Metro Phoenix becoming trendy Olympic training location

• Michael Phelps, other swimmers are joining coach Bob Bowman to train at ASU
• ASU, Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club are partnering on regional training center
• World Athletics Center is attracting track athletes from around the world
• Gymnasts Skinner, Naddour are remaining in Arizona to train for Olympics

Olympic hopefuls long ago discovered the training benefits to be found in Tucson and Flagstaff. Now, one year out from the 2016 Rio Olympics, the trending place to train in Arizona is metro Phoenix.

Savvy coaching hires at Arizona State and a professional track visionary are transforming Phoenix from a place to travel through on the road to the Olympics into a training mecca fit for the most prolific of all Olympians, 22-time swim medalist Michael Phelps, to prepare for his fifth Summer Games.

The 30-year-old Phelps is making the move to Arizona with Bob Bowman, his coach for two decades and ASU’s new swim coach. They plan to be in Tempe soon after next week’s Phillips 66 National Championships in San Antonio, where Phelps is competing rather than at the World Championships as part of his penalty for pleading guilty to a drunk-driving charge.

Two-time Olympian and six-time medalist Allison Schmitt, Chase Kalisz and Frank Dyer also are relocating from North Baltimore Aquatic Club, where Bowman coached for 17 years in two stints.

RELATED: Coping with depression, Olympic medalist Allison Schmitt regaining top swim form

“It’s a little bit of a chance to reset and start fresh,” Bowman said. “Our kids are pretty resilient and love change really.”

Phelps is familiar enough with Arizona to know what he and his fiancée, Nicole Johnson, can expect. His first meet out of post-2012 Olympics retirement was in Mesa in 2014, and he returned to that meet in April for his first competition after a six-month USA Swimming suspension. In fall 2014 in Arizona, he entered what he’s since called a life-changing, six-week treatment for alcohol addiction.

Phelps has worked with famed golf instructor Hank Haney, who lives in Phoenix, and played in the 2013 Waste Management Phoenix Open pro-am. Aqua Sphere, partnering with Phelps and Bowman on the MP brand of swimwear and equipment, is based in Vista, Calif., near San Diego, a much shorter business trip than coming from Maryland. Johnson also has ties in the West, including as Miss California 2010.

“I haven’t seen the slightest decrease in conviction in what he wants to do,” said Octagon’s Peter Carlisle, Phelps’ agent since 2002. “When he came out of treatment, I said whatever it is you want to do, you tell me and that’s what we’re going to work on. He could just as easily have said, ‘I don’t want to swim anymore.’ But he came out with some real conviction and a much better understanding of why he wanted to swim, why it’s important and why he loves the sport.

“Knowing how much of a grind the training is, having that take place in a different environment will be exciting and refreshing. That makes it a little bit easier to sustain focus and sustain the level of training to do your best.”

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Phelps sightings are likely to flood social media although how visible he will be around town remains an unknown. The clock is ticking toward what will be his toughest Olympic trials since 2000 when he was 15.

“Honestly, most of his time is eating, sleeping and swimming,” Bowman said. “He might be seen on the golf course.”

Training outdoors at ASU’s Mona Plummer Aquatic Center is a positive. And Phelps trained in a college environment during an Olympic cycle once before when Bowman coached at Michigan from 2005-08.

“It’s going to be about the same,” as at Michigan, American Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Famer Bowman said. “Essentially, we run these two things (college and post-collegiate) separately, and it works well. It’s really just the extra deck time, and that’s my favorite thing. Coaching is what I love to do.”

RELATED: Schmitt, Kalisz to train with Bowman at ASU

WRESTLING

Swimming is not the only ASU sport now training collegians and post-collegians on a dual track bound for the same ultimate Olympic destination.

ASU and the Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club are partners in a regional training center that allows second-year ASU coach Zeke Jones to sell recruits on 8- to 10-year plans that carry them from college freshmen to USA Wrestling National team members.

“You get an excellent education and when you graduate work on a master’s or Ph.D. and leave with everything you dreamed of,” said Jones, a 1992 Olympic silver medalist.

Ed Ruth, Jordan Oliver and 2012 Olympian Kelsey Campbell — all currently ranked second nationally in their weight class — are training in Tempe as is Tyrell Fortune (No. 3). None made the U.S. team that will compete at World Championships on Sept. 7-12 in Las Vegas but are Rio contenders.

MORE: ASU wrestling regains elite status under Zeke Jones

So, too, are incoming ASU brothers, Anthony and Zahid Valencia, both of whom might take an Olympic redshirt year in 2015-16 to train for the 2016 Olympic Trials.

“Both believe they can make the Olympic team, and I wouldn’t put it past them,” Jones said.

Zahid, 2015 national high school Wrestler of the Year, will compete Aug. 11-16 at the Junior World Championships in Brazil.

The U.S. World men’s freestyle team will train at ASU from Aug. 30-Sept. 6.

“It’s a privilege and a tremendous responsibility,” former USA Wrestling National freestyle coach Jones said. “They’re entrusting us to help get them ready.”

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TRACK AND FIELD

The World Athletics Center in Phoenix remains something of a secret because founder John Godina still is searching for the right property on which to build a permanent facility.

But training at Paradise Valley Community College and at Exos (formerly Athletes’ Performance) hasn’t slowed WAC’s growth or success. Seventeen WAC-trained athletes from 13 countries are qualified for the World Track Championships, Aug. 22-30 in Beijing, and Godina believes by the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that his goal of winning enough medals to rank among the top five, if WAC was a country, is achievable.

MORE: Olympic sprinter Muna Lee trains in Arizona seeking career resurgence

Godina, one of the greatest American shot putters with two Olympic medals, retired in 2009 and set out to change the sport, first with a throws education/training center that has expanded into all areas of the sport. Now, WAC has assembled a coaching staff that is the envy of any in the world, including Dan Pfaff (head coach), Stuart McMillan (sprints), Andreas Behm (sprints/hurdles) and recently Kevin Tyler (education director/400), Ricky Soos (middle/long distance) and Natasha Harvey (jumps) to work with more than 100 resident athletes.

Olympians Aries Merritt (U.S., 2012 gold), Greg Rutherford (Great Britain, 2012 gold), Mitchell Watt (Australia, 2012 silver), Brad Walker (U.S.), Steve Lewis (Great Britain), Muna Lee (U.S.), Matthias Buehler (Germany) and Vikas Gowda (India) are among those training here, as is former ASU long jumper Christabel Nettey (Canada), No. 2 in the world this year.

“Everything (in Arizona) is logistically possible,” Godina said. “The weather is perfect for the months athletes are not in Europe. The cost of living helps out the budget for athletes who, for the most part, are sacrificing to do the sport, and it’s a hospitable business climate.”

RELATED: Mykayla Skinner takes 2nd all-around at American Cup

GYMNASTICS

MyKayla Skinner and Alex Naddour won team medals last year at the World Gymnastics Championships. Skinner also picked up an individual bronze on vault and was one place out of medaling on floor exercise while Naddour made the pommel horse final (sixth).

If either makes the U.S. team for Rio, it will be a breakthrough, proving that a gymnast can make it to the Olympics off training in Arizona. Kerri Strug trained outside the state to make Olympics teams in 1992 and ’96 as did Jason Gatson in 2004.

Naddour left the University of Oklahoma to return home and train with his father Mike Naddour at USA Youth Fitness Center in Gilbert for the 2012 Olympics. He came up just short and was an Olympic alternate.

Skinner is postponing the start of her college career at Utah to continue training with Lisa Spini at Desert Lights Gymnastics in Chandler. She was second all-around at the American Classic in March before suffering a torn ligament in her ankle. Spini hopes Skinner will be close to full health after P&G Championships, Aug. 13-16 in Indianapolis, at a selection camp for the World Championships, Oct. 23-Nov. 1 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Contact Jeff Metcalfe at Jeff.Metcalfe@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-444-8053. Follow him at Twitter.com/jeffmetcalfe.