“My dad was a Marine, (and) I wanted to enlist and follow my dad’s footsteps”. “And to me, that’s all that matters”.
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Kerry will lead the group, which will meet with American athletes due to participate at Rio 2016, as well as attending sporting competitions and the Ceremony itself, due to be held at the iconic Maracanã stadium. The five-time Olympian who came out of retirement to compete at Rio 2016, was selected for the roll by his 555 team-mates.
“I think it’s not so much pressure (to win another gold), it’s what we expect of ourselves”, Stewart said.
Asked what he would do to address the spectre of performance-enhancing drugs if he were FINA president, Phelps said: “Don’t ask that one”.
“Just so you guys don’t beat me to death if I come back”, he went on.
Phelps would be 35 by the time the Tokyo 2020 Games rolls around. This year he is not entered in the race. According to the brand’s website, Phelps will “reach inside the pocket of the opening ceremony blazer and flip a switch”. “We want everybody to be on the same playing field”.
But South Africa’s Chad le Clos and Singapore’s Joseph Schooling are serious threats in the aging Phelps’ signature events, who told reporters multiple times during the USA trials that he’ll need to be faster in Rio to have any shot at a gold.
“I’ve never been on a cruise”, Taurasi joked. “I’m a lot more open now and more relaxed now”.
His new attitude landed him a selfie with a fellow legend, world no. 1 tennis player Novak Djokovic. Lochte, who turned 32 on Wednesday, said later he understood where Phelps was coming from. “He’s super-nice, super-down to earth. I’m looking forward to it”.
Developing as a person and becoming a father to Boomer three months has improved his swimming and his attitude towards it, according to Phelps. It’s different, that’s me, that’s my personality. “Now I’m able to play for my country and it mean’s everything to me”. Phelps is scheduled to swim three events in Rio – the 100- and 200-meter butterfly and the 200-meter individual medley but could swim as many as six if coaches elect to put him on the 4×100- and 4X200-meter freestyle relay and the 4X100-meter medley relay.
An about-face on retirement for Phelps, obviously, would be a massive development for the next Olympic quadrennial, giving NBC an anchor for four more years of swimming coverage and promotions and ensuring Phelps’s outsize influence would be felt across USA Swimming for that same period.
The Games in Brazil have been heavily overshadowed by a doping scandal, which has seen several Russian athletes banned from the Olympics, which includes essentially their entire track-and-field team.
For all Phelps has achieved, for all the inner conflicts that led him astray and then into an apparent journey of enlightenment, news of the honor left him with what he called “the biggest smile on my face that you could possibly find” and to shedding tears of joy.
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And in Rio, there will be Phelps’ family. Phelps is as media savvy as athletes come.
