Michael Phelps is in a beef with a trash-talking 23-year-old swimmer after blowing everyone away at US Nationals
Phelps was suspended from last week's FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia after pleading guilty to a DUI last December. But while he wasn't able to compete against the best in the world, he still got their attention at a secondary meet on the other side of the planet.
Swimming at the US Nationals in Texas, Phelps won the 200m individual medley in 1 minute, 54.75 seconds, which was faster than the time that won gold at the World Championships and the fastest time in the world this year. He also posted 2015's fastest times in the 100m and 200m butterfly, and he did it in wake of some serious trash talk from 23-year-old South African swimmer Chad Le Clos.
After Phelps won the 200m fly with the fastest time in six years on Friday, Le Clos slammed him in an interview with Paul Newberry of the Associated Press.
"It probably does change what I thought might be possible in a year," Bowman told SwimSwam.
Phelps says he has quit drinking until after Rio 2016 and is training the way he trained before the Beijing and London games. For the rest of the swimming world, Phelps being dedicated to the sport and already posting world-best times with 12 months to go is a terrifying proposition.