Michael Phelps, Swimming | featured news

Michael Phelps retired from swimming with more medals than any other Olympian. Don't expect him to lose any of them because of ad campaign for Louis Vuitton....

Michael Phelps will swim for more gold Friday at the 2012 Games, competing in the final individual race of his storied Olympic career. Meanwhile, attention will begin to shift to Olympic Stadium as the track and field competition gets under way.

There were times in the past four years when the water was still. For days at a time, Michael Phelps didn’t bother to show up at the pool, never rippled the surface. He stayed missing so long that his coach, Bob Bowman, wondered whether they “were going to get this thing done.” But eventually — reluctantly but determinedly — Phelps towed that long torso back into the liquid, where the greatest swimmer of all time belonged.

It's time for Round 2 of Michael Phelps vs. Ryan Lochte. Their first showdown of the London Olympics went to Lochte in a runaway on the opening night of the swimming competition. This one figures to be a lot closer. The American stars compete against each other for the last time in the 200-meter individual medley on Thursday night. Lochte qualified fastest in 1 minute, 56.13 seconds. Phelps was 98-hundredths of a second back in third.

History unfolded in 6 minutes and 59.70 seconds. With a little help from three of his friends, Michael Phelps became the greatest Olympian of them all, winning his 19th career medal, breaking the standard set by legendary Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina.

Here's what to watch for at the London Olympics on Sunday... SWIMMING: The United States, Australia and France go for gold in the final of the 4 x100m freestyle relay, a day after Michael Phelps was stunningly defeated by teammate Ryan Lochte... BASKETBALL: The U.S. men's team plays France (and NBA star Tony Parker).

The defending champion in the 400-meter freestyle, Tae-hwan Park of South Korea, advanced in his event only after his disqualification was overturned.

Ryan Lochte turned his much-anticipated duel with Michael Phelps into a blowout, pulling away to win the Olympic 400-meter individual medley by more than 3 seconds Saturday night. Even more stunning: Phelps didn't even win a medal.

Michael Phelps is dropping out of the 200-meter freestyle at this month's London Olympics, leaving him with seven events for his Games swansong.

There was no stopping Michael Phelps this time. The same goes for Federica Pellegrini.