Originally published Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 12:00 AM

Swimmer Michael Phelps' suspension has ended

When Michael Phelps was at his lowest, unsure if he wanted to return to swimming, he sat down with a pen and a piece of paper.

By PAUL NEWBERRY

The Associated Press

BALTIMORE — When Michael Phelps was at his lowest, unsure if he wanted to return to swimming, he sat down with a pen and a piece of paper.

"I wrote out the pros and cons of swimming and quitting," he recalled.

In the end, swimming prevailed. Phelps returned to what he does best. He is done serving a three-month suspension doled out by USA Swimming after a picture surfaced in a British tabloid showing him with a marijuana pipe.

Tuesday was the final day of his suspension.

"I had no idea," he said.

Phelps, who won eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, admitted the fallout from the photo made him think twice about whether he wanted to stay in the public eye.

"There were days I would just come and warm up and say, 'I'm not feeling it.' I would just go home," he said. "If I wanted to swim slow, I would swim slow. If I didn't want to come [to practice], I didn't come. If I woke up and didn't feel like going in and working out, I would stay in bed and watch TV."

After analyzing what he wrote on that sheet of paper, Phelps got back on course.

"What am I doing even thinking about quitting?" he asked himself. "I'm 23 years old. I'm not retiring at 23."

Phelps, opting to continue swimming, called coach Bob Bowman on March 1 and said, "I'm doing it."

Phelps plans to return to competition next week at a meet in Charlotte, N.C.

"I'm happy to be back in the water and be back in semi-shape," said Phelps, who has lost almost 20 pounds in the last two months. "I'm sort of getting back into racing shape and getting ready to race my first race since Beijing. We'll see how it goes."

Phelps declined to reveal what he wrote on the sheet of paper when he was mulling his future.

"That went right into the shredder," he said.

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