Phelps Has Luxury to Pick and Choose

The tinkering continues in the swim lab, also known as Michael Phelps’ Olympic schedule.

Phelps and his coach, Bob Bowman, have about four or five meets before the U.S. Olympic swim trials at Long Beach in July to finalize his plans. One of those meets -- the Spring National Championships in Orlando, Fla. -- started Tuesday. But the 18-year-old wasn’t about to reveal his hand anytime soon.

His versatility gives him a vast menu of choices. It’s something of a complicated luxury. In Orlando, his individual events will be the 100- and 200-meter freestyles, the 200 backstroke, the 200 individual medley and the 100 butterfly.

“It really depends -- the year is a fresh year,” Phelps said in a conference call Tuesday. “There is some time to really sort of see how things are going.”

Of the five individual events he will swim in Orlando, Phelps holds the world record in the 200 individual medley (1 minute 55.94 seconds) and the American record in the 200 freestyle (1:45.99).

The competition will be formidable in the 100 freestyle, as he will face the likes of Olympians Jason Lezak of the Irvine Novaquatics and Neil Walker of Longhorn Aquatics.

In the 200 backstroke, he won’t have to deal with world-record holder Aaron Peirsol, who is in the midst of his college season at Texas, or 2000 gold medalist Lenny Krayzelburg of the Novaquatics. Krayzelburg will be concentrating on the 100 backstroke in Orlando.

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-- Lisa Dillman