Seeking Answers, Michael Phelps Finds Himself

COLORADO SPRINGS — The guide enthusiastically led his guest from room to room in the barracks-style building, pointing out features like the emotion tree and providing thumbnail sketches of the people they encountered. He seemed to know everyone, and everyone returned his greetings in kind with a comment that elicited the guide’s generous, rumbling laugh.

The tour ended in a television room, where the guest and the guide watched an Arizona Cardinals football game while grazing on snacks. For years, the guide, Michael Phelps, and his guest, Bob Bowman, had watched N.F.L. games together, but from a suite above the Baltimore Ravens’ home field at M&T Bank Stadium, sealed off from autograph- and…