Pool and Open Water Swimming: Do Not Swallow the Water

[Daisy]

Yah. the normal swimming guy/speed track guy, Steve Armitage was sick so they got Elliott Friedman, and.. today he just didn't have it. he tweeted about it, and everyone is being really supportive. 

[Rinaldo]

Just now, Daisy said:

everyone is being really supportive. 

That's so Canadian....

[Daisy]

1 minute ago, Rinaldo said:

That's so Canadian....

that's how we do. 

[Jx223]

Congrats to Penny and Simone for tying for gold in the 100m freestyle. That was an awesome finish to that race.  I also thought that it was wonderful that Simone made history tonight. I’m happy for her.

[Daisy]

There we go. finally the medal ceremony on NBC. 

[Kromm]

Just now, Daisy said:

There we go. finally the medal ceremony on NBC. 

To my shock they aired both anthems.

I suppose it's because NBC does actually have some Canadian viewers.

[Amethyst]

I honestly thought they were going to skip this.  

Maybe they said this already, but is there a reason why they aren't giving a silver medal?

[chitowngirl]

Because the Bronze medalist was the third to finish, not second. There was no second place finisher.

[Daisy]

1 minute ago, Kromm said:

To my shock they aired both anthems.

I suppose it's because NBC does actually have some Canadian viewers.

Honestly, I was preparing an angry tweet, and i fell when they started. Costas throw away of "Oh she tied.." kinda made me nervous. 

1 minute ago, Amethyst said:

I honestly thought they were going to skip this.  

Maybe they said this already, but is there a reason why they aren't giving a silver medal?

it's about mathematics or something like that - but (i had to do a wiki too) they just don't do it. if there's a tie, there's no silver (or bronze) awarded. 

[Kromm]

1 minute ago, Daisy said:

Honestly, I was preparing an angry tweet, and i fell when they started. Costas throw away of "Oh she tied.." kinda made me nervous. 

Even funnier, I thought it was going to be cut short till the VERY second they showed it. I thought they were just going to cut away and have more of Costas babbling.

[briochetwist]

2 hours ago, Daisy said:

oho wow. talk about a More You Know moment. Thanks, I was just really defending people who were taking it because it just sounded like it was something most people in that part of the world could take over the counter. I didn't know it had that aspect to it. then no sympathy then for Yulia. 

Why no sympathy? It was legal to take until January 2016 and because it doesn't clear immediately, people were testing positive for it even though they'd most likely stopped using it when they were supposed to.  I think the general public is pretty naive about what supplements a lot of these athletes take. Again, it was legal until January of this year.

[briochetwist]

2 hours ago, Aliconehead said:

 

I dont feel forEfimova, that was her second violation. She is a proven cheat without the melodium

So is American swimmer Jessica Hardy a proven cheat as well? She tested positive for a supplement in a situation EXACTLY like Efimova did. Hardy went on to compete in London in 2012 and won two medals. No one called her a cheater and treated her badly. I think the finger pointing really needs to stop.

[blackwing]

I'm surprised too, I was convinced that they would cut after the U.S. anthem.  But then I remember that to their credit, NBC does seem to air the Canadian anthem when they win.  I seem to remember hearing it more than a few times in Sochi.  And I clearly remember them airing the gold medal ceremony for Carol Huynh, the Canadian wrestler who won Canada's first gold medal in 2008.  I distinctly remember her sobbing in joy, it was a great moment.

[Daisy]

16 minutes ago, briochetwist said:

Why no sympathy? It was legal to take until January 2016 and because it doesn't clear immediately, people were testing positive for it even though they'd most likely stopped using it when they were supposed to.  I think the general public is pretty naive about what supplements a lot of these athletes take. Again, it was legal until January of this year.

I know that bit - like i had said, I had thought it was just a general thing. I know with Maria Sharapova she was told countless times it was coming off the acceptable list, and she said didn't check her notifications. So it makes me wonder how much warning everyone got (I doubt very much it was Boom, January first, y'all are all caught now.). 

and re: to no sympathy - I guess it depends on when she took it. but going to your other post re: finger pointing - as a former athlete - I simply do not have time for people who cheat.I know with this drug the timing was weird, and a lot of athletes did get caught with it - but like people like Sharapova who willingly ignored notification, then you know, too bad so sad. for the under 18 russian hockey team, were they part of the state drug plan? i don't know and they get my sympathy there. if Efinova was taking this thing after WADA said guess what it's illegal, than she's a cheater. I always give people benefit of the doubt, but if you're a drug cheat, you shouldn't be at the Games. period. 

do you knit? (i know rando questions, but i am a knitter and i am just learning how to brioche). 

Edited August 12, 2016 by Daisy

[selkie]

7 minutes ago, briochetwist said:

So is American swimmer Jessica Hardy a proven cheat as well? She tested positive for a supplement in a situation EXACTLY like Efimova did. Hardy went on to compete in London in 2012 and won two medals. No one called her a cheater and treated her badly. I think the finger pointing really needs to stop.

Summer of 2008 was ugly with that case because Hardy tested positive after USAS' roster deadline for adding additional swimmers to the Olympic roster and three other women got screwed out of a change to go to the Olympics. She was indeed called a cheater and an idiot for not checking the formulation of a supplement she was taking, and, when she set a world record shortly coming off suspension, there was very little said about that record that was in any way nice.

It took her a long time to rehab her image after the drug positive, and it might not have happened at all except that she is, by all accounts, a very pleasant person to share a lane with, and the likeability helped sell others on how the positive was accidental and not intentional.

She was also wildly inconsistent in anything outside of the 50 breast at world championships and I've got to admit I always cringed a bit when I saw her name on the relay sheet, both because of the doping, and because you never knew which Jessica would show up that hour.

 

As for meldonium, athletes were told in 2014 that it would be a 'monitored' (ie tested for) substance in 2015, and, after WADA discovered just how widely it was being used n some corners early in 2015, informed the athletes somewhere around September 30, 2015 that it was banned as of January 1, assuming that 90 days was plenty of time for it to clear the systems of compliant athletes.

[briochetwist]

4 minutes ago, Daisy said:

I know that bit - like i had said, I had thought it was just a general thing. I know with Maria Sharapova she was told countless times it was coming off the acceptable list, and she said didn't check her notifications. So it makes me wonder how much warning everyone got (I doubt very much it was Boom, January first, y'all are all caught now.). 
 

It also depends on your metabolism, everyone is different. What clears your system in a couple of weeks could take mine a couple of months.

7 minutes ago, Daisy said:

do you knit? (i know rando questions, but i am a knitter and i am just learning how to brioche). 

Ha! Congrats! You are the first ever to figure out my name, everyone else just assumes I like to bake French bread!  :)

[againstthewind]

1 hour ago, Daisy said:

Yah. the normal swimming guy/speed track guy, Steve Armitage was sick so they got Elliott Friedman, and.. today he just didn't have it. he tweeted about it, and everyone is being really supportive. 

I love Elliotte for hockey!

[briochetwist]

2 minutes ago, selkie said:

She was indeed called a cheater and an idiot for not checking the formulation of a supplement she was taking, and, when she set a world record shortly coming off suspension, there was very little said about that record that was in any way nice.

 

There may have been whispers, but I don't recall her getting booed, vilified in the press and athletes refusing to shake her hand at the Olympics in London. Do I think it's suspicious? Maybe, but I think it bothers me that there are American athletes who have failed drug tests, like Justin Gatlin who are supported but others are vilified. Just my opinion.

[Daisy]

Just now, briochetwist said:

There may have been whispers, but I don't recall her getting booed, vilified in the press and athletes refusing to shake her hand at the Olympics in London. Do I think it's suspicious? Maybe, but I think it bothers me that there are American athletes who have failed drug tests, like Justin Gatlin who are supported but others are vilified. Just my opinion.

not by Lily King! :D

[briochetwist]

1 minute ago, Daisy said:

not by Lily King! :D

True! At least she's consistent, but it's the picking and choosing of who is a 'cheat' and who isn't that really bothers me.

[Daisy]

3 minutes ago, briochetwist said:

True! At least she's consistent, but it's the picking and choosing of who is a 'cheat' and who isn't that really bothers me.

That's fair. :)
(and yes. ;) i knew it was knitting. but i also make a mean french bread so i figured 50/50 :D )

[jjj]

It is not just that Phelps is winning at age 31.  Look at the distance between him and the next swimmer in some of these races.  He is just phenomenal. 

[superdeluxe]

1 hour ago, Daisy said:

There we go. finally the medal ceremony on NBC. 

Shocked they showed the medal ceremony at all since it didn't have anything to do with Michael Phelps.

[Talky Tina]

2 hours ago, photo fox said:

@Kromm, why wouldn't they share the record? 

I remember at a previous Olympics, there was an athlete of African descent from neither Africa or America, and they called him/her "African-American from 'other country name'". lol

I have heard Naomi Campbell called African American as well. 

I don't follow swimming much, is Phelps as arrogant as he seems?

[briochetwist]

31 minutes ago, jjj said:

It is not just that Phelps is winning at age 31.  Look at the distance between him and the next swimmer in some of these races.  He is just phenomenal. 

He's abolutely amazing! I watch coverage on the CBC and not NBC, so I'm not subject to "All Phelps All The Time", I've never actually seen an interview with him, so I'm not sick of him.  So happy to see him win tonight!

[MVFrostsMyPie]

Lochte please come back in 2020. Preferably without the ice blue hair and that playboy playmate who calls herself your girlfriend. 

Does Phelps' fiancee's "crying" and facial expressions look weird and over the top to anyone else? I don't actually see any tears. Thanks to NBC I'm beyond sick of Phelps. Beyond. The straw that broke the camel's back this Olympics wasn't just his stupid broken cap, it was a recap (no pun intended) again and again about his stupid broken cap. I was thinking, "Oh. my. GOD. Who the HELL cares?" There were other guys who were part of that race too... NBC is disgusting. 

[katisha]

Well, I think we Aussies are quite shell-shocked after what happened in the women's 100m final.  To hear our media talk, you'd have thought a 1-2 finish to the Campbell sisters was a fait accompli.  Not sure what happened to Cate in particular because she really looked to have a huge amount in reserve after her semifinal win.  Oh, well, that's swimming, but it was exciting to see a rare tie for a gold medal anyway.  I was pleased for both swimmers for different reasons, Simone Manuel because of smashing stupid stereotypes to smithereens (I mean, before the Williams sisters came along, anyone who didn't remember Arthur Ashe would have thought black people couldn't play tennis either) and Penny Oleksiak because she's Canadian, and I think a lot of Australians feel quite a kinship with Canada because I've heard from Australian friends who have visited Canada that as people, we're quite similar.  Plus, I got to hear 'Oh Canada', which I think is an awesome anthem, especially compared to our dirge-y one.  Oh, and is it wrong to say I think your Prime Minister is a hottie? (blush)

I'd like to say a big congrats to Mitch Larkin for his silver in the 200 backstroke.  He's adorkable with those glasses.  I think Emily Seebohm is a lucky girl!

Finally, how many more times do we have to see the #Phelpsface?  Is he only swimming in the 100m butterfly now or will they shoehorn him into the 4 x 100 medley relay just because michaelphelpsmichaelphelpsmichaelphelps? It does almost seem churlish complaining about being sick of seeing him onscreen all the time because he IS a total legend and a swimmer beyond compare, but I just wish he would look happier sometimes because his scowl makes him look like a serial killer.

Edited August 12, 2016 by katisha

[Amethyst]

9 minutes ago, MattDuffysCat said:

Thanks to NBC I'm beyond sick of Phelps. Beyond. The straw that broke the camel's back this Olympics wasn't just his stupid broken cap, it was a recap (no pun intended) again and again about his stupid broken cap. I was thinking, "Oh. my. GOD. Who the HELL cares?" There were other guys who were part of that race too... NBC is disgusting. 

I've enjoyed seeing Phelps in what may be his last Olympics, but when I saw the ridiculous timer (complete with his grumpy cat face) I think I was officially "over it."  

[Muffyn]

Shout out to the British swimmer, James Guy, who poked his head in front of the Phelps' cam when they were in the ready room for the 100 M butterfly semi.  That's the way to make sure people see you! 

[jjj]

I think dislike of NBC is getting in the way of enjoying the amazing Phelps.  I watch CBC, which couldn't even get his finish right earlier tonight.  Lochte really should get a copy of that announcing -- the Canadian announcers went nuts for the Lochte "win" in the event that Phelps actually won.  Phelps has no say in how NBC is packaging its primetime coverage. 

[briochetwist]

3 minutes ago, jjj said:

I think dislike of NBC is getting in the way of enjoying the amazing Phelps.  I watch CBC, which couldn't even get his finish right earlier tonight.  Lochte really should get a copy of that announcing -- the Canadian announcers went nuts for the Lochte "win" in the event that Phelps actually won.  Phelps has no say in how NBC is packaging its primetime coverage. 

To be fair, CBC also botched Penny Oleksiak's gold medal swim, the fill in announcer kept calling her Emily Overholt, no one had a clue she'd actually won a bloody medal. Not sure what the hell was up with them tonight.

[voiceover]

The close-up of a weeping Simone Manuel, singing along to the National Anthem, will probably be my favorite image from these games.

Damn!! so proud of you, girl!

[legaleagle53]

1 hour ago, katisha said:

Well, I think we Aussies are quite shell-shocked after what happened in the women's 100m final.  To hear our media talk, you'd have thought a 1-2 finish to the Campbell sisters was a fait accompli.  Not sure what happened to Cate in particular because she really looked to have a huge amount in reserve after her semifinal win.  Oh, well, that's swimming, but it was exciting to see a rare tie for a gold medal anyway.  I was pleased for both swimmers for different reasons, Simone Manuel because of smashing stupid stereotypes to smithereens (I mean, before the Williams sisters came along, anyone who didn't remember Arthur Ashe would have thought black people couldn't play tennis either) and Penny Oleksiak because she's Canadian, and I think a lot of Australians feel quite a kinship with Canada because I've heard from Australian friends who have visited Canada that as people, we're quite similar.  Plus, I got to hear 'Oh Canada', which I think is an awesome anthem, especially compared to our dirge-y one.  Oh, and is it wrong to say I think your Prime Minister is a hottie? (blush)

Oh, I don't know.  I rather like "Advance, Australia Fair."

[briochetwist]

Speaking of anthems, just watched the ceremony with the Canadian and American anthems and noticed that the American anthem sounds slightly...off. Is it just me? It's such a lovely anthem but it sounds a little different and ever so slightly less exuberant.

[Aliconehead]

7 hours ago, briochetwist said:

So is American swimmer Jessica Hardy a proven cheat as well? She tested positive for a supplement in a situation EXACTLY like Efimova did. Hardy went on to compete in London in 2012 and won two medals. No one called her a cheater and treated her badly. I think the finger pointing really needs to stop.

Nope no sympathy for her either. I also feel Gatlin and Gay should not be there either. I feel if you have been caught doping you should not be allowed to compete in the Olympics. We are rewarding cheating. 

Now to be fair Efimova ban was reversed like the week before the games while the others ban were not a recent, that might be why the extreme hate of the other competitors. 

I just would prefer those that test positive not be there because it is their responsibility to know what they are putting into their body and the should be clean 

[MyAimIsTrue]

9 hours ago, superdeluxe said:

Now, I'm mad I missed the Simone Manuel race.  I just didn't want to sit through any Phelps garbage.

Same here.  After spending time showing Phelps gliding through the warm up pool I'd had enough of his constant overexposure and turned off the TV for the night, and found out this morning I missed a helluva race in the women's 100m free.  So far I can't find video of it either.  Congratulations to golden girls Simone and Penny!

I set off a bit of a shitstorm on FB last night when I admitted I cannot stand Michael Phelps.  Even my own sister pretty much told me to get over it.

[Daisy]

4 minutes ago, MyAimIsTrue said:

Same here.  After spending time showing Phelps gliding through the warm up pool I'd had enough of his constant overexposure and turned off the TV for the night, and found out this morning I missed a helluva race in the women's 100m free.  So far I can't find video of it either.  Congratulations to golden girls Simone and Penny!

I set off a bit of a shitstorm on FB last night when I admitted I cannot stand Michael Phelps.  Even my own sister pretty much told me to get over it.

They have it on NBCOlympics.com :) 
(and CBC is showing it over and over again ;) complete with the edit that Penny actually won)

[MyAimIsTrue]

6 minutes ago, Daisy said:

They have it on NBCOlympics.com :) 

Thanks!  I'm at work and the company firewall blocks all videos so I guess I'll wait until I get home tonight to watch, cheer, and cry.

Quote

At the 1976 Olympic Games, Brigitha finally earned the first individual Olympic medals of her career, becoming the first black swimmer to medal. She finished 3rd in both the 100 and 200 freestyles. However, as mentioned earlier, Brigitha was only beaten by East German swimmers, with the one exception in the 200 freestyle, where USA’s Shirley Babashoff won silver

In recent years Shirley Babashoff has been very vocal about injustices due to the East German doping program.  It's a real shame that the cheating was that rampant and nothing really can be done about it to right any wrongs.

[Crs97]

Regarding whether Michael is arrogant, all I know is that I have a friend whose son swam competitively for awhile.  Phelps came to a meet; it was probably after his second Olympics.  My friend's son said that he was uncomfortable with the crowd, but was very nice to them in the back area.  After the races he saw the kids playing video games and asked to join in.  Huge age gap between Phelps and the swimmers, but apparently love of video games knows no age.  Anyway, he came away thinking Michael was quiet, but nice.

[Bill1978]

6 hours ago, katisha said:

Well, I think we Aussies are quite shell-shocked after what happened in the women's 100m final.  To hear our media talk, you'd have thought a 1-2 finish to the Campbell sisters was a fait accompli.  Not sure what happened to Cate in particular because she really looked to have a huge amount in reserve after her semifinal win.

Did you manage to see Giaan Rooney's analysis of what happened with Cate? It was a good analysis that didn't use the word disappointing like Boris or whatever kept saying. Giaan kept it technical and non-personal. From memory she said that you can see Cate move a bit early before the starting gun and that she was 0.8 reaction time from the starting pistol noise and one of the last in the pool. She thinks that Cate held back a bit on the leap because of her 'stumble' and that may have contributed to the swim even though she was first at the turn.

[katisha]

40 minutes ago, Bill1978 said:

Did you manage to see Giaan Rooney's analysis of what happened with Cate? It was a good analysis that didn't use the word disappointing like Boris or whatever kept saying. Giaan kept it technical and non-personal. From memory she said that you can see Cate move a bit early before the starting gun and that she was 0.8 reaction time from the starting pistol noise and one of the last in the pool. She thinks that Cate held back a bit on the leap because of her 'stumble' and that may have contributed to the swim even though she was first at the turn.

First of all, hi, stranger.  Long time no see! :)

Yes, I did hear Giann's analysis of the event and it was a good one.  She's been there (I don't know what the other guy's background is but I don't think it's swimming) so she understands the pressure the swimmers are under.  I don't think it's any coincidence that just about every swimmer our media had pencilled in for gold medals or medals of any colour have mostly fallen flat on their faces and the ones who have done well have been those on whom there was less pressure i.e. Kyle Chalmers and possibly even Mack Horton.  I don't include the women's 4 x 100m freestyle relay team because I think the pressure is defrayed somewhat when it's shared amongst four people.  

I remember at the last couple of Olympics there was talk of our swimmers getting incredibly distracted by Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc, and I think that's a bad thing.  If they were to look at the Australian Olympic Team Facebook page, they'd have seen quite a bit of negative commentary about them "choking" and how they should pull their fingers out and do better because "our taxes are paying for this". I hope the remaining swimmers we have can just shrug all that stuff off and go out there and do their best.  That's all anyone can ask.  And they should try and have fun whilst competing and soak up the experience.

[selkie]

8 hours ago, Talky Tina said:

I have heard Naomi Campbell called African American as well. 

I don't follow swimming much, is Phelps as arrogant as he seems?

For a long time, he didn't seem to have much personality at all- one of those child prodigies that never really got a change to be a Real Boy. But he's, by all reports been very generous with his time over the years trying to grow American Swimming (see how many of the younger Team USA members have a picture of themselves with Phelps from an autograph session when they were 10& unders) and, given how he was cheerfully chatting with Le Clos after the 100 fly semis, there seemed to be intensity at race time but pleasant respect at other times.

57 minutes ago, Bill1978 said:

Did you manage to see Giaan Rooney's analysis of what happened with Cate? It was a good analysis that didn't use the word disappointing like Boris or whatever kept saying. Giaan kept it technical and non-personal. From memory she said that you can see Cate move a bit early before the starting gun and that she was 0.8 reaction time from the starting pistol noise and one of the last in the pool. She thinks that Cate held back a bit on the leap because of her 'stumble' and that may have contributed to the swim even though she was first at the turn.

For someone as fast as she is, Cate really has a history of average to bad starts- it's why she's seen as more vulnerable in the 50 where she has less time to recover from it. I wonder if she got caught up in trying to fix that problem and chase the perfect Olympic final and when it didn't go well, it all fell apart.

Chatter on the swimming boards is that the Aussies don't race enough and that it leaves them mentally unprepared for big meets. The Americans have the college system and a grand prix series open to the world (the Florida meet in February/Mach is a popular place for international teams looking for a bit of sunny training camp), the Chinese apparently have pretty robust domestic competition, and the Europeans have the European championships as well the the Mare Nostrum series (aka where Prince Albert found his princess with chlorine-fried hair) , Seven Hills meet, etc. FINA also has the World Cup short course series. But the Aussies don't have that kind of slate domestically and the last one wo seemed interested in doing something like the Mare Nostrum series was Ian Thorpe.

[legaleagle53]

6 hours ago, briochetwist said:

Speaking of anthems, just watched the ceremony with the Canadian and American anthems and noticed that the American anthem sounds slightly...off. Is it just me? It's such a lovely anthem but it sounds a little different and ever so slightly less exuberant.

It sounds that way to me, too, and I realized it was because the melody is being carried by the woodwinds instead of the brass and the strings, as I'm used to hearing.  There also seems to be a distinct lack of bass in the recording that these games are using, and I think that contributes to its slightly jarring sound.

Edited August 12, 2016 by legaleagle53

[againstthewind]

8 hours ago, MattDuffysCat said:

Lochte please come back in 2020. Preferably without the ice blue hair and that playboy playmate who calls herself your girlfriend. 

 

Yeah, I saw him on Tinder (thanks location-changing!) so not so much.

 

Re: Phelps. I have partied with him back in the day, and so has my cousin. He was kind of a douchebag about 5 or 6 years ago, but by all accounts has really mellowed. I'm from Annapolis, MD so I know a ton of people who know him.

Also, I drive past Ledecky's school every day :)

Edited August 12, 2016 by againstthewind

[TobinAlbers]

7 hours ago, briochetwist said:

Speaking of anthems, just watched the ceremony with the Canadian and American anthems and noticed that the American anthem sounds slightly...off. Is it just me? It's such a lovely anthem but it sounds a little different and ever so slightly less exuberant.

Yup! Whole article about it in the NYTimes. Many musicologist feel the arrangers made it less bombastic and more 'apologetic'.

Edited August 12, 2016 by TobinAlbers

[Rinaldo]

12 hours ago, Daisy said:

[why there's no silver medal when there's a tie for gold] it's about mathematics or something like that - but (i had to do a wiki too) they just don't do it. 

I guess my previous explanation of this failed to clarify it, and for that I apologize. I'm going to try again -- it's not even about mathematics (that makes it sound complex and it's not), just counting.

When everyone has a different time in a race, you see the names listed after their placing numbers like this:

1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8

(As displayed onscreen, those would be in a vertical column but I'm trying to save space.) If the first two have the same time, then the display is:

1  1  3  4  5  6  7  8

The first two have the same rank, both first place ("gold"). But the next person in line has two people ahead of her, so she's in third place ("bronze"). Nobody was in second place in this race, because the first two were equal.

There was a race last night (it may have been this same one) that actually had two ties, so the scores were listed on the same principle

1  1  3  4  4  6  7  8

If there were ever to be a triple dead heat for first place, three swimmers with exactly the same time (which I doubt has ever happened), then they would award 3 gold medals -- and no others (because the top three finishers were all medaled).

9 hours ago, briochetwist said:

Speaking of anthems, just watched the ceremony with the Canadian and American anthems and noticed that the American anthem sounds slightly...off. Is it just me? It's such a lovely anthem but it sounds a little different and ever so slightly less exuberant.

I like it. (Speaking as a music professor, which may make my opinion suspect. :) ) It's bright, in tempo for a change (so many modern renditions are overwrought and overdone), and blessedly free of bombast. This is the way I would like to hear it all the time.

Edited August 12, 2016 by Rinaldo

[selkie]

There was a three way tie for bronze in the women's 200M breast at last year's world championships. USA Today has an article on it, including a screen grab of the order of finish that going from 3rd to 6th:

 

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/08/swimming-world-championships-200-breast-three-way-tie-bronze-kanako-watanabe

[Ohwell]

Yay Simone!

[BitterApple]

2 hours ago, MyAimIsTrue said:

Same here.  After spending time showing Phelps gliding through the warm up pool I'd had enough of his constant overexposure and turned off the TV for the night, and found out this morning I missed a helluva race in the women's 100m free.  So far I can't find video of it either.  Congratulations to golden girls Simone and Penny!

I set off a bit of a shitstorm on FB last night when I admitted I cannot stand Michael Phelps.  Even my own sister pretty much told me to get over it.

I gave up on the coverage after the women's free. I think I can pretty much summarize how the night went: semifinal race, commercial, preview for next semi, commercial, shot of Phelps in green room, commercial, preview of Phelps race, commercial, puff piece, commercial, Phelp's race, commercial, analysis of Phelp's race, commercial, shot of Phelps in warmdown pool, commercial, interview with Phelps, commercial, Ryan Seacrest, commercial etc. 

I'm over this Olympics. 

eta: It was especially annoying considering the real stories of last night were Simone Manuel's historic win and Simone and Aly going 1-2 in the Women's Gymnastics. But enough about them, let's get back to Phelps....

Edited August 12, 2016 by BitterApple

[jjj]

3 hours ago, Crs97 said:

Regarding whether Michael is arrogant, all I know is that I have a friend whose son swam competitively for awhile.  Phelps came to a meet; it was probably after his second Olympics.  My friend's son said that he was uncomfortable with the crowd, but was very nice to them in the back area.  After the races he saw the kids playing video games and asked to join in.  Huge age gap between Phelps and the swimmers, but apparently love of video games knows no age.  Anyway, he came away thinking Michael was quiet, but nice.

Yes, I knew Phelps around this time also (after the Athens gold medals), at university, and he was pretty quiet around people he did not know well, but completely pleasant.  And completely disciplined, because he was already working toward the world competitions and next Olympics.  Bob Bowman (also very congenial outside of the pool area) was the swimming coach at Michigan in those years, and they were all about keeping to a schedule and training.  I'm not surprised Phelps had some party incidents after so many years of complete discipline.