Michael Phelps’s flirtation with the 400m freestyle made for a quiet Friday for the Olympic swimming star at the Mesa Pro Series meeting.
Phelps, eyeing a 2016 Rio Olympic bid after serving a six-month suspension for a drunk-driving charge, opened his latest comeback on Thursday with a victory in the 100m butterfly, one of his signature events.
He said he wanted to challenge himself with the unfamiliar 400m free — an event he last swam in competition at a grand prix meet in 2009.
His time of 4min 02.67sec was fourth in his heat — won by top qualifier Michael McBroom in 3:53.85.
Phelps’s time was the 17th-fastest of the morning, and the 18-time Olympic gold medallist — who scratched from the 100m backstroke on Friday — not surprising opted out of the “C” consolation final.
In looking ahead to the event, Phelps had said it was about challenging himself.
“I’ve started doing that more to myself, just challenging myself to see where we are,” said Phelps, who has spoken this week of the renewed focus he has found since undergoing treatment in the wake of his September 30 drunk-driving arrest.
“Going into 2004 and 2008, when I was really at my best, I challenged myself. I want to go into next year making sure I’ve challenged myself in every which way.”
Oddly, Phelps’s time exactly matched the top qualifying time in the women’s 400m free of world record-holder Katie Ledecky.
Phelps, who originally entered five events in the four-day meet in suburban Phoenix, still has the 100m freestyle and 200m individual medley on Saturday.
In between races, he’s savoring the warm welcome he has received from fans at his first meet since August.
After his butterfly triumph, Phelps indulged a welter of autograph seekers.
“To be able to see a smile on kid’s face, there’s nothing like it,” Phelps said, adding that it was another new dimension to this latest instalment of his spectacular career.
“I’m more engaged with everything,” he said. “And being able to take more time to try to connect with more fans is something that’s important.”