Michael Phelps talks about his weight gain and diet in Details. You don’t hear too many men talk food and weight. When they do, I always find it really fascinating. Granted, he is an Olympic athlete, so there is a different kind of attention on his body. It sounds like he was semi-depressed, smoking lots of pot (he kind of references it in the interview) and emotionally eating his share of Sour Patch Kids after Beijing. I don’t know if I would choose Sour Patch Kids, but I get it. I mean, what do you do after you’ve worked your whole life to win Olympic gold medals and then you do? Existential crisis alert. Well, based on this photo spread, I would say he’s back in fighting shape and then some for next month’s games.

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Michael Phelps conquered the 2008 Beijing Olympics, walking away with eight gold medals for swimming. But following his epic turn at the summer events, Michael hit a rough patch and sort of left his athletic career hanging in the balance.

That's until he realized he had another chance to break all kinds of records at the 2012 London Olympics, telling Details magazine, "I wanted to be the best. I still do."

"It was weird going from the highest of the high, the biggest point of your life — winning eight gold medals — and then saying, 'Alright, where do I go from here?' I wasn't motivated. I did nothing, literally nothing, for a long time. I gained 25 pounds," Michael reveals in the Olympic issue of Details, which he covers.

"A friend of mine and I were playing football on the beach in Miami, and somebody got a picture of us and put it all over the place. And he's like, 'Bro, you gotta start working out, man. You are fat.' So I started going through the motions again," he adds. " I would go back for a week or two and then stop. I'd show up for dry-land practice and then just sneak out the back door so nobody saw me. I was watching Rocky II the other day — the one where he's fighting Apollo for the second time and he's just going through the motions. It reminded me of how I was."

One major bump in the road came when Michael was photographed smoking marijuana at a party, something he says was a huge mistake.  "It was a learning experience," Michael says. "I'm the kind of person who has to go through the learning experiences myself. Somebody could tell me, 'If you eat this much you'll be fat,' and I'd be like, 'Yeah, okay, let me try it.' Growing up, my mom taught us to make our own decisions, but also that you have to pay for the consequences of those decisions. I'm thankful for that. I'll be the first to say I've made thousands of mistakes, but I've never made the same mistake twice."

As of now, Michael just landed a spot in seven swimming events at the Olympics, dropping out of the 200-meter freestyle to focus on the relays. And now that his motivation is back, the Olympian is seeing nothing but gold.

"I realized that I probably hadn't reached my full potential. There was still more in the tank," he explains. "As I come to closure on my career, am I going to look back in 20 years and say, 'What if?' That's something I don't want. This is it. I've always said I wouldn't swim past 30. I don't want to be that guy who's hanging on, but I want to reach my max potential. I don't care how much pain I have to go through or the sacrifices I have to make. I'll get it."

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OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) - For his Olympic swan song, Michael Phelps is heading into uncharted waters. He has spent his life demolishing records and building a stockpile of gold medals, but his final competition is looking more like a lap of honour than his crowning glory. Phelps did that four years ago when he reached the summit of Olympic achievement by winning a mind-boggling eight gold medals in Beijing. The problem was he soon discovered that perfection was flawed and no matter which direction he looked, he realised the only way forward was down. Whatever he does in London, Beijing will remain his defining moment.

"I don't think anything he could do or not do will change his legacy," said Phelps's lifelong coach Bob Bowman. "He's the greatest Olympian of all time today and I think he will be after this summer."Phelps has entered seven events in London, one less than he swam in Beijing and Athens in 2004 and no one would ever rule out his chances of winning the lot again. But in a sport where medals are won and lost by the tiniest numbers, the chances of him winning all seven look slim. While his main rivals are swimming faster, Phelps has not set a world record in over three years and his medal stacks are getting progressively lower.

At the 2009 world championships, he won five gold medals. In 2011, he won four, and the 27-year-old is resigned to the prospect that he may not win everything he enters in London. "We've done a lot of cool, amazing, exciting things, and now it's just time to have fun," Phelps said. "We're relaxed. This is just about what size cherry I want to put on top of my sundae."His main obstacle after Beijing was finding the motivation to get out of bed before dawn every day and churn through the thousands of laps he needed to stay at his peak. A global sporting icon who has already amassed a fortune, he didn't need the money or the fame and the lure of adding a few more records to his CV started to lose appeal.

Although he holds the record for the most gold medals at a single Olympics (eight) and total (14), there are still some significant records within his reach. He needs just three more medals of any colour in London to surpass the overall record of 18 held by Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina. If he medals in each of his four individual events, he will equal Latynina's career record of 14 individual medals.

And if he wins gold in either of the two medley or two butterfly finals, he will become the first male swimmer to win the same individual event at three Olympics. "If I go out and do the best that I can and don't medal or get a bronze or a silver, at the end of the day there aren't many people that can say they have this," Phelps said. "If somebody says it's a failure, I don't care. If I can say I've done everything I can and I've been happy with my career, that's all that matters."

Phelps partied hard after Beijing and his good boy image took a beating. He made regular trips to Las Vegas and in 2009, he was photographed with a pipe used to smoke pot. He briefly toyed with the idea of quitting but rediscovered his motivation through the pain of defeat. With his long arms and powerful legs, he is blessed with the perfect natural gifts to slice through the water as gracefully as a dolphin, but what sets him apart is the predatory instincts of a killer shark. "I still want to win every race I go in," he said. "I've never, ever liked losing."Phelps returned to training with renewed vigour, logging up to 70 kilometers (43 miles) a week and sleeping each night in a high-altitude chamber that was installed in his bedroom. His results started to improve and he won four events at last week's U.S. Trials, ensuring that his final lap of honour will at least be a quick one.

"I'm still excited about the Olympics. It's the biggest stage to perform at," he said. "The experiences that I have had not only being on the national team but also the Olympic team have changed my life."For Bowman, London is about the end of an unforgettable journey. "I would like for us to be able to savour this experience and get all the best parts of it out again," said Bowman. "However this ends up, it will be exactly the way he and I chose to make it end up.

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The internet is filled with horrible photos. Pixelated, excessively processed, offensively clichéd, they sneak their way onto news sites, blogs, Tumblrs, Instagram feeds. They get shared and reshared as memes or as art accompanying otherwise good articles. The web's terrible photographs mock the profession of photography every single day. And no one seems to notice, much less complain. Until now, that is. Evidently, this is where the digital public draws the line:

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Omaha, Nebraska: Michael Phelps is headed to the London Olympics with a chance to match his glittering eight-gold haul of 2008. Phelps won the 100m butterfly on the penultimate night of the US Olympic swimming trials on Sunday in 51.14sec to claim a fifth individual berth for London.

Phelps was nowhere near his world record of 49.82sec, but he was fastest in the world this year and ominously for his rivals, he said it was a ragged effort that could be vastly improved. "It was a pretty crappy first 50 and a pretty terrible finish," said Phelps, who rallied from sixth at the turn to finish ahead of Tyler McGill.

McGill was fourth at the turn, but won the battle for second in 51.32 ahead of Ryan Lochte. "It's done, we're done," Phelps said of his trials campaign, although of course he hopes the best is yet to come in London.

"It shows that I can do the kind of event programme like this at a high level again," he said. "We were struggling over the last couple years at doing one event at this level. (It's good) being able to get a couple under the belt this week and hopefully build off of this."

Phelps, whose unprecedented eight gold medals in Beijing four years ago took his career tally to 14, now can swim the same eight events in London: the 100m and 200m butterfly, the 200m and 400m individual medleys, the 200m freestyle and three relays.

Lochte is slated for four individual events, including showdowns with Phelps in the 200m and 400m medleys and 200m free and a title defence in the 200m backstroke, and will also see his schedule swelled by relays. Even if he'd snagged one of two Olympic spots on offer in the 100m fly, Lochte said he wouldn't have tackled the event in London.

It would require the punishing treble he swam here on Saturday of the 100m fly, 200m backstroke and 200m individual medley. "I don't want to do that triple again in London," said Lochte, who called the eight-day trials "a training meet".

"I haven't fully rested yet," Lochte said. "Come London, I'll have that full taper and be fully rested and hopefully I'll be a lot faster." While Phelps and Lochte are old hands at multiple medal campaigns, 17-year-old Missy Franklin is poised to become the first US woman to swim seven events at the Games in her first trip to the Olympics.

Franklin's convincing 200m backstroke victory in 2:06.12 gave her a fourth individual event. The reigning world champion, Franklin posted the fastest time in the world this year and beat runner-up Elizabeth Beisel (2:07.58) by more than a second.

"I'm so happy with my 200 backstroke," Franklin said. "I felt really strong. It really hurts so bad at the end, but if it doesn't then you're not doing it right. "I can't believe I have seven events," added Franklin, who also has three relay berths. "It's so overwhelming but so exciting at the same time."

Anthony Ervin appeared ecstatic to line up one event in London -- the 50m freestyle. The 31-year-old who walked away from swimming three years after winning 50m free gold in Sydney in 2000, was runner-up to Cullen Jones to secure his spot.

Jones and Ervin were impressive in the one-lap dash, their times of 21.59 and 21.60 the second- and third-fastest this year behind Beijing gold medallist Cesar Cielo of Brazil. Kathleen Ledecky, 15, booked a first Olympic berth with a victory in the 800m freestyle ahead of Kate Ziegler.

At the other end of the swimming age spectrum, 45-year-old Dara Torres kept her bid to make a sixth Olympic team alive as she advanced to the final of the 50m free with the third-fastest semi-final time behind red-hot Jessica Hardy (24.56) and Christine Magnuson (24.72).

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Gold medalist Michael Phelps has qualified for eight events at the 2012 London Olympics. Phelp’s wrapped up his amazing week with a rallying win in the 100-meter butterfly, securing his spot in five individual races at the Olympics and three relays.

When asked about his eight qualifications he nonchalantly said: “I guess that’s OK.”His comment comes after he was slow off the blocks and made the turn in sixth place before catching up to Tyler McGill on the return lap to eventually pull off the win in 51.14 seconds, well off his 49.82 world record-setting pace but still the fastest time recorded in 2012.

It wasn’t all bad news for Tyler McGill who held on for the second Olympic spot with a finishing time of 51.32 seconds. Finishing behind McGill in third place was Ryan Lochte who was just 33-hundredths of a second off the pace.

Four years ago Michael Phelps won a record eight gold medals and will swim the same individual events during the 2012 London Olympic games. When asked if he was happy with his performances Phelps responded of his Olympic trials:

“That was a pretty crappy first 50 and a pretty terrible finish. I should have taken another stroke. It felt OK. It didn’t feel great, didn’t feel terrible. “It’s done, we’re done.”

In the meantime regardless of the outcome Michael Phelps has already secured his reputation at the Olympics which could make him even more of a threat as the weight has been lifted off his shoulders and he can finally compete for himself.

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During the 2012 Olympic swimming trials Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps have been battling back and forth in the various events and that was no different in the men's 200m individual medley semifinals. Lochte and Phelps put on a clinic in the event, leaving everyone else behind in their wake.

The two american's battled head to head with Lochte taking a short lead over Phelps in the final stretch of the event in the free style stroke, with Lochte and Phelps a good two seconds ahead of everyone else in the heat. Lochte edged out Phelps in the event taking first place with a time of 1:55.51 as Phelps turned in a 1:56.66 as the two move on to the finals, where both are expected to qualify.

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Michael Phelps got back at Ryan Lochte, stretching out to win a thrilling 200-metre freestyle at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials.

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Michael Phelps strokes his mustache during a news conference at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, Saturday, June 23, 2012, in Omaha, Neb. The trials starts on Monday.

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Michael Phelps already has the most gold medals (14) in Olympic history but his overall medal count still falls short on the all-time list. The American swimmer could change that this year if he can earn two medals at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

And Phelps could have plenty of opportunities to do it. Yahoo reports that the multiple gold medalist is currently attempting to qualify in 7 individual events for the 2012 Olympic Games. Phelps is also trying to qualify in three relay events. That means that it’s possible for Phelps to walk away from London with 10 additional medals for a total of 26.

Of course, that probably won’t happen. But if Phelps can win two medals this year he’ll tie gymnast Larisa Latynina as the most decorated Olympic Athlete. Latynina, who helped the Soviet Union assert its dominance in female gymnastics during the 1960s, earned 18 medals (9 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze). Her record has stood since 1964.

But there are plenty of hurdles in the way for Phelps. First, the swimmer will have to earn his spot on the American team. Then he’ll have to compete against swimmers that are 5 to 10 years younger than him in London. It won’t be an easy feat but it is definitely possible for Michael Phelps to make Olympic history.

Phelps’ total medal count after the 2012 Olympic Games will be the total count for his career. Phelps has already announced that he’ll be retiring after the 2012 Olympic Games. Phelps said that he almost retired after the 2008 games but wanted to come back for one more shot at glory.

“I think the decision of throwing in the towel and stopping after 2008 was something that went through my head a lot… Through 2009 and 2010 I was like ‘what am I doing, why am I doing this?’ I still had more goals I wanted to achieve, but I didn’t know if I wanted to put myself through another four years.”

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