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A plaintive voice at the other end of the line was clearly upset by the loss of a darling good. It was late at night at the World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, but breakfast time halfway around the world where Phelps, his pregnant wife, Nicole, and their two sons, Boomer, 3, and Beckett, 1, were on vacation.
I had called South Korea Phelps for his reaction to the loss of his 100 m butterfly world record by the American Caeleb Dressel last month. Kristof Milak, a 19-year-old Hungarian, broke Phelps' world record in the 200 butterfly earlier in the competition. Phelps was once the butterfly's master. Now, for the first time since 2001, he did not beat a world record in his signature shot.
Phelps, 34, was not in mourning. He marveled at Dressel's speed, even though he had to raise his voice to be heard over Boomer, very upset to have misplaced his stuffed animal, Baby Monkey.
Not so long ago that Phelps has the sense of self was tied to these discs, so that his equanimity in their absence deserved to be examined more closely. A week later, Phelps spoke with the New York Times at the Paradise Valley Country Club in Arizona to talk about his reduced presence in the record books and his life after swimming. At the pool, he helped his good friend Allison Schmitt, eight-time Olympic medalist and defending champion in the 200-meter freestyle, thanks to her technique of shots.
After getting out of the water, a man came dressed in a suit made at Phelps' signature. Phelps also gave overseas tips for freestyle. There was good news. Baby Monkey was again in possession of Boomer and Phelps is O.K. with his butterfly records being gone forever.
This conversation has been modified and condensed.
You formed your first Olympic team in the 200 butterfly and set your first world record at 200 butterfly. You have held the 200 butterfly world record for 18 years. Did you feel like losing two items from your family when you lost both butterfly discs?
It's just crazy because the butterfly is the most important thing for me, right? Getting them both the same week was not what I expected, far from it. The 200 fly was particularly difficult because I had this record over half of my life. And before I arrived, it was my sister Whitney's event. So it goes beyond just saying, "This is my record." This cerebrovascular accident has been affecting the Phelps family for a long time. I sent Bob [Bowman, his longtime coach] After breaking the 100 fly record, a message saying, "I swear to God that if my 400-meter record is broken, I'll meet you in Colorado Springs to train you." It's frustrating that the records did not last longer, but I love being able to see kids break through. It's great. You must have such performances in sport so that the sport continues to develop and evolve. If you have completely untouchable records, people will say, "Oh my God, why even try?
You have so many other achievements, starting with your eight gold records at the Beijing Games in 2008, that no one will ever go over. Your corpus, which includes 28 Olympic records, can not be erased at one time. Is that how you look at it?
After Caeleb won eight medals in South Korea, I read a headline saying, "Caeleb Dressel surpasses Phelps." No, he did not do it. When I won seven gold medals at the 2007 competition, I beat five world records. Kristof Milak broke a world record. I broke 39. So keep going. Break this record 10 times more. Hold it for 18 years. It's about longevity. I received a whole series of texts from people commenting on the Olympic anniversaries: the third birthday of my first swimmer in a four-lap event, in the 200m. the 11th anniversary of the 400 free gold relay in Beijing.
What is your most memorable memory: your first Olympic gold medal in the 400 IM at the 2004 Olympic Games or your 23rd at the 2016 QN 400 relay in Rio de Janeiro?
Without a doubt, the last gold medal will stand out more than any of them because of Booms' journey and presence. This one is for me personally the most memorable, even if it is difficult to leave Beijing aside.
I've heard people say, "Imagine all that Phelps could have done better at the 2016 Olympics if he had not had the D.U.I. and other problems that brought him into rehab in 2014. "How do you react?
Without the low levels of 2014, there would be no 2016. I would have just solved the problem. I would have been like, "Bye, see you later," and I would have moved sure. This D.U.I. It was not a good experience, but looking back, it allowed me to be where I am today, watching Boomer literally grow up to the minute, and Beckett too, who is currently a parrot to whole, repeating everything we say. . Ten or eight years ago, there is no chance that I will be able to be present, to be happy, to enjoy the process of watching these little humans grow up around the world.
When you followed the World Championships, what is your connection to the sport?
I feel pretty far from sport, the most I have ever been in my life, just because of everything that's going on, everything we're getting ready for. Every day we walk down the hallway when we put the children to bed, and every day they see this big picture of my butterfly swimming and the two kids say "Dada" or "Daddy". But there are not many active swimmers to whom I speak. I do not go to a lot of swimming meetings.
You said in 2016 that you are not sure if you have swam in an Olympic final that does not include at least one swimmer using performance enhancing drugs. Are you worried about public perception of the sport as a result of controversy surrounding athletes like Chinese freestyler Sun Yang? was avoided on the medal podium by some of his competitors from the world championship?
I have made it clear that I am frustrated by the fact that some people choose to take a shortcut and use performance enhancing drugs rather than put in place the training and work that is required to be a champion. . I understand the frustrations of people who take very public positions. But by focusing on what others do, they spend a lot of time and energy on something they can not control. There is only one group of people who can really clean the sport, it's FINA.
What does it mean that you and Nicole, who is due to give birth to your third child in October, will soon be outnumbered? I'm not really stressed. At the end of the 2016 Olympics, I did not know how I could take care of myself, let alone a family. I had never taken care of myself before. Since everyone tells me what to do in the weight room, in the pool and away from the pool, I'm now trying to find a way to raise two kids, manage a household, to travel in the whole world and make sure that Nicole has everything she needs and make sure that she feels good and calm. We had no idea what we were doing with the first, we had no idea what we were doing with two. In any case, we do not know what to do with three.
What does a normal day look like for you?
Boomer gets up and between 6 and 9 am I spend time with the kids. I prepare breakfast almost every morning. They are usually pancakes or eggs, and there are always fruits. Boom loves pancakes and Beckett is a machine, he eats anything – oatmeal, cereals, yogurt. From 9 o'clock to noon, I make calls or busy with the routine and shopping. Lately, I have walked the whole house room by room, carving out every little corner and getting rid of everything, or rearranging everything, putting everything in order and ready for baby # 3 when that would happen. At some point, I'm going to swim. After that, I stay in the garage for an hour and a half or two hours.
I will ride on a stationary bike and ride for 50 to 90 minutes, then I will do some abs and stretching. From time to time, I play golf, and if I do, I do it in the morning. I often prepare dinner. I like cooking a lot because it's peaceful. Children will play outside, so it's a quiet time. I had used to having conversations and doing several things at once, but having burned that and badly cooked, I learned that when I'm in the kitchen, I I have to focus on what I do if I do not want to accidentally burn in the house or poison my family.
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