Michael Phelps won a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, but has had a dismal time over the last 18 months. Photograph: John Pryke/EPAMichael Phelps has signalled his intent to regain medal-winning form at the world swimming championships after a dismal 18 months. Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, lost his third race in a row last month in his signature event, the 200m butterfly, having previously gone unbeaten for nine years at the distance.
The world championships, which begin in Shanghai on Saturday, offer the 26-year-old an opportunity to prove to his rivals that his poor recent form is not a terminal problem. "I would love to break a world record [here]," Phelps said from Australia's Gold Coast, where the US team are training. "It's time to get up and race now. It's like the old feeling I used to get leading up to meets – just being excited to get in the water and race."
Phelps sounded reinvigorated after admitting he had lost his passion for swimming after his success at the 2008 Games. "I felt like you had to twist my arm to get me into the pool," Phelps said. "I was like kicking and screaming not wanting to go to the pool. This year has changed a lot … I can't stand to lose, so I had to change something. I needed to get out of that funk."
Despite his continuing struggles, Phelps said he had gained inspiration to battle out of his slump from the return of Ian Thorpe, who announced his comeback to the sport this year. Thorpe, who was one of swimming's biggest stars before Phelps's emergence, retired in 2006 having amassed five Olympic gold medals, 11 world titles and 13 world records.
The Australian beat Phelps in their only serious contest in the 200m freestyle – the 2004 Olympic final which has been dubbed the "race of the century" – and while Thorpe will not be in Shanghai, the possibility of taking him on in London at next year's Olympics has galvanised the American swimmer.
"He and I only raced once over the 200 freestyle," Phelps said. "Having the opportunity to race somebody like him again, maybe in the 200 free, will be super fun. I've never had the chance and hopefully we get the chance over the next year."
While Phelps has been struggling with his problems in the pool, one of Britain's competitors in Shanghai, Gemma Spofforth, has endured a far tougher year out of competition. The Florida-based Spofforth, the defending 100m backstroke champion whose mother died of bowel cancer in December 2007, has had to endure another family tragedy in the build-up to this year's championships.
While she was in Britain awaiting her green card, tragedy struck again when her father Mark's new partner, June White, was diagnosed with lung cancer. She died at the same hospice where Spofforth's mother passed away while the swimmer was competing at the trials in Manchester in March.
The Shoreham-born swimmer, who has been appointed as a trainer at Alachua County Crisis Centre, returned to the States and admitted this year had been fraught with emotion and she considered returning to Britain.
"Physically I wasn't in the best shape I could be in and emotionally I was a wreck," Spofforth said. "I put a lot of extra pressure on myself to worry about things that probably didn't need to be worried about and it took me a while after that to get back into swimming and realise I was doing something that I love and not just something that took my mind off what else is going on at home.
"I questioned it [returning to England]. He [her father] was so invested in work and he is such a motivated person, I guess that's where I get my motivation from, that I felt it wasn't needed."
She will swim just the 100m backstroke in Shanghai and she feels little expectation given the form of others. "That takes a lot of pressure off me and just makes me want to go into the meet just enjoying it rather than thinking I've got to go and make a final, got to make a medal.
"This year has been a little bit of an off year to go in after the worlds and train for 2012."
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