Michael Phelps, will he come back?
After London 2012, Phelps told the world that he was done with swimming. Only to reappear again in time for Rio! He came out of retirement in 2014 after vowing that he would not continue into competitive swimming into his 30’s. Before arriving in Rio Phelps told reporters that this would be his ‘potential’ final olympic appearance. Saying “Just so you guys don't beat me to death if I come back.”
He went to play a prank to his millions of followers on social media, by tweeting saying he was going to return to the olympics and start training for 2020. This prank was pulled on the 1st April, but he still managed to fool a lot of people, including his teammate and longstanding rival, Ryan Lochte.
But on the flip side, he has stated, time and time again in interviews “This time I mean it!”. He also seems to be fairly settled now with his new family and has been pushing a number of sponsorships for several large companies.
Based on the above and his interviews in the past 12 months, it would appear that he wont be coming back (at least at olympic level). However, he is keeping himself in shape and is still doing ‘light’ training, from what we can see. He also likes to drop subtle hints about how he may get an itch to get back into the pool… So you never know…
We want him to come back and still think he has more to give, especially after a phenomenal performance in Rio at the age of 31. Whether this happens, we will have to wait and see…
What do you think? Should he come back? Will he come back? Please leave your comments below or on our social media posts!