iconic stadiums.
Michael Phelps says he’s back to having a good time in the public eye, since he became the youngest Olympic male athlete in three generations at Sydney 2000 and a father just three months ago.
The news, along with his newly proclaimed senses of peace and reconciliation and fulfillment in the arrival of a son, accounts for why he says his “emotions will be 10 times what they’ve ever been before” as he swims in what he jokingly (we think) called his “potential last Olympics”.
“I want to do it, I have to do it”. “I’ve always watched Team USA walk in the opening ceremony and now, I have the chance to do that and be part of the Games”.
Lochte, who has 11 Olympic medals (five golds) from three Games compared to Phelps’s record haul of 22 (18 golds) from four, repeated the picture with the additional hashtag #oldmanriver.
Durant and Anthony are the only players on the men’s team who have played in the Olympics before, but there was still plenty of learning to do on and off the court during the tour – even for the women – with more still come when the games start to count.
Phelps skimped on his training before London and, frankly, didn’t really want to be there.
Not his swan song after all?
And, after insisting all along this truly would be his final Olympics, Phelps dropped a tantalizing hint that he might not be done.
But in a room packed with more than 250 reporters from all over the globe Wednesday, Phelps left open the possibility of competing after Rio.
“It’s a no-brainer”, Phelps said.
Sporting a striking new blue-grey hair look, with the jury out on the exact tint under the media center spotlights, Lochte said he felt the same thrill in Rio as he had at his first Games.
Meanwhile, many Olympic athletes have been complaining about the malfunctioning facilities in the dorm-style apartments of the athlete’s village.
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Phelps, 31, initially retired after the London Olympics in 2012.
