Phelps has ‘no desire’ to return to swimming
PAUL NEWBERRY
Michael Phelps says he has “no desire” to return to competitive swimming, but he is eager to stay involved with the sport and cheer on those who follow in his enormous wake.
In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press while promoting a healthy pet food campaign, Phelps said he is excited about the birth of his second child and numerous opportunities away from the pool.
It was around this time four years ago when Phelps got serious about ending his first retirement, but he now seems content with his decision to step away again after the Rio Olympics.
His wife, Nicole, is about four months pregnant. The couple already have a 16-month-old son, Boomer.
“I’ve got no desire, no desire to come back,” the 32-year-old Phelps said flatly.
Phelps has attended a handful of swimming meets since the Rio Games, where the winningest athlete in Olympic history added to his already massive career haul by claiming five gold medals plus a silver. A few months ago, he conceded to the AP that he was eager to see how he would feel about a possible comeback after this year’s world championships in Budapest, Hungary. Turns out, it had no impact. Phelps said watching others compete “truly didn’t kick anything off or spike any more interest in coming out of retirement again.”
He is eager to follow the development of his heir apparent, Caeleb Dressel, who emerged as the sport’s newest star by winning seven gold medals at Budapest. The 21-yearold Floridian joined Phelps and Mark Spitz as the only swimmers to accomplish that feat at a major international meet.
“I’m happy Caeleb decided to go off this year instead of last year,” Phelps joked. “I’m kind of happy to see him swimming so well when I’m not there.”
With Dressel and Katie Ledecky now leading the American team, the U.S. is expected to remain the world’s dominant swimming country heading into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Even without Phelps. “It’s time to kind of move on,” he said, “and watch other people come into their own.”
TORONTO — When it comes to reducing the size of goaltending equipment, the NHL is still trying to get smaller. But, the deadline for implementing any new gear is also shrinking by the day.
After introducing form-fitting pants in February, the league was hoping to roll out Phase 2 of its lululemon-like equipment line in time for this season with contoured chest protectors that were tailored to each individual goalie’s body type.
The problem? The chest protectors are still stuck on the assembly line and might not be ready for the start of the season.
“It’s like building a house,” Kay Whitmore, the NHL’s goaltending supervisor, told Postmedia News in a phone interview. “There’s things that you can’t control. I whish there was something we could do to make these guys deliver. But hopefully it can still happen.”
So far, it appears that only a handful of goalies — the ones who wear Brian’s equipment — have received the new chest protectors. Bauer, Reebok/CCM and Vaughan, meanwhile, are still working on a finished product.
Whitmore, who appears to be getting more impatient by the minute, said he is hopeful that all of the goalies will receive the new equipment before the season begins. But, with training camp underway, it might already be too late. Goalies should have been wearing and getting used to this gear weeks — if not months — ago.
“I think at some point you should start planning a little ahead or making a deadline — the switchover — further ahead,” Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen told Postmedia Network. “It feels like it’s the same thing again, like they’re rushing.”
A year ago, the league was supposed to have its new slimmer goalie pants ready in time for the start of the season. But there were unforeseen delays and the goalies did not actually get them into their hands until January or February.
“I personally don’t agree with changing things in the middle of the year,” Minnesota Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk told the Star Tribune. “My problem is every goalie’s different, and I don’t like to change my equipment. I haven’t worn a new pair of pants in the middle of year before, and now I’m being forced to, which is a frustrating scenario.”
If goalies are frustrated, the league feels their pain. This wasn’t supposed to take this long or be this complicated. The NHL had actually planned on implementing new pants and chest protectors for the start of last season, but the logistics involved in designing and manufacturing a tailor-made chest protector turned into a bit of a nightmare.
It wasn’t the goalies, so much as the manufacturers. Two years ago, in an attempt to reduce scoring and level the playing field, Whitmore went around the league taking detailed measurements of the length of each goalie’s arms, as well as the curvature of their biceps and shoulder. A sizing scale was devised so that Vancouver Canucks’ Ryan Miller, who is 6-foot-2 and 168 pounds would look significantly different than someone like 6-foot-5 and 240-pound Robin Lehner of the Buffalo Sabres.
The problem is that there are four different manufacturers and getting them all on the same page has been difficult. Goalies had wanted the new gear by midAugust, so that they could try it out before training camp. Now it looks like it might not be ready for the start of the season.
“We missed the target goal at the start of the season, but we’re further along than ever before,” said Whitmore, who is trying to be optimistic. “When you see the difference, it’s drastic. It’s more noticeable than what we did with the pants.”
That is both good and bad. It is clear that goalies do not want to have to go through what they did last year in having to adjust midseason to new equipment, especially if the change is even more pronounced. And you can’t blame them.
As Andersen said, because there are now more openings created above the shoulder and underneath the armpit, it could change how far a goalie has to come out to take away a shooter’s angle. As well, chest protectors are not like pants. Goalies like them worked in, not out of the wrapper.
Dubnyk has been wearing the same sweat-stained chest protector since he was junior-playing days. Andersen got his when he broke into the NHL.
“I’ve had the same chest protector for four years now,” said the Leafs goalie, who has not received the new prototype. “I’ve been working in a new one in right now. It’s a lot tougher to switch over the chest protector mid-season than it is the pants. It’s a bigger jump.”
“I know they work hard to do stuff, but it’s a long process so instead of putting it in mid-season maybe we should just push it over to next year so everyone has equal time to get into it.”