Eric Heiden: Five-time Olympic gold medalist in skating, Tour de France rider, and Surgeon on swimming: "... The one thing people can fault about swimming is that the distances aren't really that different from each other. That allows someone specialized to win a lot of medals. What I did as a skater was one extreme to the other. There aren't many athletes who've done that. ..." [Link]He has thoughts about Michael Phelps as well saying it's "apples to oranges" to compare his accomplishments to Phelps for Heiden's particular accomplishments embodied both sprints and distance. He pretty much surmises that it is easier for a swimmer to score more medals if they stay with in their genetic spectrum.
For instance there may someday be a sprinter who wins the 50 free, 50 fly, 50 breast and 50 back whereas a skater to win an equal amount of medals has to be both a sprinter and a distance athlete.
5 comments:
What Heiden did was incredible, but this pretty much sounds like professional jealousy. He's not taking into account that few people can be world class in more than one stroke. And by his line of logic, track should not bother with both the 200 (which equates to roughly a 50 in swimming) and the 400 (which equates to the 100) and the 800 (= 200) since they're so close in distance. Also, why bother with both the 100 and the 110 hurdles, since they both require the same fast twitch muscle fiber?
If you read the article you'll notice that Heiden didn't launch into a tirade; he just gave his opinion in response to specific questions from the interviewer. His other options were to say "No comment," which would have been silly, or say something other than what he thought, which would have been sillier. He gave his opinion, and then he explained the thinking behind his opinion in what comes across in print as a very mild tone. Heiden didn't even say that what he did was better than what Phelps did, just different enough to make comparing the two achievements very hard.
I find myself agreeing with anonymous in thinking Heiden was just answering specific questions. When he talks about distances not being widely spaced in swimming he's expressing an opinion which, while clearly deficient in comprehending the unique difficulties inherent in swimming, is widely held outside the sport. He does, to his credit however, use the "apples to oranges" when comparing his accomplishments to Phelps. Personally speaking I feel he understated his personal accomplishments in sweeping the Lake Placid speed skating events from 500 to 10,000. He might say, "There aren't many athletes who've done that" but I can't think of another who has dominated sprints, middle distance, and distance events at the same time in any sport. To me you either have lots of fast-twitch muscles, a lot of slow-twitch muscles, or a good split between the two. I don't think his implying Phelps can only handle sprints and middle distance at the world champion level is a slight on his athletic abilities.
Picture Tony on Jeopardy!
"I will take dominating swim sprinters/distance athletes for $500, Alex!"
"And the answer is: Shane Gould!"
"Who owned every world record from the 100 meter free to the 1500 meter free simultaneously!!!"
CORRECT and we move into final Jeopardy...
(reference wikipedia-shane Gould entry)
G*d, do I hate Jeopardy.
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