He just slipped in as the 8th and final qualifier for the 400IM and his work ethic was openly criticized by team mates.  If he ends up winning a bunch of gold medals I'll be more than heppy to take crap for this post but maybe spending 15 years of his life swimming laps for 12 hours a day has lost some appeal to him.

..by conventional wisdom that players finishing at the bottom, will have less chance to win medals.

However, don't we see it in our sports regular sports (baseball, football, basketball) that teams who have great regular season, don't necessarily perform well in the playoffs?  I wouldn't be surprised if he excels when it really counts...

Phelps is good enuf to get to the finals but his age and desire are questioned and its showing that other swimmers have caught him.

He just won Silver. Missed Gold by few hundreds of a second...

Noticed Phelps and US, of course, won the GOLD in relay couple of days ago, and won individual GOLD today beating loudmouth Ryan Lochte..

Never write people off..

He has one more relay race tomorrow.

Even, LeBron "King" James was there in person to cheer for Phelps.  This guy is what a legend already !!!