Michael Phelps to return to 400 individual medley at Pan Pacific meet

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Phelps to swim 400 IM at Pan Pacs

IRVINE, Calif. — Michael Phelps will swim the 400-meter individual medley at this week’s Pan Pacific championships for the first time since the 2008 Olympics.

Phelps dropped the grueling event after winning a gold medal and setting the world record at the Beijing Games, where he won a record eight golds.

“I said the door wasn’t completely closed,” he said Monday. “I decided why not give it a shot. I really don’t have anything to lose.”

The five-day meet featuring the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan, Brazil, China, South Africa and other non-European countries begins Wednesday.

Phelps’ absence in the event opened the door for U.S. teammate Ryan Lochte to move out of his long shadow. Lochte won the race featuring all four strokes at last year’s world championships, where he also won the 200 IM. But he didn’t touch Phelps’ world record of 4 minutes, 3.84 seconds in the longer race.

Lochte won the 400 IM at the recent U.S. nationals in Irvine, then upset Phelps in the 200 IM, Lochte’s first win over his rival in a long-course medley at a major meet.

“He’s put himself in a good position to swim fast times,” Phelps said about his friend and rival. “He’s obviously had a good training year. He’s one of the toughest guys to race.”

Phelps, Lochte and Tyler Clary are the top Americans entered in the 400 IM on Thursday at the Pan Pacs, the year’s only major international swimming meet.

The fastest eight swimmers advance to the evening finals, where only two swimmers per country are allowed.

“His challenge is to get into the final,” Phelps’ coach Bob Bowman said. “He likes to go kind of easy in the morning and he can’t do that.”

Phelps is still working to regain his form since taking an extended training break after Beijing. Lochte is coming off a stellar U.S. nationals, in which he also won the 200 backstroke against Phelps and Aaron Peirsol.

“It’s a great opportunity for me to see where I stand. I don’t think I’m in the best shape to swim that race,” Phelps said. “I had a nightmare about the IM. I couldn’t swim the first 50 (meters) of breaststroke. Hopefully, that dream doesn’t become reality.”

No one was happier about Phelps’ return to the 400 IM than Bowman and the swimmer’s mother Debbie. He is the defending Pan Pac champion in the event from 2006, the last time the every-four-years meet was held.

“I don’t want to act too happy,” a smiling Bowman said. “It’s his best event and he should keep swimming it. It’s the decathlon of swimming and it kind of defines him as a complete swimmer.”

Debbie Phelps won’t be on hand this week to watch her only son, but he knows it’s her favorite event among those that he swims.

“She’s always very jumpy and giddy (in the stands),” he said. “That’s the one race where she can relax.”

In 2006, Phelps led a dominant U.S. team that won 48 medals — 26 golds — in Victoria, Canada. American swimmers broke five world records, including three by Phelps. Besides the IMs, he will swim the 100 and 200 butterfly this week.

“I feel better in the water now that I did before nationals,” he said. “I feel like I can actually swim my strokes again.”