The Rio Olympics are not the last we will see of Michael Phelps. Ryan Lochte guarantees it.
Phelps has won four gold medals at these Summer Games and has a chance at a fifth Friday night in the 100-meter butterfly. He is the most-decorated Olympic athlete of all-time, with 22 golds in his career and 26 medals overall, dating back to Sydney 2000.
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While conventional wisdom says Rio will be his swan song, his friend and rival isn’t buying it.
“I can definitely say (Phelps will race in Tokyo) because I guarantee he will be there,” Lochte said on Friday morning’s edition of NBC’s "Today” show. “I really think so. So Michael I will see you in Tokyo.”
Phelps’ mother, Debbie, hinted at the same thing.
“That would be wonderful,” Debbie Phelps said on the “Today” show. “I already have the race picked out.”
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But, Phelps’ coach, Bob Bowman, has poured cold water on the notion of his star pupil competing in Tokyo.
“I just don’t see it happening,” Bowman said, per USA Today. “He’s in such a good place personally. He doesn’t need it.”
Phelps will be 35 when the Tokyo Olympics start.
Lochte, though, recalls Phelps’ position four years ago after the London Games.
“He said he was retiring in 2012 and I said he was going to come back, and he did,” Lochte said on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “So I’m saying he’s going to come back for 2020.”