Phelps hoping to get back that winning feeling

By Peter Auf der Heyde Jul 21, 2011, 9:14 GMT

Shanghai - Not long ago, American superstar Michael Phelps was all but invincible in the water and 42 world championship and Olympic medals made him arguably the world's greatest-ever athlete.

But after adding five gold and one silver at the last world championships in Rome two years ago to the 20 he had won previously at the long-course championships, Phelps found himself in a slump.

For nearly nine years and 60 races Phelps had been unbeaten in the 200 metres butterfly, but Chinese swimmer Wu Peng then beat him twice and in June Australian Nic D'Arcy managed to overtake Phelps on the final metres to send the American crashing to his third defeat in a row.

The July 16-31 aquatic championships in the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center sees the Baltimore-born swimmer, return to the country where he became the world's greatest-ever Olympian in 2008.

At the Beijing Olympics Phelps picked up eight gold medals in the eight events he swam, taking his Olympic gold tally to 14 - far more than any other athlete in Olympic history.

After his historic feat at the Olympics, Phelps returned to the North Baltimore Aquatic Club from Club Wolverine at the University of Michigan and teamed up with coach Bob Bowman and continued his winning ways.

That is, until he went into his slump.

Phelps simply lost the will to compete and himself admitted that he was not as possessed about his swimming as he had been been all his life.

'I think I was being lazy, spending too much time on the golf course,' he recently said.

Not surprisingly, it showed in his performances and Bowman, who first started coaching Phelps when he was just 11 years old, said that Phelps' fitness was simply not good enough.

'I'm in better shape than he was.'

But if there is one thing that Phelps hates, it is losing - even though on the few occasions when he does, he does it graciously.

'You guys know I can't stand to lose,' he told journalists at the US training-base in Australia, where the team was preparing for the swimming competition in Shanghai, which gets underway on Sunday.

'I needed to get out of that funk when I did. I was playing with time and cutting it close. My attitude's changed. It's a ton better.

'Even if I don't want to do the workout, I'm happy to be there. If I want to achieve my goals I have to do some things I don't want to do,' he said.

In Shanghai Phelps will be swimming in five events: the 200m freestyle, the 100m and 200m butterfly, the 200m individual medley and the 4 x 200m freestyle relay and although world records have dried up since the sport's governing body FINA banned performance-enhancing high-tech swim suits since January 2010, Phelps believes that there will be some stand-out performances.

Phelps, who will face his biggest challenge in the 200m IM from compatriot Ryan Lochte, who is the only swimmer to set an individual world record in 2010, is confident that some world records will be broken in Shanghai.

At the last world championships in Rome in 2009, an incredible 43 world records were broken - most of them as a result of the since-banned polyurethane swim suits.

'With us not having the suits we need to be in a lot better physical shape. There are a lot of people swimming faster than they did in the suit. There are a lot of newer names that are swimming faster.

'You see people doing stuff now both in and out of the pool, preparing themselves better, to work on the small things that do end up making a big difference,' Phelps said.

'I would not doubt there will be a couple of world records broken at this meet, and it will be interesting to see which ones they are,' he said.

For most observers though, it will be just as interesting to see whether Phelps has gotten back that winning feeling.