This Olympics could feature the worst ever swim outing for the United States. From the top down, our relay selections should be based on analytic results and not politics.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Somebody dust off Mark Schubert and send him to London, please! We could use a little leadership here.
This Olympics could feature the worst ever swim outing for the United States. From the top down, our relay selections should be based on analytic results and not politics.
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Hi Tony,
According to a close relative of one of the assistant coaches on the men's staff, the coaches met after prelims and Gregg Troy was actually going to replace Michael Phelps with Ryan Lochte because Lochte beat Phelps in the 400 IM by three seconds(?). It was a very heated argument amongst the coaches and Troy compromised by leaving Grevers off, putting Phelps back on and insisting that Lochte go fourth. The assistant coach on the staff, who never gets mad or says a bad word about anyone, went for a three hour walk to exercise off his disgust at Troy's decision.
People can say what they want about Mark Schubert, but at least he was decisive and everyone knew who was in charge. Frank Busch is a nice man but doesn't have the skill set to be our country's National Team Director. This is Wielgus' fault and the turmoil he caused has hurt our Olympic effort thus far.
What really hurt the Americans in the 4 x 100 is that they didn't have 4 guys that could keep up to the French. Simple as that.
The problem wasn't Lochte's split. It was respectable and faster than any other guy from the US camp could go. The issue was that Angel split 46.74!!! Second fastest ever done in a textile.
The US got beat, plain and simple. It happens.
that had three guys that did but the choice of Lochte over a specialist is arguably the pro causa for the defeat.
What was the team doing for a month in training camp? just making videos & screwing around?
I have to believe that the coaches were constantly assessing the swimmers via pacing and time trials and they knew exactly what each swimmer was capable of. That the lineup would come down to a heated argument among the coaches following the prelims is not believable, especially when it was reported that Bowman and Troy together decided on the order of the swimmers and Lochte/Phelps seemed to have no animosity toward each other.
I agree with Ted Baker that Lochte's split wasn't the problem, the problem was Agnel blew everyone away with a monster swim.
@TedBaker: False. Grevers was faster than Jones and Lochte in prelims. He was a great relay swimmer in college and at the 2009 world champs, so he arguably would have been faster than Lochte.
@Tony: Do you really think Coughlin should have gotten the fourth spot? If there was any debate, it was over whether Vollmer should be on the relay. Hardy, Schmitt, and Franklin already had flat start times faster than Coughlin's relay split, and Neal flat started faster than Goughlin's relay split as well. Vollmer only finished seventh at trials because she intentionally let Coughlin in the lane next to her finish 6th so she'd make the Olympic team. Mckeever probably decided to play it safe in qualifying for the 100 fly despite Vollmer's 1.5 second safety margin, and to give her a better shot at the WR.
Many fans saw it coming - immediately after Trials, where Lochte failed to impress in 100 free and 100 fly - that Troy would somehow find a way to shove Lochte into relays, so he could claim more medals, for obvious reasons (sponsors, endorsement deals, bonuses and promises of gazillion medals he couldn't keep etc).
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Thank you, Tony, for your patience with this clarification and brief bit of shameless self-promotion.
The worst-ever swim outing for the United States? Do you even know what that is? In 1956, the U.S. won 11 medals (2 golds, 4 silvers, and 5 bronzes). Granted there were fewer events back then. Let's look at something more recent. In 1988, the U.S. won 18 medals (8g, 6 s, 4b), and that was with the great Matt Biondi winning 6 gold. As of last night, the U.S. has 16 medals (6g, 6s, 4b) and is pretty much on pace to equal the performances inn Sydney (33 medals), Athens (28 medals), and Beijing (31 medals). Lochte and Phelps might not be hauling away the gold like we've come to expect from them, but the rest of the team is achieving quite well. Even the men's 400 free relay, which everyone here seems to be down on should have never been inn a position to win on paper. Get a grip.
Another thing to keep in mind: Americans have medaled in EVERY EVENT SO FAR except the men's 200 free. When was the last time that happened? It wasn't Beijing. Worst showing indeed...
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I'll take you up on that, Tony. Last night the women's 800 free relay won a gold medal. Tomorrow, they will most likely win gold in the 400 medley relay. (the have the individual gold medalists in two of the three strokes, and Soni was second by what, a couple hundredths in the 100 breast).
How many golds did the women win in relays in 2008 under Schubert's leadership? While I don't believe it had anything to do with him, necessarily, and we might in fact be seeing the fruits of that leadership a couple years later, I think the current leadership seems to be doing just fine.
Man... so glad I didn't see this post while I was over there. :) Lia absolutely earned that spot on the night relay. Natalie outsplit her by 2/10ths with a .00 takeoff and Lia swimming from a flat start. Anyway... any other swimmer wouldn't have made any difference, and Lia proved she deserved the spot. With two 17 year olds on the relay, the future looks promising. Yes I'm incredibly biased in this.
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