OMAHA — Considering the genetics, it should come as no surprise that Michael Phelps’s newborn son loves to be in the water.
“We will give him a bath and sometimes he's happy — and sometimes he starts crying when he gets out because he likes the water,” Phelps said, smiling.
Phelps, the 22-time Olympic medalist, is a just few days removed from his fifth and final U.S. Olympic trials. He’s about seven weeks into an even more amazing journey: fatherhood.
“You know, it's still crazy,” Phelps, 30, said at a pre-trials news conference. “When I'm holding him or laying on the couch with him, it's just awesome. … I've learned which cry means what. If he needs a diaper change, if he needs mom, all of these different cries. It's been a really fun journey over the last couple of years, and a journey that I think has made me the person who I am and helped me transform to me just being me.
“(Fiancée) Nicole and I are so stoked. I get 30 photos a day when I'm out of town. I think I might have to just get a new phone to hold all the memory for the photos! It's fun watching him grow up. He’s only seven weeks, but (we’re) watching him gain weight and grow hair and see his eyes start to change color.”
Boomer Phelps was born on May 5, and he was named — sort of — after former NFL player and current broadcaster Boomer Esiason. Phelps and fiancée Nicole Johnson had decided they didn’t want to name their child something ordinary.
While Phelps was watching Esiason talk football one day, he was struck by the name.
“I was sitting there and contemplated even telling her that I liked it,” Phelps said. “I was like, ‘Boomer is kind of cool.’ It's different. We don't really know many Boomers. it's kind of awesome.”
Johnson is scheduled to fly in to Omaha with Boomer in tow this weekend before Phelps's program begins. If Phelps qualifies for the Olympic team — which he most certainly will — she said his son will make the trip with him to Rio de Janeiro.
“I'm looking forward to having him here and just being able to have my son, my first child, be able to watch me at some of my last competitions,” Phelps said. “I think is pretty special. I'm sure he's not going to remember it, but just to be able to document that is something that will be cool and be pretty fun to share with him years down the road.
Here at trials, Phelps is entered in five events: 100- and 200-meter freestyles, the 100- and 200-meter butterfly and the 200-meter individual medley. He may not swim all of those events through to the semis and finals; if he swims well enough in the freestyle events in prelims, he may have shown enough to make the men’s freestyle relay teams without swimming the finals.
Still, there should be plenty of action for Boomer to see — and the continuation of a new experience for Phelps’s inner circle as a whole.
“I have had a poopy diaper pooped on my shirt, so I have experienced that already!” training partner Allison Schmitt said, laughing. “But it's awesome to see the family together, to see the three of them. It's fun to see Michael as a dad, and I can just see how happy he is. You can see it every day, even when he comes into practice; he's like a new person, a new father.”
Bob Bowman, Phelps’ longtime coach, delivered a scouting report of young Boomer: "He has a long body and little legs. I keep trying to move them in a breaststroke motion, you know, start early?”
Phelps laughed.
“Big hands and big feet, though little legs,” Phelps said.
Sounds like a swimmer.
