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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2014 SPORTS Phelps signs with Photo of the day new suit company BALTIMORE: Michael Phelps has been and 22 medals overall. “Once we heard linked with Speedo throughout his he was coming out of retirement, we swimming career, most notably collect- stayed on the same track,” Rockwell said. ing a $1 million bonus after he won a “But this is a big opportunity for us.” record eight gold medals at the Beijing Under FINA guidelines, any new suits Games. must be approved by the governing Now, as he comes back from retire- body and can be worn in competition ment, the most decorated athlete in starting Jan. 1. Even with that relatively Olympic history will have a different look. short time frame, Aqua Sphere is confi- Phelps is announcing Tuesday that he dent about designing a suit that Phelps has signed a deal with Aqua Sphere, a will be comfortable in and allows him to company that has extensive experience go just as fast as he would in the Arena with triathlons and recreational swim- suit he’s been wearing since returning to ming but will be designing a racing suit competition. for the first time. “To be able to partner with the fore- “Throughout my career, I’ve been able most experts, with the best competitive to do a lot of things with Speedo. The swimmer of all time and one of the most relationship was great,” Phelps told The technical swim coaches to help us in that Associated Press. “But we came to a point process, that alleviates any sort of pres- where we had an opportunity to really sure in terms of developing this new change the sport and grow the sport product,” said Todd Mitchell, who man- even more.” ages the swim business line for Aqua Phelps and his coach, Bob Bowman, Sphere.
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