Michael Phelps comes back to Austin and the pool that began it all: The first thing Michael Phelps and longtime coach Bob Bowman did when they hit the pool deck at the University of Texas was wheel to the left and look up at the big record board at the end of the pool.

After winning 16 Olympic medals — 14 of them gold — Phelps and Bowman were both eager to see whether Phelps' decade-old pool record at the Jamail Texas Swimming Center was still standing. Yes! The 1:54.92 Phelps clocked in the 200-meter butterfly in March 2001 lasted only a few months as a world record before he lowered it, but it's still a pool record in Austin. And it's never been erased from the memories of the ultimate swimmer and his coach.

"He still remembers where he stood; I remember what lane I was in," Phelps said. "That was a special one. That was the first one. That was the best one," Bowman said. "I still remember that one probably the most."

With that swim Phelps, then 15 years and 9 months, became the youngest man to set a swimming world record. Australian star Ian Thorpe had been more than a year older when he set his first world mark. The Austin swim marked the beginning of a decade of dominance for Phelps.

The apex came in Beijing in 2008, when Phelps won a record eight gold medals, some in unforgettably dramatic fashion, and topped Mark Spitz's haul of seven golds in the 1972 Munich Games. This weekend Phelps is back at the site of his big breakthrough trying to get back on track at his first long course meet of the year. The 2012 London Olympics are already looming .

"It's hard to think that Beijing was 2½ years ago," Phelps said. "It has gone by fast, and London will be here before we know it. It's time to make sure everything is clicking well and everything is running smoothly."

Last year, Phelps shockingly lost his golden touch. At the 2010 national championships he won the 200 butterfly but called it the worst such race of his life. He also finished second to friendly rival Ryan Lochte in the 200 freestyle and was a disappointing fourth in the 200 backstroke. He watched as Lochte supplanted him as the world's best swimmer.

Like a slumping golfer, Phelps had lost his stroke. His intuitive feel for the water was gone. The greatest swimmer in history was suddenly a fish out of water. "Sometimes I'll get in the water and feel all off," Phelps said. "I won't feel connected. I won't feel like I'm pulling the right amount of water; I feel like I'm slipping. There's a lot of little tiny things that I guess over the last year I've kind of felt and I've never felt that before. It's kind of weird and kind of different. It's frustrating because normally everything will just click. It's really true. The more time you spend away from something the harder it is to get back."

Phelps said that when he's swimming he never really thinks about it, he just swims. He said he can tell when something doesn't feel right but can't necessarily put his finger on how to correct it. That's where Bowman comes in.

"The hardest part of swimming is that when you're in there doing it you have no sense of what it looks like," Bowman said. "Mainly I watch him. I'm kind of like his stroke mechanic. He needs a tune-up. It's not like he needs a new arm. He just needs to be tweaked."

Both said the tinkering has been working and that the Austin Grand Prix will be a good test. Lochte and other strong swimmers are here. Bowman said, however, they're looking at the races as much for training as competition.

Bowman said: "What's he got to prove? He's the greatest of all time if he walks out the door and never takes another stroke. So for him to even be here I think is a plus, and for him to be here with some goals and motivated to swim fast is even better."

Phelps added: "I still have goals, and that's why I'm still swimming. ... There's still things in the sport that I want to accomplish." Both said Phelps is not a threat to set any pool records this weekend. But then he is Michael Phelps, so you never know what's possible.