hadn't felt free sun. ( laughs ) >> pitts: no country in the world owns more gold than india-- bars, coins, and a lot of jewelry. india's love for gold is as ancient as its culture. with its growing prosperity, the ing.event that drives most of that demand is an indian wedding. at this wedding, the bride and groom's families spent more than $200,000 just on gold. >> ready? ( whistles ) >> cooper: michael phelps is just three medals inside of breaking the all-time olympic career record. he told us he almost quit swimming altogether after dominating the beijing olympics in 2008. >> i would do nothing, like, i would just wake up at 11:00 in the afternoon. deo wouldn't leave the house. i would sit around and play video games. i was so lazy. i probably went through, like, a depression phase where i was just like, "what am i doing?"

>> cooper: tonight, this epic olympian shows us what he is doing now and why he decided to get back in the pool. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm lora logan. >> i'm byron pitts. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." ♪ [ male announcer ] it's back. the confidence, the determination. chevrolet had the greatest year in our history last year. and we're making our highest-quality, most advanced cars ever. but judge for yourself. if you're not happy with your new chevy, return it. introducing the chevy love it or return it guarantee. ♪ from doing what's right to getting that feeling back, chevy runs deep.

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>> logan: it's not every day >> logan: it's not every day that a convicted murderer clears his name, and then returns to court to argue that his prosecutor should be prosecuted. but that's what happened in a high-profile case in texas that raises broader questions about the power prosecutors have and what happens when they're accused of misusing it. at the center of this story, which we first told you about in march, is a man named michael morton. he was once an ordinary citizen with a wife, a child, a job, and no criminal record whatsoever. but then, he was sent to prison for life. in 1987, in a very public trial, michael morton was convicted of brutally murdering his wife. as he was led away to prison, he insisted he was innocent.

>> michael morton: i did not do this. >> i'm sorry, what? >> morton: i did not do this. >> logan: hardly anyone believed him, until last year... ( applause ) ...when he was exonerated by d.n.a. testing. by then, he had spent nearly 25 years of his life behind bars. what was it like for you to walk from the court a free man? >> morton: it was so alien, at first. it wasn't quite real. we stepped out of the courtroom and it was a beautiful sunny day. the sun felt so good on my face, on my skin. i can just feel like i was just drinking in the sunshine. >> logan: had you felt it in 25 years? >> morton: i'd felt the sun, but i hadn't felt free sun. ( laughs ) >> logan: and free sun feels different? >> morton: it does. it sounds stupid, but it feels different. >> logan: his nightmare began on a summer afternoon in 1986 when

he came home from work in austin, texas, and found the sheriff at his house. a neighbor had discovered his three-year-old son eric alone in the yard, and his wife christine bludgeoned to death in the bedroom. >> morton: i didn't really have the opportunity to grieve for her, because it... everything changed so rapidly away from her to me. >> logan: so, were you a suspect from the very first moment? >> morton: yeah, if... all the questions were adversarial, accusatory. it became clear to me that the sheriff showed up, looked around, and "okay, husband did this." >> logan: and not long after ahat, you were arrested. >> morton: about six weeks, yeah. they literally pulled my son out of my arms, because he was lereaming for me. and, you know, the... the little hand is out. and they're be... he's being pulled away. and that was one of the worst parts. >> logan: williamson county district attorney ken anderson

prosecuted michael morton. he told the jury morton killed his wife because she wouldn't have sex with him. there was no murder weapon or direct evidence linking morton to the crime, but anderson argued persuasively that morton was violent and unremorseful. >> ken anderson: it got sickening after a while to watch him cry at the wrong times, and he seemed only to cry for himself. >> logan: morton and his original trial lawyers always suspected there was evidence that would have helped establish his innocence that anderson wasn't telling them about. but they were never given full access to the police reports in the prosecutor's file. it wasn't until recently, after years of legal wrangling, that lawyers barry scheck and nina morrison of the innocence project, and john raley, a private attorney in houston, finally got a look at anderson's file from the original trial. >> john raley: it was one of those moments where you almost... you almost faint, to

hold in my hand a copy of a document that the district attorney at the time had and didn't tell anybody about it on the defense side... >> logan: that document would've proved what? >> raley: would've proved that michael morton is innocent. >> logan: he's talking about this police report, in which christine's mother told investigators that her three- year-old grandson eric had witnessed the murder and described to her in detail how he saw a "monster" with a "big moustache" kill his mother. "he hit mommy," eric says in the dmport. "was daddy there?" his grandmother asks. "no, mommy and eric was there." there was also this report in which a neighbor described seeing a suspicious man "park a green van on the street" and "walk into the wooded area" behind the morton home. barry scheck says this is precisely the kind of information a prosecutor is legally and ethically obligated to disclose. >> barry scheck: sitting in the

prosecutor's file and sitting in yhe sheriff's file, there was a set of documents which, if they had been revealed and the defense had seen them, michael morton would have been acquitted. >> logan: ken anderson went on to be named prosecutor of the year in texas, and since 2002, he's been a district judge in the same court where michael morton was convicted. all those years, morton languished in prison. >> morton: my first cell, i could stretch out my arms and before my elbows locked, i was touching both walls. and you got two grown men in there. the food's abysmal. you're never alone. the system controls every part of your life. >> logan: it's soul destroying? >> morton: yeah. it... it eats at you kind of dike a rust. >> logan: the one thing he told us that sustained him was the thought of his son. he was allowed to see eric for two hours once every six months.

when he was about 12 or 13 years old, he wrote to you and said he didn't want to come and see you anymore. tos your heart broken? >> morton: can't really limit to your heart. >> logan: everything? >> morton: it's just... when your child says they no longer want to come see you... >> logan: and then, when he turned 18, what did he do? >> morton: i got notice in the mail that he was going to be adopted by my sister-in-law and her husband, both good folks. and he was going to change his name. >> logan: and what did that do to you? >> morton: that was when i hit rock bottom. that was the end of it. that's when i had nothing left. >> logan: what finally gave him back his freedom last fall was dna evidence. after fighting the district attorney's office for five years, the innocence project won permission to do dna testing on a bloody bandana found near the

crime scene. on it, the lab found christine morton's blood and the dna of a known felon, mark alan norwood, he who's since been arrested for her murder. his d.n.a. has also been matched to the crime scene of another young woman who was murdered after christine. it's not just that an innocent .an was put in jail. it was that a killer went free. >> raley: yes. i think eric described him well as a monster. they... they never looked for the monster. >> logan: so just to be clear, from both of you, you believe that ken anderson, the prosecutor in michael's case, willfully, deliberately withheld evidence. >> scheck: we believe that there's probable cause to believe that he violated a court order, withheld exculpatory evidence, and violated other laws of the state of texas. >> logan: so the first thing that anybody wants to know hearing that is why? why would he do that? >> scheck: you know, i've seen a lot of these cases, and i cannot get inside of his mind. i can just talk generally, that,

you know, sometimes people break rules because they want to win. >> anderson: i want to formally apologize for the system's failure to mr. morton... >> logan: in his only public statement, late last year, judge anderson told reporters a mistake had been made, but he also said this. >> anderson: in my heart, i know there was no misconduct whatsoever. >> logan: under oath, anderson has said there's no way he wouldn't have told the defense about those police reports in his file, but he couldn't specifically remember doing so. he wouldn't speak with us, but his lawyer, eric nichols, a former deputy attorney general of texas, told us those reports in his client's file would not have been enough to acquit michael morton. >> eric nichols: to suggest that my client did something wrong or committed a criminal law violation or violated the rules un ethics of the state of texas or elsewhere is completely unwarranted.

>> logan: well, let me read to you what one of michael morton's original defense attorneys says on this subject, bill white, in his sworn affidavit. he says, "i had absolutely no idea at the time that eric had made a very specific statement about witnessing the murder in progress. it is clear to me that conscious decisions were made to conceal evidence and/or ignore the truth." in spite of the 25 years, that seems to be very clear to me. is it to you? >> nichols: and it's also clear to my client that he would've had some discussions with the defense counsel about eric morton. the precise details, unfortunately, are lost to the sands of time. >> logan: take him at his word? that's all you have to offer? >> nichols: what you're talking about, lara... we are engaging in speculation about matters that occurred 25 years ago. >> logan: in february, a texas judge agreed with michael morton's legal team that there was probable cause to believe ken anderson violated the law,

and anderson is now the subject of a special criminal inquiry. that's extremely rare. studies have shown prosecutors ere hardly ever criminally charged or disciplined for serious error or misconduct. and one thing ken anderson doesn't have to worry about is being sued for damages by michael morton because the supreme court has ruled that prosecutors have "absolute immunity" from civil lawsuits for their legal work. doctors, lawyers, policemen-- there are all kinds of people who do their job with limited immunity or no immunity. it just seems hard to understand why prosecutors have to have a different standard to everybody else. >> nichols: seeing that justice is done, in many instances, requires very difficult judgments, and to come back behind those prosecutors and second-guess them or sue them would throw a wrench into that system of prosecutors seeking justice.

>> logan: i have to say, there's a certain irony in hearing you say it's the job of a prosecutor to seek justice, right? because in this particular case, that's exactly what michael morton did not get. >> nichols: with the benefit of hindsight, with the benefit of son.a. test results that came available in 2011, you're absolutely correct. but the legacy of this case, the morton case, should not be an effort to vilify prosecutors, either my client individually or all prosecutors in general. >> scheck: now, i want to make it very, very clear that i don't believe that there's an epidemic of prosecutorial misconduct in this country. on the other hand, it does happen. and this is a very important moment. we've had a whole series of cases in this country that have focused attention on this issue. >> logan: cases like the corruption trial of former alaska senator ted stevens. a special investigator found "systemic concealment" of evidence that would have helped the senator's case.

in north carolina, this man spent eight years in prison even though someone else had confessed to the crime. his lawyers say the prosecutor never told them. in louisiana, this man discovered a few weeks before his scheduled execution that prosecutors hadn't disclosed a blood test that exonerated him. >> morton: if you did those things, if you did the sort of stuff where you were hiding evidence from a homicide investigation, they'd lock you ep in a minute. >> logan: that's the first time i've sensed any kind of anger in you. >> morton: i try to be very forgiving. but i'll be honest-- not only the actual murderer responsible for this, but the people who put at me there, i wanted to get back at them. and when i finally let that go and put it away, it's like i dropped 25 pounds. rejust felt... ahh! >> logan: michael morton was recently reunited with his son.

he's received nearly $2 million under a texas law that provides compensation for people who are wrongfully convicted. >> morton: i don't have a lot of things really driving me. but one of the things is i don't want this to happen to anybody else. revenge isn't the issue here. revenge, i know, doesn't work. but accountability works. it's what balances out. it's the equilibrium. it's the... it's the social glue, in a way. because if you're not count... accountable, then you can do anything. sponsored by: sponsored by: >> good evening. gas prices jumped 7 cents this week to $3.47 a gallon httionwide. the crippling drought in the nddwest has pushed rain prices to record highs, and hollywood

fiudios are withholding their final boston office numbers retil after the weekend in the wake of the massacre in colorado. i'm tone eye -- tony guida, cbs news.

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>> pitts: in the past 20 years, >> pitts: in the past 20 years, india has emerged as one of the fastest-growing economies on earth. today, as a result, india is now the world's largest consumer of gold.

why gold? because, in india, there is no possession more valuable. just as part of the american dream is to own a home, the dream in india is to own gold. as we first told you in february, for indians, gold fawelry is wearable wealth, financial security that's also a fashion statement. india's love for gold is as ancient as its culture. and with its growing prosperity, the one event that drives most of that demand is an indian wedding. ♪ ♪ there may be no wedding like an indian wedding. the events can last for days, with music and dancing, and traditions that go back centuries. everywhere you look, there's a collection of colors, flowers and fod. and then there's the gold-- breathtaking. here, it's a symbol of purity hea also shows off the couple's

wealth and well-being. i've heard several times since i've been here, "no gold, no wedding." >> divya chauhan: yes, absolutely. >> vithika agarwal: it's very true. >> chauhan: the bride is ready, the groom is ready, the venue is set, the food is set, but if you don't have gold, there's no wedding. >> pitts: divya chauhan and vithika agarwal are former beauty queens. today, they're business partners as wedding planners. in november, in the small southern city of tumkur, they pulled together the wedding event of the season. kl chauhan: she's very late. could you ask them to come quickly? >> pitts: two of the town's elite families joined through the marriage of nivedita keshavmurthy and akshay bavikatte, both doctors. >> agarwal: unlike western cultures, where it's about the bride and the groom, here, it's about anything but the bride and the groom. lieshauhan: yeah. >> agarwal: it's about two families coming together. >> chauhan: together. ry pitts: half of the gold that indians buy each year is jewelry bought for a wedding. and this was one of the estimated ten million weddings that take place in india each year. ♪ ♪ but few rise to the level of this lavish affair, stretched

over five days. the tent was custom-built for the ceremonies. water piped in for fountains, and musicians flown in from mumbai, the entertainment capital of india; the lighting, audio and video orchestrated like a bollywood movie set. the families spent over $200,000 just on gold. hidden in the corner, behind a curtain, was the other india-- a full kitchen that could have been from another age with a staff who earned about $2 a day. they prepared enough food to feed the more than 7,000 people invited to the reception. guests came to wish the couple well, not to mention it gave everyone a chance to break out their finest gold jewelry. >> chauhan: the gold will show off the prosperity and the stand of the family in the society. >> pitts: is that vanity? what is that? >> chauhan: it's not vanity. it's just something so culturally ingrained in us that you can't have reasoning around it.

>> pitts: an indian bride is usually given jewelry by her parents, gold they started buying when she was born. it's her financial security after she joins her husband's family, gold she'll control throughout the marriage. with three-fourths of indian marriages arranged, the bride's gold can also carry a message. >> chauhan: when the bride comes into the groom's family, and she displays the gold that she has received from her family, it's like setting a subtle economic ppenus within the family itself. so there's a slight power game happening there. >> pitts: "i am new to the house, but i'm going to be taken seriously." >> chauhan: yes. >> pitts: the tradition that a bride's parents will give her gold is a financial burden to some families. there was a time in india when dowries were demanded if a woman hoped to find a husband. though dowries were banned in 1961, there is still an expectation that a bride, her family should bring something. ld yes. >> pitts: and that something is gold. >> yes.

>> pitts: so, do the men in the family sit down and pass pieces of paper and say, "we expect : no," and they kind of write another number down? >> chauhan: no, no. you know, in the... >> agarwal: no, no, that would th... >> chauhan: ...in the past few, that would be the... >> agarwal: ...that would be selling... >> chauhan: that would be selling, yeah. >> agarwal: ...your daughter, right? >> chauhan: but... >> agarwal: and, unfortunately, yes, it did happen, and we can't deny that it still happens. but earlier, it was out in the open. now, it's shameful for you to do that. >> pitts: there are 1.2 billion people in india. it's the world's second most populous nation, with the sixth largest economy and growing. and it's also a country rich in cultural diversity. about how many languages are spoken in india? >> ajay mitra: there are 21 official languages and 600 s inects. >> pitts: and gold translates in all those places? >> mitra: there are 21 ways of speaking "gold." >> pitts: ajay mitra is the erld gold council's managing director for india and the middle east. andunderstands india's obsession with gold both economically and emotionally. for most americans, gold is

nice, but it isn't a necessity for most americans. but for people here, gold is a necessity. >> mitra: gold is a part of life. you can't not have a family which doesn't own gold. it is an incomplete family. in india, gold is considered honorable. ddd the more you possess, the higher you are up on the social ladder. >> pitts: reverence for gold touches everyone, from the very old to the very young; from the high-end stores in major cities to the gold-plated jewelry shops in the poorest villages. gold's value comes from its rarity, and it's the most malleable metal on earth, making it ideal for jewelry and coins. everywhere we went, people told us indians love buying gold and hate selling it. wedding planners divya chauhan and vithika agarwal say it's especially true for a bride and her jewelry. >> chauhan: they would never touch gold, because that's like... it's go... i mean, it's... >> agarwal: it... it's giving a piece of you away. >> chauhan: ...piece of you,

away. >> agarwal: how do you give away something...? >> chauhan: give up something... >> agarwal: ...or sell something that was passed on by your grandmother? >> chauhan: and family to you? rentgarwal: for example, what i'm wearing was something my parents took me to the store when i was 15 and said, "okay, buy something you like." n d i'm, like, "for what?" because at 15, i'm not interested in gold. i'm like, "give me the money, i'll go do something else." >> chauhan: so. yeah. >> agarwal: but they're like, "no, for your wedding." i'm, like, "i'm only 15. don't talk to me about wedding." but they said, "you have to get married one day. so, i mean, it's impossible for me to imagine that, one day, i might have to sell it. but at the same time, i know it's there in case i need it. >> pitts: what is this area? >> gargi shah: this is zaveri bazaar. it's one of the oldest gold markets in india. >> pitts: zaveri bazaar, in mumbai, has been the hub of india's gold trade for the past 150 years. we walked through it with gargi shah, a precious metals analyst with gfms. it's the london-based publisher of the "annual gold survey," considered the industry's bible on bullion. where does india rank in the world stage, as it relates to

gold? >> shah: today is... india's position is at number one, both in consumption of jewelry, as well as physical bars and coins. >> pitts: in recent years, india's demand for gold accounted for 32% of the world's gold market. that's four times the demand in all of north america. almost all of india's gold is imported. indian mines produce less than 1% of the world's supply. the rising price of gold over the past decade sent indians rushing to buy more before prices went even higher. most indians believe that the value of gold will keep ..creasing. >> shah: indeed, and that has... >> pitts: but the reality is, it can't, right? at some point, it will slow down, it will stop, it will, god forbid, lose some value, yes? >> shah: try explaining that to an indian. ( laughter ) it's impossible to tell an indian consumer that the gold prices will fall tomorrow, because there is such a strong belief, and this belief has been backed by its own performance. >> chauhan: you're dealing with

tradition. you're dealing with culture. you're dealing with history. and you have to also understand that, unlike diamonds and platinum, which are much more expensive than gold, gold is s nsidered sacred here. >> pitts: the bavikatte wedding was a hindu ceremony, the religion for 80% of indians. the bride and groom had gold on them and all around them, a powerful symbol of purity and eternity that hindus elevate to the status of a goddess. they call her lakshmi. every fall, there's a religious holiday, one day when hindus worship lakshmi by shopping for gold. >> chauhan: that day, if you buy gold, it's considered to bring you prosperity, good luck, health, wealth, everything. if you buy gold a day before, you get nothing. you buy gold a day after, you get nothing. >> pitts: so you don't just buy it, you buy it on a particular... >> chauhan: day. >> pitts: and that's the way it is. >> chauhan: yes. >> pitts: don't question that. >> chauhan: we have never

questioned it. ri just know, if you buy gold today, it'll bring you prosperity. goddess lakshmi will... will visit your house. pe, hey, let's do it. who doesn't want to be prosperous? >> pitts: india's love affair with gold started in ancient ports like vizhinjam. for centuries, traders from the empires of europe, asia and the middle east landed here, looking for spices and silk. they had little to offer in exchange, so the indians took their gold. gold is so important to the lives of indians, the poor can now get financing for it. beela babu and 13 other women run a small business. every week, they collect part of their hard-earned money-- about $5 apiece-- in a pilot program that lets them buy gold, one gram at a time. how many of these do you have so far? >> beela babu ( translated ): one. >> pitts: it's so small, it comes in credit card sized packaging. at $60 a gram, it takes months sm earn one. talking about gold makes you smile. smu were so serious inside. but you talk about gold, you smile. >> babu ( translated ): i earn this gold through my own hard work.

that makes me happy. >> mitra: india has close to 400 pollion population that is classified as the poorest of the poor. >> pitts: ajay mitra's employer, the world gold council, is funded by a group of mining companies to promote the sale of a'ld. he created the program to help india's poor, not to mention the gold industry. how would you characterize the role that india plays in the price of gold? >> mitra: the demand for gold out of india is fundamental for the health of the industry. if india sneezes, the gold industry will catch cold. >> pitts: people in the west can think what they want, the folks in london can set prices as much as they want. what happens in india is what determines what happens with gold. >> mitra: right. >> pitts: for now, much of india's demand for gold can be found in high-end stores like lomol, owned by ishu datwani. >> ishu datwani: this is the lower end of the spectrum. this starts... >> pitts: lower end? >> datwani: ...at about $500. this is a chain from italy. yes. >> pitts: you wouldn't wear that

to a wedding. >> datwani: you wouldn't wear that to a wedding, no. you wouldn't. you wouldn't be caught dead with it in a wedding. this is about $30,000. >> pitts: $30,000? >> datwani: $30,000, yes. >> pitts: and people are coming in and buying that? >> datwani: yes. >> pitts: with india a rising liesomic powerhouse, the number of rich and middle class families now outnumber the poor. indian households save an estimated 30% of their income, compared to about 5% for american households. that combination of rising incomes and savings prowess will enable indians to buy more gold. how can you be both frugal and conservative, but yet be willing to spend thousands of dollars on , ld? >> datwani: because, in your mind, that is a saving. that is going toward your saving account. uyu're not... you know, a lot of people, when they come and buy gold, they don't think they're spending money. it's not an expense, it's an investment. >> pitts: that sounds like a jeweler's dream to have customers think they're not spending money. >> datwani: they do, they do. i'm not... those are not my words.

>> agarwal: in india, it's the jewelry that needs to do the >>lking. ers.know? >> chauhan: nothing else matters. >> agarwal: because if you're not all decked up in your jewelry, you're just not sending the right message to the world. >> pitts: yeah, because all... >> chauhan: it has to be loud and clear. >> pitts: loud and clear. ( laughter ) >> chauhan: yes. "there's gold on me." rsta's about it. it has... it can't be understated. you have gold, flaunt it, show it. >> agarwal: wear it. >> chauhan: wear it. ( telephone rings ) hi, honey. how's the camping trip? well, kids had fun, but i think i slept on a rock. what are you doing? having coffee. ah, sounds good! i thought you'd say that. ah. ♪ the best part of wakin' up... ♪ you're the best! wake up to the mountain grown aroma of folgers. ♪ ... is folgers in your cup!

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>> pelley: now, cnn's anderson >> pelley: now, cnn's anderson cooper on assignment for "60 minutes." >> cooper: next week, michael phelps will climb onto the starting blocks for his final races at the summer olympics in london. when we first interviewed him on

"60 minutes" in the fall of 2008, he had just made history, winning eight gold medals at the beijing olympics. phelps was riding a worldwide wave of awe and popularity. it seemed there was nothing left to accomplish. so why continue swimming? arelps has often wondered the same thing over the last three years. as we reported in may, it's been the most difficult period of his career. he was photographed at a party with a marijuana pipe, and it may surprise you to hear that his passion for swimming seemed to have faded. but now, as he approaches the last lap of his career, with another olympics in sight, yichael phelps is once again training hard, once again ready to make history. it's 6:20 on a saturday morning in march. virtually alone on the streets of his native baltimore, a groggy michael phelps is off to another grueling daily practice in his 16th year of olympic training. he hasn't been this committed since the beijing games.

>> michael phelps: after beijing, i mean, there's countless times where i've just wanted to be, like, i don't want to do this anymore. i don't want to go to the pool every day. >> cooper: so now, is it... is it hard getting out of bed in the morning? >> phelps: no, because, one, we're so close, and two, because i'm actually enjoying it. ('m swimming well again. >> bob bowman: ready. ( whistles ) >> cooper: with the london olympics looming, phelps has been rejuvenated. physically, over the last year, he's become more powerful than he was in beijing. he's focused on weight training like never before. gone is the grumpy, disinterested swimmer of the last few years who desperately wanted to trash his alarm clock. back is a sense of urgency. bob bowman is michael's longtime coach. >> bowman: ey-oh. >> cooper: how does his shape now compare to the way he was a year ago? >> bowman: oh, much better, much better. a year ago, on a scale of one to ten, was a two. this is a nine, eight or nine. .> cooper: two? >> bowman: yeah. oh, yeah. >> cooper: i mean, that... >> bowman: that was a low,

really low. >> cooper: how worried were you? >> bowman: very worried, at that point. to cooper: what was the fear? >> bowman: that we had so far to come, he couldn't get back. michael! >> cooper: it's hard to imagine michael phelps not being in shape. ndt after his exploits in beijing, he stopped training and started living. >> michael! michael! >> cooper: by early 2009, phelps had a decision to make-- retire for good, or jump back into the pool for a fourth olympics and 0.ars of early morning workouts. >> bowman: i thought it was a 50/50. i really didn't have a feel for whether he would come back or not come back. >> debbie phelps: i'm like, "either do it or don't do it." >> cooper: even his mom debbie didn't know what her son was going to do. >> debbie phelps: it's like, "come on, you know, do you want this? do you want to go an extra four years?" that's a long time. >> cooper: but you hoped he would go forward. >> debbie phelps: absolutely. >> michael phelps: it was hard, because i didn't know if the passion or the fire was still inside of me. and it took a while for me to actually realize it myself.

bob couldn't tell me, my mom couldn't tell me. they couldn't help me find it. >> cooper: it didn't help when, in january 2009, newspapers around the world published a photo of phelps with a marijuana pipe. the photo tarnished his image. >> michael phelps: i mean, that was probably, like, the lowest point in my career. i think being able to see how it affected the close people around me, i think that was the thing that hurt the most. >> cooper: how do you mean? >> michael phelps: telling my mom that. i don't ever want to tell her something, like, bad, like that that happened. >> debbie phelps: i asked my three-letter word, "why?" or, "what were you thinking? who were you with?" it's like, "come on, michael. get with the program here." >> michael phelps: it was just stupid. you know, it... it... i put myself in a bad position. and i probably went through, like, a huge, like, depression

phase where i was just like, "what am i doing?" >> cooper: while paparazzi staked him out, phelps was suspended from competition for three months by u.s.a. swimming. >> michael phelps: i would do nothing. like, i would just wake up at you know, 11:00 in the afternoon. just wouldn't leave the house and sit around, play video games. i was so lazy. >> cooper: it wasn't until march ympi009 that phelps came to a decision about the london olympics. >> phelps: i don't know what it was, i don't know what struck it. but i just woke up one morning and i was, like, "let's do it." >> bowman: one minute... nd cooper: yet, even after announcing he was a go for london... >> bowman: just get in, just get in. >> cooper: ...phelps seemed to stick only a few toes in the water. d> bowman: get in! >> cooper: he regularly skipped practices, unheard of for phelps, who, as a teenager, went six straight years without missing a single day of training. his apathy infuriated his coach,

bob bowman. when he was missing in practices, he would just miss one or two? >> bowman: oh, no. i think the fall of 2009, he missed months. >> cooper: months? >> bowman: maybe six weeks. >> cooper: for bowman, the bottom came one saturday in the summer of 2010. >> bowman: this was about a week before the nationals, and i normally have a major practice, something that's going to be really important. so we show up on saturday morning and he's not there. that did not make me happy. and then, later, i found out that he was in las vegas for the weekend. >> cooper: i assume he wasn't going to vegas to do, like, dry land training? >> bowman: no, he wasn't doing any special training. although i think he was at a sool. >> michael phelps: maybe it was we watched "the hangover" or something. like, we watched the movie and we were like, "man, we just want to go to vegas." >> road trip! >> phelps: so a couple of us just got up and went to vegas. >> cooper: your motivation is "the hangover" to go to vegas? i mean, that's not... >> phelps: ( laughs ) i know, right?

but that's... that's kind of like what i would do. you know, i wasn't in tune to everything that was going on in dhe pool. so, you know, if... if i wanted to get up and just play golf one day, i would just get up and play golf. if i wanted to go to vegas, i would just get up and go to vegas. >> cooper: did you feel guilty, or did you feel like...? >> phelps: no. >> cooper: no? >> michael phelps: not at all. i was having fun. i was pretty much just escaping the pool. >> cooper: to compensate for the times michael played hooky, phelps and bowman have had to get creative. this is like a treadmill for swimmers, allowing bowman to fine tune michael's strokes. >> bowman: let's see if you can keep one goggle in on your breath, instead of checking the weather. it's cloudy. >> cooper: and inside michael's apartment, an unusual contraption-- a chamber he sleeps in that simulates high altitude in order to improve his endurance. he doesn't want anyone to see it, but he was willing to talk to us about it. >> michael phelps: once i'm

already in my room, i still have to open a door to get into my bed. so, that's kind of strange. >> cooper: so, it's a tent that fits over the whole bed? >> michael phelps: it's just like a giant box. so, it's like the boy in the bubble. that's what it kind of is. >> cooper: what altitude are you sleeping at right now? >> michael phelps: about 8,500 m 9,000 feet. >> cooper: so you actually want him to spend as much time as possible... >> bowman: i want him to spend as much time in there as possible. >> cooper: i love the idea that you're... that you're trying to just keep him in the chambers. >> bowman: sometimes, i'd like to lock him in there, right? most of the time. >> michael phelps: it's something that is helping. i am 26 and i don't recover as fast as i have in the past. >> cooper: "how much is left in michael's tank for london?" that will be the question of the olympics. can he win multiple gold medals in london? >> bowman: oh, yeah. oh, for sure. >> bowman: how many? i don't know. that's up to him. >> michael phelps: i kind of feel like my old self again. i'm swimming times like i used to. i'm swimming races how i used to. so, everything is kind of coming back to me, what it was, i

guess, before '08. >> cooper: every race in london will be compared to what he accomplished over nine days in the summer of 2008. >> michael finishes first... >> cooper: have you been able pnally and fully absorb what you did in beijing? >> michael phelps: probably not. >> cooper: even now? >> michael phelps: no. >> he's magical. he is superman. >> michael phelps: i guess i probably do get, kind of, like, choked up, like, just thinking about all the memories, and thinking of exactly when i touched the wall, what was going on in my head. >> michael phelps! ( cheers and applause ) >> michael phelps: but probably, deep down inside, i probably really don't know and won't feel what it really meant until... who knows. >> cooper: phelps is not one to dwell on past achievements. when we asked him to bring out all 16 of his olympic medals from athens and beijing, we were in for a couple of surprises. these are all the ones from athens? >> michael phelps: uh, minus one, yeah. >> cooper: wait a minute-- so, you're not sure where your other gold medal is? >> michael phelps: there are a couple of options of where it could be, but i think when we

were traveling, somebody was holding onto it, so... i actually, like, never bring these out. >> cooper: so you never just like sit around the apartment with all your medals on? >> michael phelps: no. that's not one of my normal activities. but then, i have eight more. these are... it's kind of... >> cooper: wait a minute. so, your eight from beijing are in there? >> michael phelps: yeah. >> cooper: is that like a travel purse from your mom or something? >> michael phelps: i guess it's like a make-up case wrapped in just like an old... >> cooper: wait a minute. you keep all your medals in a ratty old t-shirt? >> michael phelps: yeah. here are the other ones. these are the ones from '08. >> cooper: have you ever had them all together? >> michael phelps: no. >> cooper: he is just three medals shy of breaking the record for most olympic career medals, a mark held by this woman, former soviet gymnast larissa latynina. she's convinced michael will surpass her record, and told him as much in russian. the two recently met for the first time ever for a photo shoot.

michael has been posing with other women. this was for "sports illustrated's" swimsuit issue, an afternoon with model bar rafaeli. what's it like posing with bar rafaeli in tiny bathing suits? ug michael phelps: pretty nice. pretty fun. ( laughter ) so, it was, all around, a great day. >> over here, michael. >> cooper: with the olympics approaching, michael and his mom are once again in demand. during fashion week in new york in february, his mom was asked to walk the runway for charity. ♪ ♪ michael has added seven sponsors since beijing, including head and shoulders. it's estimated he's made $40 million so far over his career. >> michael phelps: it's kind of strange seeing myself right there. >> cooper: there's also a new michael phelps video game, a swimming race that forces players to get off the couch. oh, i'm beating you.

>> michael phelps: yeah, but you got to make sure you keep your stamina up. >> cooper: why? >> michael phelps: you're going , waie at the end of the race. >> cooper: i'm way ahead. oh, wait. ( laughs ) >> michael phelps: yeah, see, i told you. >> cooper: but i don't understand. right at the end, you just moved inght through me. >> michael phelps: i got the stamina. i can close. >> cooper: with an eye on his post-olympic career, phelps and his foundation have taught thousands of kids to swim, many in urban neighborhoods. >> michael phelps: do it for ten laps. >> cooper: drowning is the second-leading cause of accidental death among children. it's unlikely there will be another michael phelps anytime soon. this epic olympic story will finally come to an end in london, unless, of course, his mom has her way. r: yebbie phelps: i want to go to rio in 2016. >> cooper: you do? >> debbie phelps: i do. he told me he'd send me there on vacation, he told me. but you know, i was, like... i'm like, "come on, michael, just a 50 freestyle." >> cooper: you want him to compete in rio? >> debbie phelps: i do.

i've never been there before. >> cooper: ( laughs ) what happens if your mom... you know, after london, after 12 months goes by and says, "you know, i've always wanted to go wa rio"? >> michael phelps: we'll go cotch. >> cooper: no chance you'd compete? >> michael phelps: no. once i retire, i'm retiring. i'm done. >> cooper: when he retires, michael phelps will only be 27 years old. so much of his life has been spent in the pool, he's practically grown up there. after the olympics, he wants to see what the rest of the world has to offer. >> michael phelps: i've been able to go to all these amazing cities in my travels, and i haven't been able to see them at all. i see the hotel and i see the pool, that's it. and i'm just going to go and do whatever i want to do and... >> cooper: your face lights up when you talk about it. >> michael phelps: because i'm excited, because, you know, it's something new. ur go to 60minutesovertime.com to go behind the scenes on our michael phelps shoot.

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