BALTIMORE (AP) — It has water views, of course. Plus three bedrooms, three and a half baths and two parking spaces in always crowded Fells Point. And Michael Phelps’ condo can be yours for — well, the Realtor isn’t saying.

The Baltimore Sun reports that the Olympic swimmer’s name is not in the listing. But property records
indicate the address is the condo Phelps bought in 2007 for $1.69 million. It was assessed for $1.5 million in 2010. The 4,000-square-foot condo has hardwood floors, floor-to-ceiling windows and a fireplace. It’s listed on the website of Realtor Heidi Krauss.

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COLUMBUS: Michael Phelps clocked the second-fastest 100m freestyle time in the world this year Sunday to cap a productive three days at USA Swimming's Columbus Grand Prix. Phelps added the 100m free gold to the 200m free and 200m butterfly titles he claimed on Friday and Saturday with a time of 48.49. Only Australia's James Magnusson, with a time of 48.05 in January, has swum faster so far in a season geared toward the London Olympics that start in July. "I wanted to swim a good 100 and see where we were," Phelps said. "I could compare where we are now compared to four years ago this time leading into (Olympic) trials. I'm happy, and hopefully this will set up a good 100 down the road or at trials. Who knows?" Phelps, whose 14 Olympic gold medals include his spectacular eight at the 2008 Beijing Games, finished comfortably in front of Brazila's Nicolas Oliveira, who took second in 49.37 with South African Darian Townsend third in 49.47.

Townsend earlier won the men's 200m individual medley in 2:00.72. Phelps said he was pleased with his progress he has made since buckling down in his training, after losing motivation and focus in the wake of his Beijing exploits. "The only thing I need to do right now is continue what I'm doing. I can't have any more hiccups," he said. "Training does help and it does work and I can see that. The last three weeks we put in some good training and it showed here.

Things are heading in the right direction. We just have to keep everything going." American Matt Grevers, edged in the 100m backstroke, bounced back with a victory in the 200m back in 1:57.59. That put him second on the 2012 world list behind Japan's Ryosuke Irie, who posted a blazing 1:54.02 in January. Matt Patton was a distant second in 2:02.38 with Mexico's Ezequiel Trujillo Aviles third in 2:03.86. Hungary's Zsuzsanna Jakabos won the women's 200m individual medley in 2:11.98, good enough for fourth in the world rankings. US Olympian Natalie Coughlin was second in 2:12.90 and Hungary's Evelyn Verraszto third (2:13.56). Arturo Verti and Maria Gonzalez Ramirez delivered gold for Mexico, Verti winning the men's 1,500m freestyle in 15:30.69 and Ramirez capturing the women's 200m backstroke in 2:10.75. Gillian Ryan, 16, won the women's 800m freestyle in 8:29.25, a performance that vaulted her to fourth-fastest in the world this year. Chile's Kristel Kobrich was second in 8:31.09.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Michael Phelps clocked the second-fastest 100m freestyle time in the world this year to cap a productive three days at USA Swimming's Columbus Grand Prix. Phelps on Sunday added the 100m free gold to the 200m free and 200m butterfly titles he claimed on Friday and Saturday with a time of 48.49.

Only Australia's James Magnusson, with a time of 48.05 in January, has swum faster so far in a season geared toward the London Olympics that start in July. "I wanted to swim a good 100 and see where we were," Phelps said. "I could compare where we are now compared to four years ago this time leading into (Olympic) trials. I'm happy, and hopefully this will set up a good 100 down the road or at trials. Who knows?"

Phelps, whose 14 Olympic gold medals include his spectacular eight at the 2008 Beijing Games, finished comfortably in front of Brazila's Nicolas Oliveira, who took second in 49.37 with South African Darian Townsend third in 49.47.

Townsend earlier won the men's 200m individual medley in 2:00.72. Phelps said he was pleased with his progress he has made since buckling down in his training, after losing motivation and focus in the wake of his Beijing exploits.

"The only thing I need to do right now is continue what I'm doing. I can't have any more hiccups," he said.
"Training does help and it does work and I can see that. The last three weeks we put in some good training and it showed here. Things are heading in the right direction. We just have to keep everything going."

American Matt Grevers, edged in the 100m backstroke, bounced back with a victory in the 200m back in 1:57.59. That put him second on the 2012 world list behind Japan's Ryosuke Irie, who posted a blazing 1:54.02 in January.

Matt Patton was a distant second in 2:02.38 with Mexico's Ezequiel Trujillo Aviles third in 2:03.86.
Hungary's Zsuzsanna Jakabos won the women's 200m individual medley in 2:11.98, good enough for fourth in the world rankings. US Olympian Natalie Coughlin was second in 2:12.90 and Hungary's Evelyn Verraszto third (2:13.56).

Arturo Verti and Maria Gonzalez Ramirez delivered gold for Mexico, Verti winning the men's 1,500m freestyle in 15:30.69 and Ramirez capturing the women's 200m backstroke in 2:10.75. Gillian Ryan, 16, won the women's 800m freestyle in 8:29.25, a performance that vaulted her to fourth-fastest in the world this year. Chile's Kristel Kobrich was second in 8:31.09.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin worked harder after their races than they did in the pool. Both Olympic gold medalists set meet records and easily won their events at the Columbus Grand Prix on Saturday night.

When they were done competing, they spent a long time signing caps, T-shirts, programs and pieces of scrap paper for a steady stream of young fans lined up along a metal railing some 10 feet above the deck at Ohio State's McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. Phelps, the winner of 14 gold medals, knows it's all part of the job.

"It's awesome that if you would have had this meet eight years ago you wouldn't have had half this many people here," Phelps said after posting the fastest time in the world this year in the 200 butterfly. "There are a ton of people who are out here supporting us. That's something that is amazing. People are excited to come out and watch us swim. It just shows that the sport is growing."

Phelps recognizes his success on the world stage has made him the object of adulation by the youngest fans. And he accepts his responsibility by endlessly posing for photos, signing autographs and shaking hands.

"We try to sneak out side doors here and there," he conceded. "But it's good. It's fun. The coolest thing is that every time I pop up out of the water, I hear a bunch of little girls or little guys screaming my name. It's kind of cool to see how excited they are. They're definitely out here having fun."

Coughlin, a winner of three golds, patiently signed dozens of objects tossed her way after she, like Phelps, set a meet record for the second night in a row when she won the 100 backstroke in 1:00.81.

She was asked if the Olympics this summer in London might be her last. "Going into Beijing I wasn't sure if that was going to be my last Olympics. And then a couple of months before I was thinking about it and I decided I wasn't ready to retire," said Coughlin, who will turn 30 at the end of the summer. "I don't know if I'm ready to retire yet. But whatever happens this summer in Omaha (at the trials) and in London, I'll definitely take another long break. Whether it's forever or just for a short period, I'm not really sure."

Then she uncapped her permanent marker and went back to signing autographs. Other U.S. Olympians had a big night as well. Christine Magnuson, who took silver in the 100 fly in 2008, raced to a meet record of 25.06 seconds in the 50 freestyle.

"I feel the best I have in two years -- and now is the time to feel that way," she said. "I can't help but think that that's a good sign for me right now."But not every elite swimmer was happy.

Matt Grevers, who won silver in the 100 backstroke in Beijing, had difficulty building up much speed during training recently. So he shook things up by going out as quickly as possible in the 100 back in Columbus -- and had difficulty on the return trip. He placed second to David Plummer in a time of 53.79 seconds but wasn't pleased with his performance.

"My last five 100 backs have all been real good. I jump out of the water, I feel energized about the event," he said. "This one I could barely see. I was so oxygen-deprived there were like black spots in my vision. I haven't done that in a while. It's just not smart racing. So I kind of swapped smarts for training. It's great to see I can go out that fast, but 28.0 (seconds) on the second 50 is pretty much garbage for me."

Phelps, a winner of a record eight golds in Beijing, continues to tinker with his training. He's coming off three weeks of altitude training in Colorado and is experimenting. "We haven't done too much work in finishing the 200 fly," he said. "We're just trying to sort of get my stroke back and I think we finally found that. Now it's time to sort of fine-tune some things."

The next big date on his schedule is Monday -- when he shaves off the somewhat scraggly beard he's been growing. He's not doing it to make himself more streamlined in the water. Instead, it's for a photo shoot that day.

He's OK with saying goodbye to his facial hair. "It just gets annoying now. It's past the point where I like it," he said with a grin. "It itches too much."

Allison Schmitt, who won a bronze in Beijing, has trained with Phelps as part of swim teams in Baltimore and Ann Arbor, Mich. After winning the 400 free in 4:08.88 on Saturday night, she said her training partner hasn't been changed dramatically by his worldwide celebrity.

"He's one of the best athletes in the world in the sport and to be able to train with him every day and joke around with him, it's a lot of fun," she said. "He's just another ordinary guy. It's kind of cool when you're watching him swim and he's got a meet where he breaks records or wins by body lengths. Yet he's just another ordinary guy."

Phelps and Coughlin are each scheduled to compete in two events on Sunday, the final day of competition in Columbus.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Already acclaimed as the world's fastest swimmer, Michael Phelps believes he has found the secret to going even faster: being in shape.

"It's crazy what training actually does," he said, laughing Friday night after cruising to the second-best time in the world this year in winning the 200 free at the Columbus Grand Prix. "When you do start to train, and you do start working out, you do get in better shape. It's kind of wild how that works."

Taking care not to push himself too hard and to stay on pace, Phelps was in control from the start of the event at Ohio State's McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. Greeted by a loud ovation when he walked in with his fellow competitors, he had a big lead from the instant he bobbed to the surface from the start and the 14-time gold medalist easily won in 1:48.41.

In his first meet since spending more than three weeks in Colorado, his time was second only to the 1:45.42 of France's Yannick Agnel this year. Phelps said Thursday he was just starting to regain his focus in the sport after three aimless years that followed his unparalleled eight-gold medal performance at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

"I said I wanted to be out in 51 and just kind of feel like I have control over my speed," Phelps said. "That's kind of how it was. I felt kind of like the old me, like being able to control and not just swimming like a spaz. I was really pleased."

He and coach Bob Bowman have a plan in mind built around event goals and times. Phelps met his pre-race expectations in terms of time and pace. Like a thoroughbred being reined in, he has had difficulties in the past holding himself back.

"Over the last three years that would be all I could do -- I wouldn't be able to control my speed and control my pace of a race," he said. "Being able to get some training and get my stroke back and be able to have better splits and to work out allowed me to swim that race smarter than I have over the last three years."

Phelps is pointing to this summer's London Olympics as his last. Based in Ann Arbor, Mich., for years, he got updates throughout the night on the University of Michigan's 73-69 overtime victory over Minnesota in the Big Ten men's basketball tournament quarterfinals.

He admitted he had recently jumped on the bandwagon of the Big Ten co-champions. "I started watching Michigan a little bit since we're better now," he said, laughing. Another Olympic gold medalist, Natalie Coughlin, coasted to a win in the 100 fly in 59.17. Like Phelps, that also set a meet record. Her time was the seventh best in the world this year.

"I'm the strongest I've ever been," said the three-time gold medalist. "Last week I hit a bunch of PRs in the weight room, which I was really excited about. And training in the pool has been going very well. So I'm excited about this year to see what happens."

Coughlin had done poorly in the event earlier in the day. "I went 59.1 and I definitely had a lot of room for improvement," she said. "I was quite a bit ahead of my heat and so I slowed it down toward the end."

Phelps will swim in the 200 fly and Coughlin in the 100 back on Saturday. Each will have two races on Sunday. Phelps will compete in the 100 free and 200 back, Coughlin in the 200 IM and 100 free.

The meet is the fourth in the seven-event Grand Prix series with upcoming meets in Indianapolis, Charlotte, N.C., and Santa Clara, Calif.

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The McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion is no stranger to Olympic medalists, and the nation's best have descended on campus to compete this weekend. Before taking to the pool in the 2012 NCAA Championships, some members of the Ohio State swimming and diving teams will participate alongside headliners Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin in the Columbus Grand Prix Friday through Sunday. "Many swimmers from around the world will be here," said OSU men's swimming coach Bill Wadley. "There's a lot on the line."

OSU is the fourth stop on the USA Swimming Grand Prix Series, a seven-city tour that allows swimmers the opportunity to compete against the best in the sport and prepare for the U.S. Olympic Trials, which are scheduled to take place June 25-July 2 in Omaha, Neb., and U.S. Olympic Games in London. First place performances are awarded five points. Three points go to second place and one point for third. The athlete with the most points at the end of the series is given $20,000. Frontrunner and 14-time Olympic gold medalist Phelps leads the pack with 41 points. Defending Grand Prix Series winner Missy Franklin trails by six going into the meet. Additional visiting American Olympians include Jason Lezak, Matt Grevers, Christine Magnuson, Allison Schmitt and more.

But to other contenders, the competition site will feel like home. Former OSU swimmer, Elliott Keefer, who broke school records in his senior season as a Buckeye last year, will compete in the breaststroke representing the U.S. National team. Keefer's former teammate, junior Tim Phillips, is on the roster of the OSU men's swimming team but chose to redshirt this season. "He has decided to sit this year out because he is so close to making the Olympic team," Wadley said. "It's difficult to balance 20 to 30 hours of studying and 20 to 30 hours of swimming. One of them is going to suffer."

Phillips will participate in the Columbus Grand Prix in the same bout as Phelps. "Tim is in the butterfly event and they only take the top two to the Olympics," Wadley said. "In order to be in the top two, you either have to be No. 2 behind Michael or beat him."Preliminaries begin daily at 9 a.m. with finals beginning at 6 p.m. Time trials will be held in between.

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The supersuit Michael Phelps will wear at the London Games this summer is a garment to marvel at – although not for the reasons you might think. It is an incredible feat of engineering, one that you can buy and try out for yourself.

Die-hard sport enthusiasts have always been glad to shell out for elite gear, and swimmers looking for a leg up on the competition can now get their hands on the same suits expected to break records at the Olympics, assuming, of course, they can squeeze themselves into it.

The entire FASTSKIN3 Racing System (which includes a hydrodynamic cap and goggles) makes the kind of scientific boasts made when talking about rockets or sports cars in wind tunnels. Speedo unveiled the system in November and began shipping orders this year. Its space-age design is certainly good news for athletes fighting to gain even a millisecond advantage over the competition. But for mere mortals who buy one of the super-elite systems, which retails for $535, the first wide-eyed moment of wonder will come when they take the suit out of its box and hold it up to their bodies. This is a compression garment like no other.

“They look like they’re for the baby,” my wife said of the trunks as I held them up. Which brings us to the gloves. Every FASTSKIN3 swimsuit comes with a pair of them – thin white cotton gloves with rubberized finger tips. They’re not meant to improve your front crawl – they’re meant to help you pull the suit on.

U.S. Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte has said the suit makes him feel “superhuman.” Typical recreational swimmers might feel more like 200 pounds of ground beef being squeezed into a sausage casing. Putting the suit on requires patience.

“It is a bit of a wrestle to get it up your body,” says Dr. Tom Waller, head of Speedo’s Aqualab, the company’s research and development facility. “The first time you put it on [it will take] 15 to 20 minutes, the second time five to 10.” By the third, fourth and fifth time, “Most people can get it [on] in around five minutes.”

If taking 15 minutes to squeeze into a swimsuit doesn’t sound like a lazy day at the pool, well, it’s not meant to be. And though getting it on may be an Olympian effort in itself, the results may prove revolutionary.

Consider the system’s highlights: It has been shown to achieve a 16.6 per cent reduction in full body passive drag, an 11 per cent improvement in a swimmer’s oxygen economy, meaning they don’t need to work as hard and a 63.4 per cent reduction of force on the goggle, a major factor for pros because the force on some goggles can be equal to having two Coke cans on each lens, Dr. Waller says.

And then there are more practical features, such as the fact that the goggles, shiny numbers that will make you look like you’ve swum in from the future, provide 180-degree peripheral vision, which anyone doing the backstroke in crowded lanes will surely appreciate.

Combined, the system is a revolutionary product, designed to improve upon Speedo’s LZR Racer, which dominated the Beijing Olympics – 86 per cent of all swimming medals were worn by athletes wearing the suit – but that was subsequently banned in 2010 by FINA, international swimming’s governing body, for making swimmers more buoyant.

With swimmers no longer allowed to wear polyurethane and neoprene suits during competition, the FASTSKIN3, which spent three years in development, is made predominantly with a fabric called Hydro K-Zone 3D.

“It’s a revolutionary new way of making fabric whereby we’re able to position varying amounts of Lycra around the body so that we can compress where we want to and not compress where we don’t want to,” Dr. Waller says.

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Daily chlorine exposure wreaks havoc on star swimmer Michael Phelps’s hair. “It feels dead at times,” he admits to PEOPLE. But dealing with dry scalp issues isn’t enough to make the Olympian go to extremes.

“I would never shave my hair, zero shot,” he says. “If it falls out then it falls out. But I could never actually take a razor to my head and BIC it. I just couldn’t imagine it. I couldn’t see myself without hair.”

Luckily he won’t need to resort to shaving anytime soon: Phelps is the face (and, um, scalp) of the Head & Shoulders “Wash in Confidence” campaign, designed to boost self-esteem through healthy hair. “Head & Shoulders really helps re-moisturize my head, my hair and my scalp,” the athlete says. “It feels good, it feels clean.”

Phelps’s face is on select bottles of Head & Shoulders now, a part of the campaign he calls “kind of weird, strange and cool. I never imagined I’d be on the front of a shampoo bottle.” But he’s happy to be a spokesman for the brand, especially going into the 2012 London summer Olympics.

“Over the last eight months to a year, this is probably the happiest I’ve been since Beijing,” he admits. “I feel confident, I’m excited, I’m training, and I feel like I’m heading in the right direction to be able to accomplish my goals.”

Though the swimmer confirms that these will be his final Olympic games — “I always told myself I would never swim past the age of 30,” the 26-year-old explains — he’s looking forward to accomplishing a lot out of the pool through his Michael Phelps Foundation.

“I’m helping kids live healthy and active lifestyles, and learning how to swim is something I think all kids need,” he says. “It’s fun for me to always be around kids, have them smiling and enjoying themselves, and teaching them that they can do anything they set their minds to.”

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The clock is starting to tick faster for Michael Phelps. The London Olympics are drawing closer and the American swimmer knows that time is running out on his golden career. Not so long ago, Phelps was measuring the countdown to his final Olympic appearance in years. Then it was months, then weeks. Now it is days.

"Not long now, it's less than 170 days now," he told Reuters during a visit to New York City for the global launch of Head and Shoulders' "Wash In Confidence" campaign. For Phelps, the countdown will soon come down to hours then minutes, although his success will ultimately be judged by fractions of seconds.

In the world of Olympic swimming, gold medals can be decided by margins as tiny as a fingernail, and no one knows that better than Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics after surviving two close calls.

Phelps was a member of the U.S. relay that won the 4x100 metre freestyle final by just 0.08 seconds. A few days later, he won the 100m butterfly final by 0.01.

Phelps, who also won six gold medals at Athens in 2004, immediately declared his intention to keep going through to London but initially struggled for motivation. It was only last year, when he lost his crown as the world's premier swimmer to compatriot Ryan Lochte, that he rediscovered the desire to churn through the training laps.

"I'm literally enjoying myself. It's something I haven't been able to do in a long time, over the last three years," he said. "It's the right time to get excited again. I'll be ready. It's going to be a fun six months and I'm going to be as prepared as I can."

Phelps, 26, remains coy about how many events he will swim in London, saying he will decide the magic number on how well he performs in the lead-up to the U.S. Olympic trials in June and July, but said he was feeling confident about his chances.

"I'm in a lot better spot now than I was in any time over the last three years. Physically I'm in better shape, mentally I'm in better shape since Beijing," he told Reuters in an interview at a Boys and Girls Club in the Bronx that he helps fund through his foundation. "I haven't been as serious and conditioned as I have now so now it's just working on all the small things that will make the big difference in the end."

Phelps already ruled out competing in the 400m individual medley, an event he won at Athens and Beijing, but said the toughest race to win in London could be the 4x100m freestyle relay after the U.S. finished third, behind Australia and France, at last year's world championships in Shanghai.

"The 4x100 relay is probably the toughest one," Phelps said. "We just want to be able to put up our fastest guys that we think have the best shot and that's all you could ask for."

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Not so long ago, Phelps was measuring the countdown to his final Olympic appearance in years. Then it was months, then weeks. Now it is days. "Not long now, it's less than 170 days now," he told Reuters during a visit to New York City for the global launch of Head and Shoulders' "Wash In Confidence" campaign.

For Phelps, the countdown will soon come down to hours then minutes, although his success will ultimately be judged by fractions of seconds. In the world of Olympic swimming, gold medals can be decided by margins as tiny as a fingernail, and no one knows that better than Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics after surviving two close calls.

Phelps was a member of the U.S. relay that won the 4x100 meter freestyle final by just 0.08 seconds. A few days later, he won the 100m butterfly final by 0.01. Phelps, who also won six gold medals at Athens in 2004, immediately declared his intention to keep going through to London but initially struggled for motivation.

It was only last year, when he lost his crown as the world's premier swimmer to compatriot Ryan Lochte, that he rediscovered the desire to churn through the training laps.

"I'm literally enjoying myself. It's something I haven't been able to do in a long time, over the last three years," he said. "It's the right time to get excited again. I'll be ready. It's going to be a fun six months and I'm going to be as prepared as I can."

Phelps, 26, remains coy about how many events he will swim in London, saying he will decide the magic number on how well he performs in the lead-up to the U.S. Olympic trials in June and July, but said he was feeling confident about his chances.

"I'm in a lot better spot now than I was in any time over the last three years. Physically I'm in better shape, mentally I'm in better shape since Beijing," he told Reuters in an interview at a Boys and Girls Club in the Bronx that he helps fund through his foundation.

"I haven't been as serious and conditioned as I have now so now it's just working on all the small things that will make the big difference in the end."

Phelps already ruled out competing in the 400m individual medley, an event he won at Athens and Beijing, but said the toughest race to win in London could be the 4x100m freestyle relay after the U.S. finished third, behind Australia and France, at last year's world championships in Shanghai.

"The 4x100 relay is probably the toughest one," Phelps said. "We just want to be able to put up our fastest guys that we think have the best shot and that's all you could ask for."

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