Intro:

Michael Phelps received an abrupt reminder of how challenging his return to international competition may be when he was asked whether he was good enough to even reach a final at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships starting on Thursday (21 August).

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Bob Bowman, Phelps' Coach:

"I would say that he hasn't yet gone over maybe a third of what he did at his maximum. So, he's doing quite well on what he's done so far. And I wanted to do that intentionally. I think he has to build up from that. And he knows that. But I don't think he has to go to a 100 percent of what he did in Beijing. So, we wanted to try and test the minimum and then try to keep adding and try to find the place where we feel comfortable with."