MESA, Ariz. — Nearly four months remain until Michael Phelps swims his fifth — and final, he promises — Olympic Games.
But, more pressing and more important: Only about one month remains until the most decorated Olympian of all time becomes a father for the very first time.
Phelps’s fiancé, Nicole Johnson, is due in May and has proudly shown off her bump, otherwise known as Baby P, on social media for months. This week’s meet, the Arena Pro Swim Series event here, will be the last one Johnson will be able to attend until Olympic trials, which will take place at the end of June. The furniture is all set up in the nursery, Phelps said, adding that he thinks he and Johnson are as ready as they’ll ever be to welcome their baby, a boy.
Both the engagement and the pregnancy have taught Phelps lessons he never anticipated. First, that he shouldn’t always argue with his soon-to-be wife, and if he does, he shouldn’t always win.
“Everyone always tells me, ‘Don’t fight every battle,’ ” Phelps said Wednesday. “I was like, ‘No, come on. I can always win every battle.’ But now that we’re getting closer and closer, I kind of pick and choose; I let her win a couple here and there. We’ve been able to work really well together, and we understand each other even more now than we ever did before. This is a new experience for the both of us. It’s become more and more real the closer we get.”
As the bump has grown, so has Phelps’s amazement during visits to the doctor.
“It’s kind of funny because we can kind of tell where his butt is, where his feet are, kind of like where he’s sitting in her stomach,” Phelps said, smiling. “I remember the first ultrasound we went to; it literally looked like a little, tiny thing. Now, we can see every bone in his body, all the details. It’s been pretty amazing to watch, pretty incredible to watch his growth so far.”
You could say the same for Phelps’s growth as well over the past year, too. He moved here to continue to train with longtime coach Bob Bowman, who accepted the head coaching job at Arizona State almost exactly a year ago. He used the change in environment to help him grow as a person, he said, after his arrest for drunken driving in Baltimore in September 2014 and subsequent six-month suspension from USA Swimming. Phelps checked himself into a treatment program, and since he’s left it he feels “night and day” different, more appreciative of his last go-around with competitive swimming.
And the sport is bringing him more joy. He’s been able to return his body to optimal form, too. Phelps said he hasn’t been in this kind of shape — both physically and psychologically — since the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
“Did I ever think I’d be back to that level? No,” Phelps said. “But I think after last summer, after that little surprise — the first race at nationals — after that, I was like, ‘This is for real again.’ That was something I missed because it had been so long since I’ve felt that way.”
After this meet, Phelps will train for six weeks at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, his final preparation for Olympic trials in Omaha this summer. That meet will be his last trials, and likely the first for Baby P.
