Swimmers

For now, Michael Phelps is doing what any 27-year-old who has won more medals than any Olympian ever - and earned millions along the way - would probably do. Vacation a little bit. (You've probably seen pictures of him in Las Vegas and the Maldives .) Golf. (Of course, his golf game is the subject of a reality television show.) Date a model. ( You've read all about Megan Rossee by now.) And, because he's from Baltimore, eat crabs. “Pretty much I'm just living the retirement life,” Phelps said Monday after a ceremony/pep rally at Under Armour headquarters.

Michael Phelps and other Olympic athletes from Maryland will be honored at a celebration Monday afternoon at the Inner Harbor, after which the swimmer will be named an honorary captain of the Ravens at the team's season opener. Gov. Martin O'Malley, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz will speak at a roughly hourlong celebration at the Inner Harbor Amphitheater at Light and Pratt streets that will start at 4 p.m. Phelps, who became the most decorated Olympian of all time in London, his fourth and final Games, will speak as well.

Soaking in a bath tub, Michael Phelps wears nothing but a small swimsuit, a pair of goggles atop his head and a stern look. Next to him, a pair of blue jeans spills from a Louis Vuitton bag. It marks a sophisticated turn as a pitchman for the Baltimore swimmer fresh off setting a record for the most Olympic medals earned in a career. But there's speculation his appearance in an advertising campaign shot by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz for the high-end designer's latest campaign could run him afoul of International Olympic Committee rules.

As a plodding lap swimmer at Meadowbrook, the Mt. Washington pool where Michael Phelps has trained for almost two decades, I've been watching the phenom swimmer at close range since he was 14 or so. In that time, I've witnessed - along with scores of other equally mesmerized members of the pool - Mr. Phelps' metamorphosis, from gangly and at times ornery adolescent, to incredibly focused young man, to star-studded jocular veteran of the sport, to...

The darkened arena pulsed with anticipation, the thousands of spectators roaring and their cameras flashing like giant fireflies as the boxers swaggered in, punching the air, bouncing on the balls of their feet and glaring like gladiators. And then, the chanting started for the favorite of this particular crowd: "Katie!" "Katie!" "Katie!" Despite the deafening cheers - officials at the ExCel Arena said it was one of loudest crowds of the Games so far at 113.7 decibels - you might also have heard a glass ceiling shattering: Boxing, the last Summer Olympics sport to be limited to men, opened its ranks to women for the first time here.

The Roger Carter Seals sent 18 swimmers to the Bel Air Swim and Racquet Club July 28 to compete in the Prince-Mont Swim League All Stars meet. To qualify, swimmers either had to win the final heat at Divisionals or post one of the top 18 times in a stroke or relay during league competition. The Prince-Mont Swim League contains eight divisions with 40 teams. Seal swimmers who qualified were Jocelyn Choo, Ethan Doan, Mason Doan, Tien Doan, Hannah Green, Zach Grissom, Kevin Hu, Shannon Hochkeppel, Troy Hochkeppel, Anand Iyer, Andrew Li, Anna Li, Maria Liu, Katherine Joseph, Dillon Phamdo, Trueman Phamdo, Jeffrey Tse, Ashley Wong, Joseph Wong, Emily Xu, Hannah Zhang and Sarah Zhang.

Someday, people will tell their grandchildren about this. How, under the swooping roof of the Aquatics Centre, on the final day of his final Olympics, they saw Michael Phelps race for the final time. They'll remember how they saw him, one more time, take a deficit and transform it into a lead. And they saw him win gold. “I did it,” Phelps said simply after an emotional day in which the 27-year-old Baltimore swimmer bade farewell to the sport he transformed. “Through the ups and down of my career, I've been able to do everything I've wanted to accomplish.

And then there was one. Michael Phelps came up golden again today swimming his last individual race, the 100-meter butterfly. He has just his leg in the 400-meter medley relay left to swim in these Olympic Games - or any other for that matter. “I'm just happy that the last [individual] one was a win,” Phelps said. “That's all I really wanted coming into the night.” His gold medal in the 200 IM on Thursday marked the first time a male swimmer has won the same event in three straight Olympics.

Over the course of Olympic competition in London, keen observers have noticed Michael Phelps' mother, Debbie, sporting a duct-tape flower. The flower is in apparent honor of Alec John Cosgarea, a 17-year-old McDonogh School swimmer who died July 9 after he lost control of his Ford Fusion on Greenspring Avenue and hit a tree. He was driving back to his home in Owings Mills after competing at a North Baltimore Aquatic Club meet at Meadowbrook pool in Mount Washington. Mr. Cosgarea was the 2012 state champion in the 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly, The Sun's Fred Rasmussen reported in Mr. Cosgarea's obituary . In addition to being a committed swimmer, Mr. Cosgarea had artistic talent, Fred reported: As a middle school art student, he started making wallets out of duct tape, including a "hot pink duct tape jacket" that he wore to a friend's bar mitzvah, according to a McDonogh School profile.

With Michael Phelps' script calling for him to exit pool left after these Games, every day brings another last - of a particular race, for example, or a final matchup against a worthy rival. But even after four Olympics, Phelps is finding firsts. Thursday night, he became the first male swimmer to win the same event in three consecutive Olympics - the 200-meter individual medley. It may be a rather nuanced title, full of qualifications, compared to those he already has after his name, such as the most-decorated Olympian moniker earned Tuesday night.