This Bar Refaeli and Michael Phelps Swimsuit 2012 photo shoot is our Throwback Thursday gift to you

Rebecca Shore | Mar 26, 2014

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I GUESS someone told Michael Phelps that SI isn't nearly as likely to put him in a Swimsuit Issue shoot now that he's retired, because on Tuesday his longtime coach Bob Bowmanhinted at the possibility of Phelps pulling an MJ with this "wink-wink-nudge-nudge" comment:

If he swims a meet in the next couple months and does well, he will probably give it a shot in Irvine [at trials for the 2015 World Championships]. But he doesn’t have to do that to have a shot at the 2016 Olympics.

Iiiinteresting.

Either way, allow me to use this news brief as an opportunity to dig up some outtakes from Mike's 2012 Swimsuit shoot with Bar Refaeli (who, as you know, also did similar shoots with Rafael Nadaland Chris Paul). It's also an excuse for SwimDaily to pay tribute to the origins of the swimsuit, and that activity it was designed for: posing on rocks swimming. (There's nothing wrong, though, with a little artistic license.) And excuse me for saying so, but I'd be remiss if I didn't note that Bar isn't the only one in this shoot who looks good in Lycra.

Here now, the images from that shoot which, dare I say, went swimmingly. Just kidding, I would never say that.

Walter Iooss Jr./SI