Remember the "morning finals scandal" when the Australians and the Europeans were throwing tantrums about them?
Moving forward, maybe all Olympic swim finals should be held in the morning if the men's 4x100 relay is any indication.
10 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Lets take the swimmers from US, France and Australia that swam both finals and prelims. Leveaux, Cullen Jones and Targett swam slower. Bousquet swam the same time. Lauterstein swam about the same time taking into account he was no longer on the lead off leg.
Ok, fair enough, but two world records were set in that relay and five teams swam faster than the previous world record.
That is astonishing and that tells me that a majority of the 20 swimmers that participated swam faster or as fast as they would have if the finals were held in the evening.
The relay was fast, but I would suggest that has more to do with the new suits than with morning finals. If you compare the times of swimmers who swam in both prelims and finals, they are in general slower in the morning. Of course there are exceptions.
However, my gripe with morning finals is not to do with times as everyone is competing under the same conditions. Rather it's that the Chinese have spent a huge amount of money to host these games, yet many won't be able to watch the swimming finals as most people will be at work when they're on.
somebody is still on this silly "we can't swim fast in the morning" idea ? Go to the only meet in the world where people have to swim fast in the morning - NCAAs - and get back to me when you are done comparing the morning / evening times.
And about the viewers -- once a chinese TV station outbids NBC for the rights, we will see many events on Chinese time tables. Deal with it !
today the LA Times story about M. Spitz not attending b/c he was not invited was posted to the internet. what a crock. read between the lines. an egomaniac thinks he deserves to be there ... paid to be there ... and compensated b/c he was the best swimmer of his age? i think m. needs to grow up a bit and realize there are more important things in the world than idol worship toward a man who has lived in the past for the past 36 years.
that being said, he still was and I am certain remains one of the best swimmrs in the history of the sport and no one can take that away, except himself. which his attitude has done.
I read Dean's article but not the one in the Los Angeles Times. I think there is no question that Michael Phelps is the greatest swimmer to date. However, names like Mark Spitz, and eventually Michael Phelps will be forgotten by all save the record books.
is there a record that has NOT been broken during finals? i think the morning schedule has been VERY beneficial.
btw, i think it is VERY disrespectul to EVERY swimmer/coach who has trained/choached for THE olympic games, to blame their success on a peice of fabric. until there is a suit that creates a force field around your body so water cant touch you, im sure the suit has very little to do with it. these are the olympic games, which only come once every 4th year. everyone PEAKS for this meet, cause by the time the next one comes around, they may be too old.
im sure this comment wont be posted, but i hope if it is, everyone will think about things before they open their mouths.
So when I first heard morning finals/primetime, I was thinking 8pm, hence 8am there. That sounded god awful to me, if you back in time for breakfast, warmup, etc. I didn't realize they'd hold off swimming 'til 10am/10pm, which makes much more sense. Some of these folks aren't swimming finals 'til almost Noon...not really "morning" in the way I was envisioning it.
10 comments:
Lets take the swimmers from US, France and Australia that swam both finals and prelims. Leveaux, Cullen Jones and Targett swam slower. Bousquet swam the same time. Lauterstein swam about the same time taking into account he was no longer on the lead off leg.
Ok, fair enough, but two world records were set in that relay and five teams swam faster than the previous world record.
That is astonishing and that tells me that a majority of the 20 swimmers that participated swam faster or as fast as they would have if the finals were held in the evening.
My opinion differs, that's all.
The relay was fast, but I would suggest that has more to do with the new suits than with morning finals. If you compare the times of swimmers who swam in both prelims and finals, they are in general slower in the morning. Of course there are exceptions.
However, my gripe with morning finals is not to do with times as everyone is competing under the same conditions. Rather it's that the Chinese have spent a huge amount of money to host these games, yet many won't be able to watch the swimming finals as most people will be at work when they're on.
I see your point, i was being very Los Angeles centric.
Oh dear -
somebody is still on this silly "we can't swim fast in the morning" idea ?
Go to the only meet in the world where people have to swim fast in the morning - NCAAs - and get back to me when you are done comparing the morning / evening times.
And about the viewers -- once a chinese TV station outbids NBC for the rights, we will see many events on Chinese time tables. Deal with it !
Erik H
today the LA Times story about M. Spitz not attending b/c he was not invited was posted to the internet. what a crock. read between the lines. an egomaniac thinks he deserves to be there ... paid to be there ... and compensated b/c he was the best swimmer of his age? i think m. needs to grow up a bit and realize there are more important things in the world than idol worship toward a man who has lived in the past for the past 36 years.
that being said, he still was and I am certain remains one of the best swimmrs in the history of the sport and no one can take that away, except himself. which his attitude has done.
I read Dean's article but not the one in the Los Angeles Times. I think there is no question that Michael Phelps is the greatest swimmer to date. However, names like Mark Spitz, and eventually Michael Phelps will be forgotten by all save the record books.
is there a record that has NOT been broken during finals? i think the morning schedule has been VERY beneficial.
btw, i think it is VERY disrespectul to EVERY swimmer/coach who has trained/choached for THE olympic games, to blame their success on a peice of fabric. until there is a suit that creates a force field around your body so water cant touch you, im sure the suit has very little to do with it. these are the olympic games, which only come once every 4th year. everyone PEAKS for this meet, cause by the time the next one comes around, they may be too old.
im sure this comment wont be posted, but i hope if it is, everyone will think about things before they open their mouths.
anon, send me an email and I will send you a screen shot of your thoughtful comments
So when I first heard morning finals/primetime, I was thinking 8pm, hence 8am there. That sounded god awful to me, if you back in time for breakfast, warmup, etc. I didn't realize they'd hold off swimming 'til 10am/10pm, which makes much more sense. Some of these folks aren't swimming finals 'til almost Noon...not really "morning" in the way I was envisioning it.
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