Michael Phelps' mom hopes he competes at 2016 Olympics in Rio

Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time with 22 medals. (Kevin Lee/Getty Images)

Michael Phelps' mom, Debbie, has always been behind her son's training regimen.

Now that he's back in the pool, Debbie Phelps is hoping her son, who turned 28 in June, makes a run at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.

“I don’t know if we’re going to Rio, but I know that, according to the Baltimore Sun and out there in social media, Michael did make an announcement about being back in the pool,” she told WBAL News. ”Where that leads him, I don’t know. I’m hoping it does lead us to Brazil.

“But, you know, athletes, children, composers, artists have to love what they do. Michael has a love for his sport, a passion for his sport. I know when he went to Barcelona for world champs last year [July 2013], I watched his face. He has such eagerness about where the sport of swimming is going to go. I’m supporting him all the way as his mom.

“I would love to go Rio.”

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Michael Phelps, who won four gold and two silver medals in the 2012 Games in London, said at the time those Olympics would be his last.

“I want to go to Rio in 2016,” Debbie Phelps said on “60 Minutes” in May 2012. “I do. He told me he’d send me there on vacation. But you know, I was like, ‘Come on, Michael just a 50 freestyle.’ “What happens if your mom, you know, after London, after 12 months goes by and says, ‘You know, I’ve always wanted to go to Rio?’”