Phelps Continues to Play Coy About Comeback Possibility, Swimmers Respond

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BARCELONA, Spain, July 30. MICHAEL Phelps continues to dodge the questions lobbed at him regarding a return to competitive swimming. In a recent interview, Phelps didn’t swat away the possibility of racing again, but also doesn’t deny the chance of it happening.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future,” he told media during his time in Barcelona. “I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”

Talk of Phelps’ comeback has been out there since mid-May, and since then no one has given a definitive answer, further fueling the speculation that Phelps could make a return in time for the 2016 Olympics. Phelps has spent most of his time traveling the world and playing golf. Earlier this week, he came to Barcelona to fulfill sponsor obligations with Omega and Speedo, and also spent some time with his former USA teammates. It almost goes without saying that being in the city where the world championships is being held hasn’t given Phelps some pause to consider the likelihood of returning.

Meanwhile, several friends and competitive rivals weighed in on the subject today at the world championships. Below are some of their comments:

Matt Grevers: “I’d love to see him back. Bob Bowman said ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ so I’ll follow suit.”

Conor Dwyer: “I’m living with Michael for the next two years so I would love to train with my roommate, so we’ll see.”

Yannick Agnel: “That’s going to be (expletive) cool! That’s going to be shockingly cool. That’ll be fun, but I heard nothing about it. I just saw him and we play Call of Duty a little bit and that’s about it.”

Tom Luchsinger: “I think part of the reason why us butterfliers are so in focus at meets like this is because we’ve been racing Michael for so long, so I would love to see him make a comeback to swimming, but at the same time I am also enjoying the new faces that are coming along.”

Chad Le Clos: “It was a little bit different this morning, to look around and it’s like, “Whoa, he’s not here.” It’s fun for a change to watch him in the stands, like I was doing for some years. I saw him in the stands and I’ll probably chat to him after the races are done.”

Tyler Clary: “I’m just focusing on world championships right now.”

Full text of Bleacher Report article (with link to CBS Sports article)

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