Enough To Make Boomer Bob Burp: Lochte Holds 2020 Door Open For Michael Phelps

Boomer Bob Phelps will need burping when he finds out: dad Michael, 31 and heading into his fifth Olympic Games with 18 gold medals among 22 in all, has left the door ajar for racing in Tokyo 2020.

With a nod to what Boomer, born in May and heading to Rio 2016 as the best-dressed boy in town, will hear and see and sense as he sits with mum and former Miss California, Nicole Johnson, up in the stands at the Rio Aquatics Centre, the most decorated Olympian in history referred to the week of racing ahead as “the potential last races of my career”.

After a ‘swansong’ London 2012 that turned out not to be in a fate kind to swimming, he said “you won’t see me in a pool again, this is it”.

Now, Rio 2016 may not seal the vault. The odds of a second comeback for Phelps, who intends to retire for good after Rio but said the same after London 2012, narrowed when teammate and old sparring partner Ryan Lochte revealed that he would offer Phelps another wager to persuade him to stick around four more years.

Lochte lured Phelps back to the water after London 2012 with a rumoured $100,000 wager: you’ll never make it back. The boy who spent his youth feeding on challenge after a teacher told the hyper-active pupil that he would ‘never amount to much’ was determined to prove Lochte wrong and take the money.

Ryan Lochte of the United States of America – by Patrick B. Kraemer

Lochte, his hair a silver blue to celebrate the hiding of grey on his 32nd birthday, said of Phelps: “Of course he’ll be back. You look at what this guy has done for swimming and promoted the sport to a new level. I’m workin’ on it.” Would there be a new wager? The details would have to wait but “yes, there will be”.

“I just have a weird feeling,” Lochte explained. “Once you compete on this stage at the Olympics, that passion, that excitement, that thrill of racing the top people in the world, when that goes away, you miss it. You miss it really quick.”

“I think that’s why he came back. He missed it. He wasn’t done accomplishing what he wanted to accomplish in this sport. I don’t think he’ll be done after this one. I hope not.”

Meanwhile, Phelps will carry the flag for Team USA at the Opening Ceremony, the 400IM no longer a part of the program, freeing him to attend the opening. Phelps did a deal with Bowman after winning eight gold medals at Beijing 2008 that he would never have to swim the 400m medley again.

That, …

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