“He’s a father figure to me”, Phelps said of Bowman, his coach since age 11 who he followed to Arizona when Bowman was named ASU’s swim and dive coach a year ago. The tick-tock of the Olympic clock would also suggest that these were likely the final games for 30-year-old Rafael Nadal, 34-year-old Serena Williams and the 2008 and 2012 Olympic women’s 100-meter champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, finally overtaken at age 29 by another Jamaican five years her junior, Elaine Thompson.
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“I’m not going four more years and I’m standing by that”, he said.
Phelps is concerned about one aspect of coaching – patience.
The most decorated athlete in Olympic history insisted again Sunday that his swimming career is over, less than 24 hours after claiming his 23rd gold medal in the 4×100-meter medley relay.
However, he’s confident he can make a difference. “I’m going to try to get on that earlier than later this time”. “If there’s a kid that’s hungry enough and will work hard enough, it’ll be enjoyable for me”.
While competitions wrapped up in swimming and rowing, they’re just heating up in track and field, where Mo Farah of Britain recovered from a fall to defend his Olympic 10,000-meter title and American Jeff Henderson overtook Luvo Manyonga of South Africa on his last jump to win the long jump gold medal. If sports teams are like a marriage, with us our whole lives, Olympians are brief but exciting recurring romances. “I’ve been able to do everything I’ve ever put my mind to in the sport and after 24 years in the sport, I’m happy with how things finished”. “I think down the road I would love to be a professional swimmer, but first and foremost I want to get a really great education and have the opportunities that collegiate swimming brings, and to do that I’ve had to remain an amateur and I’ve really enjoyed it”.
“Katie is just tearing it up”, Phelps said. “It’s been an awesome career, a ridiculous career and there’s no better way of finishing how I did”, he said on Sunday. He hopes to carry on that momentum, even though he’s stepping away from competitive swimming.
“…four of the countries ahead of him are Germany, which over time has competed as Germany, West Germany, East Germany and the Unified German Team”.
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First, they seed the gardens of our childhood imaginations, giving us an idea of who we want to be when we grow up. “I don’t want to miss anything”.
