Phelps will swim his first international at Pan Pacific Championships
Katinka Hosszu celebrates winning the 400m medley women's final at the 32nd LEN European swimming championships in Berlin on Monday. Katinka won in a championship record time of 4:31.03, 2.10 seconds ahead of Mireia Belmonte Garcia. (Photo: AFP)
Gold Coast (Australia): Record-breaking Olympian Michael Phelps will swim his first international meet since coming out of retirement at this week’s Pan Pacific Championships as he seeks a return to winning ways.
Phelps, 29, the 18-time Olympic gold medallist, will take his quest for form to Australia’s Gold Coast after he ended this month’s US Championships with a couple of near-misses but no wins.
Despite this, Phelps made the powerful 60-strong American team for the Gold Coast meet, just four months after ending a 20-month retirement which began after the 2012 Olympics in the city of London.
Australia’s James Magnussen will resume his sprint rivalry with Nathan Adrian, part of a heavyweight US team also including Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky.
But attention will inevitably focus on the continuing comeback of Phelps, the greatest Olympian of all time.
At the US titles Phelps botched a turn in the 100m free to finish seventh, was out-touched by a fingertip in one of his signature events, the 100m butterfl.
But he staged an exciting battle with Lochte in the 200m medley and finished just 0.05sec behind the world record-holder in the event where he has won three Olympic golds. — AFP
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