US swimmer Michael Phelps, who turns 27 next month and has 16 Olympic medals to his name in all, has hinted that he will only allow himself one more tilt at Games glory and then retire.

Following the success in the pool in China four years ago the Baltimore Bullet, who is 6ft 4in and weighs a colossal 185lbs, found it difficult to motivate himself to train again, he revealed on an American chat show on Sunday.

Speaking on 60 Minutes Phelps said that he would give up his life in the pool after the London Games, if he manages to become the most decorated OIympian ever to have lived.

via London 2012 Olympics: swimming star Michael Phelps drops hint that he will retire after summer Games – Telegraph.

With the London 2012 Summer Olympics drawing close, The Huffington Post caught up with swimmer Michael Phelps, who with 16 medals, is now just three Olympic medals away from breaking the all-time record of former Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina. Phelps, 26, recently announced his upcoming retirement and that 2012 will be his third and final Olympiad. Leading up to the games, Phelps is playing a significant role in Visas Go World campaign. And, with 14 gold medals to his name already, the Baltimore native already has most of any Olympic athlete ever.

via Michael Phelps On London 2012 Olympics, His New Post-Swimming Diet And Retirement Plans.

One piece that caught many by surprise was the fact that Michael sleeps in a special high-altitude sleeping chamber. From what I can gather this conditions his body for the big race.

Michael Phelps has the money to pretty much sleep anywhere, in anything, that he wants.

It turns out for the last year or so, the Olympian has been hitting the hay in a high-altitude sleeping chamber.

Mention of the so-called “contraption” got a big eye-brow raise out of Anderson Cooper on Sunday’s “60 Minutes.”

“Inside Michael’s apartment, an unusual contraption,” Cooper said with drama. “A chamber he sleeps in that simulates high altitude.”

via Michael Phelps: Michael Phelps and his high-altitude sleeping chamber – baltimoresun.com.

Personally, I’m rooting for Michael. I watched a segment on 60 Minutes tonight with Anderson Cooper and Michael’s story is a good one. Despite a couple rough years following Beijing, it appears Michael is once again back on top of his game and in shape to dominate in the pool. His coach gave him a 9/10 at this point and is confident Michael will bring home some gold once again.

With less than 100 days until the 2012 London Olympics, the best swimmers in the world converged Indianapolis for the Indy Grand Prix. The star-studded event took place at Indiana University Natatorium on the campus of IUPUI, marking the fifth stop on the USA’s Swimming Grand Prix Series.

Michael Phelps, and rival swimmer Ryan Lochte were among some of the biggest names in attendance. Phelps got the best of his old rival, finishing three seconds ahead of Lochte in one race and cruising to a win in the 100-meter fly.

via Phelps gearing up for London Olympics | KETK.

Michael has had his share of ups and downs over the past few years, but this interview gives me the confidence that Michael is going to accomplish some great things again in the pool this year.

Michael Phelps made history when he won eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Now he’s training hard, driven to make a splash in London this summer. He’s just three medals shy of breaking the record for most Olympic career medals. But the road back to the Olympics hasn’t been easy, Anderson Cooper reports. The usually competitive and motivated Phelps went through a slump that made his own coach wonder if the swimmer would make it to the London games for the last lap of his career.

via Michael Phelps: Ready for London games? – CBS News.

Michael Fred Phelps born June 30, 1985 is an American swimmer who has, overall, won 16 Olympic medals—six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008, becoming the most successful athlete at both of these Olympic Games editions. In doing so he has twice equaled the record eight medals of any type at a single Olympics achieved by Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin at the 1980 Moscow Summer Games.

via Michael Phelps – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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Flat-water canoeing/kayaking has been a permanent fixture at the Olympics since Berlin in 1936, but white-water slalom as a sport only started in 1932. Its inspiration came from slalom skiing and like the alpine sport, paddlers have to negotiate their way through a series of gates in a sequential order and specific direction (green poles for downstream and red for upstream).

Two-second penalties are handed out for clipped poles and 50 seconds for missing a gate altogether, but as all three of the men’s events at the Beijing Games were decided by less than two seconds, either of these can be the difference between listening to your national anthem and not being on the podium at all.

It’s a blast down 300m of grade II-IV rapids requiring skill, strength and a feel for fast moving water. White water slalom (renamed canoe slalom in 2008) made a one-off Olympic appearance in Germany (Munich 1972) but only became a permanent feature on the Games programme in 1992.

via James Cracknell: this rower was taught a rapid lesson at London 2012 Olympics canoe slalom venue – Telegraph.

Anyone wanting a taste of what to expect this summer when the Olympics roll in to London could do a lot worse than spend this week in Sydney. Cars are being squeezed off the streets; athletes rule the road. Not that everyone is happy.

“The locals are getting a bit annoyed having half the city closed down, just so a few of us can run around the place dressed in Lycra,” admits Will Clarke, one of Britain’s Olympic hopefuls.

It is much more serious than that, of course. The garishly-clad troublemakers who are so upsetting Australian commuters are some of the world’s finest multi-sport athletes, in town to take part in the opening leg of this year’s International Triathlon Union World Series.

via London 2012 Olympics: Will Clarke sets out to prove his worth in his own right in Games triathlon – Telegraph.

Former Italy Under-21 midfielder Piermario Morosini died Saturday after suffering cardiac arrest and collapsing on the pitch during his team Livornos Serie B match at Pescara. He was 25.

Edoardo De Blasio, a cardiologist at Pescaras Santo Spirito hospital, confirmed Morosinis death, saying “unfortunately he was already dead when he arrived at hospital. He didnt regain consciousness.”

Morosini, who was on loan from Serie A side Udinese, fell to the ground in the 31st minute of the match and tried unsuccessfully to get up several times before receiving urgent medical attention on the pitch. A defibrillator was used on the player, who also had his heart massaged, before an ambulance arrived on the pitch to take him to hospital where doctors tried to revive him for around an hour and a half.

via Italian soccer player dies after mid-game cardiac arrest | Fox News.

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