BALTIMORE -- It took less than 30 seconds -- a sprinter's pace -- for Michael Phelps to publicly acknowledge the destructive undertow in his life.
Clean-shaven, in business attire, temporarily stripped of stature, the 22-time Olympic medalist listened Friday as the narrative of his Sept. 30 drunken driving arrest was read into the record as part of his guilty plea in Baltimore District Court. He told the judge he has tools to help himself stay afloat outside the pool now, then stopped to address reporters briefly outside the John R. Hargrove Sr. Building.
"For this day, I'm happy to be moving forward; I'll continue to grow from this and continue on my path of recovery,'' said Phelps, who was accompanied in court by his mother, his two sisters, his longtime agent, Drew Johnson, and his friend former Baltimore Raven and current ESPN analyst Ray Lewis, who embraced him after the hearing. "The next couple of years are going to be very challenging, and I'm very pleased and happy to have the great support that I have around me.''
Recovery. It's a charged word, an admission, and Phelps used it deliberately. He's past the point where euphemisms would fool anyone. The tall and powerfully gifted central figure of his sport has no more fouls to give.
Ten years past his first drunken driving incident, five years after a gotcha photograph with a marijuana pipe went viral, three months after he hurtled through the Fort McHenry Tunnel in his hometown, inebriated in the wee hours of the morning, exceeding 80 miles per hour, crossing double lane lines in front of a tractor-trailer like a grenade on wheels, there will be no more talk of mere mistakes. This was a victimless crime, but that was pure happenstance.
"I know where I'm standing right now, and it's a tough situation,'' Phelps, 29, told Judge Nathan Braverman in court just before his sentence was pronounced.
Braverman spared Phelps jail time, handing down a one-year suspended sentence and ordering 18 months of supervised probation. The most decorated Olympian of all time was told he must abstain from alcohol and submit to random testing.
His lawyer, Steven A. Allen, told the judge Phelps received good reviews from the head of a residential treatment program in Arizona during his 45 days there. Phelps is currently receiving outpatient care, which the judge ordered him to continue, and attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
"It's clear that you don't need a lecture from the court at this time,'' Braverman said, then spoke at some length anyway, telling Phelps that the next misstep will mean jail time and that "nothing in your considerable experience" could prepare him for that. "We don't have this conversation again, and I'm optimistic we won't have this conversation again,'' the judge said.
A less famous offender most likely would have gotten the same sentence, given the elapsed time between the incidents, Phelps' immediate entry into treatment and his stated remorse, according to other lawyers who handle such cases. Braverman made a point of saying he wouldn't use Phelps' celebrity against him, an interesting approach given the current level of anger over the entitled treatment of star athletes.
The police report described his speech as "mush mouth,'' his manner as "disoriented,'' his eyes as red and bloodshot, and his carriage as "swaying.'' Asked to do a standard field sobriety test called the one-leg stand, Phelps told the officer "That's not happening.'' "Performance: Unsatisfactory,'' the test result reads, words that have not been applied to Phelps very often in his 15 years in the public eye.
Phelps received probation before judgment after his 2004 DUI, which meant the conviction was wiped off his record after he complied with the terms of his probation. Phelps wasn't eligible this time for PBJ, as it's abbreviated in the Maryland court system, because his second conviction came within 10 years. Allen moved to delay the court date so that deadline would pass, but that motion was denied last month, according to court documents.
It's impossible to case the corridors of Phelps' psyche from the outside and know whether he has fully faced up to his issues and means what he says. The only certainty is the blatant contrast between the precision he displays in the pool -- under unearthly pressure -- and the episodic sloppiness of his life away from it.
Phelps' USA Swimming-imposed suspension from competition ends in March, and he ceded the slot he earned at next summer's world championship. That makes his next truly meaningful competition -- by Phelpsian standards -- the 2016 Olympic trials in Omaha, Nebraska, which will coincide almost exactly with the end of his probation.
Based on Phelps' results this year and his proven ability to focus when necessary, there is little doubt he would make the Rio de Janeiro-bound team, probably in multiple events. He said the coming months will be "challenging.'' From the outside, they look tedious and somewhat perilous, with long blocks of training unleavened by any major competitive goals and with his chief rival his own addiction. A lot of black line, as swimmers like to say about their limited view face down in the water.
"The world's not going to be watching your recovery,'' Braverman said, meaning the interior work Phelps faces. But the world will be waiting with binoculars in hand. If he succeeds in the context of the quadrennial Olympic cycle, some will call it his greatest comeback.
Michael Phelps has won races every which way, some by body lengths, some by the moon of a fingernail. He put an Olympic medal record out there for others to chase. In this pursuit, he appears to have done the most difficult and important thing he could do, which is admit he's behind.