Alright, I was gonna do a Welton comment but I decided to just do my own post in response to Sparky's Dad's musings on swimming. Yeah, it is cool that everyone wants to talk about swimming right now. And it is a cool and weird sport. One of the things I like best about it is that it is truly an individual sport. You can't blame your performance on anything or anyone else. There are no bad calls. Your performance is all you. You can't yell at the ref in Spanish and get kicked out of a swim meet.
I totally agree about the silver and bronze medal thing. If I got the silver medal and set an American Record, I would be ecstatic. Like if I was Cavic, I would have been stoked. The best swimmer ever BARELY touched me out to win. The only guy better than him is the best swimmer in the world, ever. I'd be ok with that.
And I also agree about comparing it to other sports. What Phelps did was incredible but you really can't compare it to any other sport. Swimming is swimming. He is easily the best swimmer in the world. But the best athlete? No. The best athlete is someone who excels at multiple sports. And I'm not sure who that is. Everything is so specialized now. People like Jim Brown, or better yet Jim Thorpe, aren't around anymore. Speaking of which, if you've never heard of Jim Thorpe, do a little research and read about him. I read an awesome book about him titled "Carlisle vs. Army." I highly recommend it. That guy was the MAN.
Anyway back to swimming, Johanna and I were talking about this and about if everything was equal - same suits, goggles, training, all at their peak, etc. - how awesome would a race between Phelps, Spitz, Johnny Weismuller and Duke Kahanamoku be?
I don't know how Phelps won the 100 fly but it was my favorite race to watch. And when he came off the wall at the 50 I knew he had it. Phelps' reaction to winning that race was the best. And his mom's was classic too.
I haven't worn the super cool new suits, so I really can't comment on them. And I also don't know what they do to girls' boobs. I would imagine that the suits are pretty tight though.
Shot at Neal. Nice.
Soccer players trying to stretch like swimmers makes for high comedy I would imagine.
Rowdy and Andrea need to go away.
Water depth, temperature, and drainage really DO make a pool fast or slow.
Lastly, thanks for the props. Swimming is awesome. I'll leave you with something to think about: Sparky = gonna be tall, big hands, big feet, pool in the backyard....it's not too early is all I'm saying.
5 comments:
yeah, if i had to hear the phrase "at a loss for words" one more time i was pretty much set on boycotting the rest of the games. thank god swimming is over. its bittersweet.
and why is nobody making a bigger deal about the black swimmer on the relay team. he barely got interviewed. what gives. it was unbeliev. the grant fuir of swimming unleashed.
i too thought it was cool that coby and lebron were present at the water cube. good support.
jon, nice hijacking of sparkys dads post. an unprecedented 2 comments. yikes. but the conversaish goes on, thats what matters.
my theory on swimming is this: in any sport, everybody is playing to win. yeah, there are those who simply play for the love of the game, blah blah blah, but seriouly, have you ever heard anyone who has never won just say that they are playing for the love of it. its mostly over the hill hall of fame bound guys and most people who say that have tasted victory and while they may love the game, they still play to compete and ultimatly best their opponent. so, lets agree that i have formed a logical premise in that winning matters. now, take that in the context of a swimming event where there are many, (sometimes hundreds) of competitors in qualifing heats, and you can only have one ultimate winner. its not like baseball or soccer or football where its one team vs another. its many many individuals competing against each other. so, with one winner, all the other swimmers who may have just swam the race of their life, beat their personal best by several seconds, broken a national record etc. dont really matter to our preconditioned win or loose attitudes that we have had ingrained in our minds by other "traditional" team sports. so the personal bests get ignored and the fact that you came in 4th gets brushed under the rug even if you broke the previous world record in doing so. may i submit two kinds of scoring. one for overall winner and a second for the extent to which a swimmer has beat his previous time. those who improve more and do better than expected should be honored and recognized in some fashon. there should be an honorable mention like in science fairs. a purple medal given to the guy who tried really hard but just didnt make the cut. i remember i got an honorable mention ribbon in 8th grade for taking a green and blue majic marker to a couple of pieces of bread and callig it a study on mold throughout the dusty corners of mid americas livingrooms. it was so bad that they knew i did it without parental support. they had no choice but to recognize excellence. and why should the olympics be any different. we have 4 years to make things right.
good luck gumshoes.
So, I'm not going to post a link (because the blog started getting suspicious spam that last time somebody posted a link), but there's an interesting article on Slate about a 'casual' swimmer who got to try out one of the LZR suits. It's kind of funny/interesting, and relevant to the boob question because there is a picture of this normal-sized female who also happens to be a breastfeeding mother wearing the suit.
The athletic prowess and competitive spirit on display inside the cube has been tremendous, though from the perspective of a non-swimmer who has had his share of sitting around alot waiting for someone to swim for 90 seconds (Neal's events excluded, they seemed to last for...ev...er...) there is not much potetntial for swimming to actually be a spectator sport. It's a shame that you can be the very best ever at a difficult sport and nobody will notice once the games are over. I guess the same goes for the guys who are really kick ass badminton players. By the way, watching a marathon on TV is torture...there is no worse athletic endeavor to watch on TV. Even NASCAR is better.
Whatever happened to Dan vs. Dan? And when will the Summer Games combine shooting a gun with something like Biathlon does? Like wakeboarding and shooting at targets while in the air? Or Kayaking through alligator infested waters?
You have to look a long way back to March 29th, 2007 when I claimed in the blog "I don´t want to be old", that Phelps would be a household name by the end of the games. In fact, I am so right..I get to claim it before Rowdy Gains claimed it. Rowdy Rider Piper made up so much bs after a race finished, that is why Jon should hate on him. He would be claiming to have said that swimmers tightening up, when I replayed the Tivo...no dice. I had my fingers crossed for a Summer Sanders week of commentary, but I guess that Ahmad Rashad has her on lock down.
The downside to the MP story, is the focus on his freakish natural ability. We had no mention of Club Wolverine and their work ethic, logging thousands of hours under the eyes of Bowman. It was fun to listen in at the water cooler during the weak as the gallinas bothered on about how many calories MP eats or how big his feet are. If bringing the sport of swimming to mainstream means that the media went beyond the real story and on to the commercial spinning gossip train that drives our American sports marketing machine...than MP did change the sport, by making it mainstream.
We will now watch him turn in to a dominant sprinter, and watch him repeat 8 in London...but with nearly all new events. I am getting that on record before Rowdy.
and that's watching golf (unless it's the masters w/ tiger in it). next you'll be saying that there's a lip-syncing animal band @ pizza hut. but yeah, watching a marathon on tv isn't that exciting. running one isn't all that great either. especially if it's sleeting while you're running and you drop a couple of your gel packs at the start of the race.
matt, the black swimmer is cullen jones. he's actually been around for a while. i was suprised they didn't go with that angle more but phelpsmania trumps all.
it was actually dan vs. dave, and i have no idea what happened to them. i am totally on board with wakeboarding biathalon and kayaking while dodging dangerous aquatic creatures. i'll also suggest that we throw in ninja warrior obstacle courses as an event.
nealish, great call on summer sanders. why can't this happen?? really anything would be better than andrea and rowdy. ahmad rashad needs to help us all out. also, since all the basketball players seem to love swimming charles barkley could join dan hicks in the booth. barkley and hicks on the call. summer on the deck. that would be a vast improvement.
phelps' events in london: 100 free, 200 free, 200 back, 200 breast, 200 fly, and all 3 relays.
Post a Comment