When Phelps and Bowman offered an explanation as to his unusually anemic performance, I love the part about "US Officials" - read that as USA Swimming Execs explaining that it was all about the suit choice. I suspect Amy Shipley was holding her nose the whole time when offered that as the reason for his bad showing.
From The Washington Post:
"... He blamed his performance on not being sufficiently fit and failing to adapt to the increased number of turns in short-course meters (25-meter pools instead of 50), events in which he has rarely competed. Bowman acknowledged that Phelps's choice of swimwear -- he wore a textile, waist-to-knee "jammer" rather than a long, high-tech model that will be banned as of Jan. 1 -- likely contributed. U.S. officials who declined to be identified because they did not wish to appear to be poor sports said it was the suit choice, period, that slowed Phelps. ..."
[Link]
Right now a "perfect storm" has hit Speedo. They did lousy at the 2009 FINA World Championships whereas Jaked, Arena and Adidas became the industry standard, they are being sued by TYR, they recently took a several-million-dollar hit with the abolition of their full body suits, and now their best and most expensive swimmer had a terrible showing in their brand new $260 jammer.
There is no swimsuit leader. They is no swimsuit you can point to on January 1st 2010 and say that is the best suit around.
7 comments:
Another reason: Phelps didn't look psychologically as focused during this meet - for example, he has a beard. In a way, I can understand - it's not the Olympics.
He does that during the Toyota Grand Prix too.
If Speedo would stop signing Phelps to those multi million dollar contracts, the jammer might be only $160. Speedo needs to reconsider its economic enviroment.
Well the anonymous US offials are probably just one guy, Mark Schubert. He just smiled and shaked his head when the national youth team put on their Jakeds.
Phelps wasn't wearing the new jammer. He was wearing the 2007 model. Anyway, the media's astonishment over Phelps' performance at this meet is kind of hilarious. His times were decent for a month of (interrupted) training after an injury. And I do like that Phelps refuses to blame his failures on the suits, even as everyone else around him does.
2007 model? He must have been rummaging around his sock drawer and said, "ah, here's one I've never worn!" Tosses it in his backpack and is off to Stockholm.
Tony,
Michael Phelps does not need these meets for anything other than an indication of where he's at in his training cycle. He certainly doesn't need the money.
He's racing in the jammer because that way he's got a benchmark for next year when the tech suits will not be allowed.
He and Bowman have one game and that's London 2012 and I, for one, would not bet against them.
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