Michael Phelps emphasizes teamwork to U.S. Ryder Cup players
CHASKA, Minn. — The day after Michael Phelps returned home from the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro he got back in the pool.
“Yes, I’m working out,” Phelps said. “Did laps.”
The most decorated Olympian in history said Tuesday the sport will remain a major part of his life despite winning a record 28th medal, including his 23rd gold in Rio.
Just don’t expect to see him in the pool, however, in the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.
“No,” Phelps said when asked about his chances of going for medal No. 29 and more in four years, adding that he doesn’t think there are enough numbers in the world to count how many times he’s been asked about Tokyo.
“After ’12 I didn’t want anything to do with the sport,” Phelps continued. “I know how hard it was for me to come back and do what I did. I wanted to do something that no one had ever done and I did it. There’s nothing left for me to do (in the pool). Will I ever understand 28 Olympic medals? I don’t know. But I know it all started with the dream of winning one.”
Instead of getting back in the pool to pursue more Olympic glory, Phelps will spend more time with his family, fiancée Nicole Johnson, and infant son, Boomer; expand his brand worldwide; play a lot more golf and work to grow swimming across the world.
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“I’m not going to go into hiding,” said Phelps, who was at the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National Golf Club to help launch the Planet Omega exhibition. He also teamed with Kelly Slater in the celebrity match-play tournament that also drew the likes of Bill Murray, Kirk Russell and Martina Navratilova.
“Just because I’m done swimming competitively doesn’t mean I’m done with the sport. The list of things I want to do is a mile long.
“The biggest thing now is I’m more excited about making the transition from being an athlete to being an ambassador. I think I can probably do more for the sport outside of the pool. It's really cool this time around because I'm looking forward to making that transition and having goals outside of the water.”
Since leaving Rio, Phelps has been on a whirlwind tour of the world with Nicole and Boomer. Just recently he’s gone to L.A. for The Ellen DeGeneres Show, in Chicago for an event, Frankfurt for another and Milan for yet another. After a few days in Paris, he arrived in Minnesota on Monday.
“We’re trying to figure out where we’re going tomorrow,” Phelps said. “Might go east, might go west to go home (in Scottsdale).”
Unlike in 2008 after the Olympics, where he said he was doing back-to-back-to-back appearances and then getting on a plane to do it again in another part of the world, this time around he’s had time to enjoy the places he visits. With his wife-to-be and Boomer in tow — “That’s what makes traveling so much easier; Boomer is really good on planes,” Phelps said — he called it a working honeymoon ahead of his upcoming wedding.
In Milan, for instance, he went on an early-morning run for more than an hour.
“Probably one of the best runs I’ve ever had,” he said. “After London (in 2012) when I put on 35 pounds, that isn’t going to happen again. I was running on the streets of Milan and I came upon a gigantic castle. It was awesome. I was a kid again running those streets.”
Phelps made another stop in the U.S. team room Monday night at Hazeltine and gave a little speech to those in attendance.
“I expressed how to me as a swimmer the only thing I really wanted to do as a kid was I wanted to represent my country. I've had that chance for 16 years and I kind of talked about how swimming's an individual sport, but when we come together as a team we really do come together as a team like no other country when we travel internationally,” Phelps said. “No matter where we're from, we're all together. I think that's something that's really cool for me to be a part of. I talked about that and about relays and how we have to come together, we have to work as a team, otherwise we're not going to win. ...
“I said to them, ‘You guys can't be individuals here. This is a team. We all look at you guys, you guys are going to have the Stars & Stripes on.’ I kind of said, ‘I want you guys to go out and whup their ass.’”
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