Four years ago, (a publicly but not-so-much privately) retired Michael Phelps attended the world swimming championships in Barcelona.
He left the Catalan capital even more emboldened to return to the sport. He did, officially, the following spring and, after some of the darkest times of his life, ended his competitive career with six more medals in Rio.
That 2013 feeling recently led Phelps to wonder whether visits to swim meets this year might rekindle his competitive fire.
Maybe, he would consider unretiring a second time.
“The true test will be, if I do end up going over to the worlds this summer, do I have that itch again?