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Michael Phelps received an abrupt reminder of how challenging his return to international competition may be when he was asked whether he was good enough to even reach a final at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships starting on Thursday.

Phelps qualified by finishing second in the 200-meter medley and the 100 butterfly at the U.S. Nationals. The Pan Pacs, held at Gold Coast in Australia, is his first international meet since coming out of retirement four months ago, and a springboard for the 2015 world titles and 2016 Olympics.

Only the top two swimmers from each country in the preliminaries qualify for the night finals, so Phelps is going to be under pressure from his American teammates in the morning, and from the best swimmers from Australia, Japan, Canada, Brazil and other Pacific countries in the evening.

Phelps didn't win any of his four events at the U.S. nationals, although his times in the 200 metre individual medley and the butterfly were both among the fastest three in the world this year.

"Wow, you're really setting the bar high for me. Jesus. Wow." ...(Bowman, off camera, "Reality check there.") Michael Phelps said.

"You know, it's after Nationals, you know, obviously not winning, it is what it is and I hate to lose. But I also do understand that it's not going to comeback instantly, it's not going to be overnight where I'm going to be able to come back and be the best that I can be. You know, I know it's going to take some time and some energy to get back and, you know, I think I would rather have those instances now then farther down the road. You know, World Championships is next year and hopefully be able to get on that team and then the Olympics after that. So, you know, hopefully I'll be able to fix the things now so they don't happen down the road."