Phelps’ longtime coach Bob Bowman, also head coach of the USA men’s Olympic swim team, said he would counsel his swimmers to focus on their own performances.
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However, he will not contest the event in Rio, freeing him up to become only the second swimmer in history to carry the USA flag after Gary Hall at the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games.
“Just the honour and opportunity to do that is incredible. this has to be one of the coolest things I have ever done”.
American swimmers Missy Franklin, Ryan Lochte and Nathan Adrian reveal some surprising facts about Olympic competition.
And this year? It’s the most decorated Olympian of all-time. Several users, in fact, commented on the fact that this would be the flawless opportunity for the Olympian to say goodbye to the Olympics in a proper manner without the cloud of controversy hanging over his head.
“This time around”, Phelps says, “it’s about so much more than medals”.
“I think I had more of a target on my back in 2012”.
The honor was decided by his fellow Team USA members, who selected him by vote.
Phelps has been reserved in admitting what he expects of himself here, but as the flag bearer, a five-time Olympian and betting odds suggesting there are at least a few more medals within his grasp, it promises to be a fond so long.
Now, hes received an even bigger accolade.
At the 2012 London Olympics, CAS had 11 cases in all to handle. But he has continually stressed that his desire to compete in another Olympics had little to do with collecting more gold. After taking a yearlong break, he rediscovered his love of training and competing, sparking a desire to close his career the right way.
“It would say something along the lines of, I finally gave 100 percent”, he said.
“This has been the greatest two years of my life for a lot of reason and I wouldn’t change it”.
And, after insisting all along this truly would be his final Olympics, Phelps dropped a tantalizing hint that he might not be done.
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The question was about Michael Phelps’s newborn son Boomer, a subject that animates him more than any other these days, but the answer took a sharp turn and arrived with a thwack, like an errant hand slamming against a hard plastic lane line.
