Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Ryan Lochte's "grill" cost $25,000

If I had a spare $25k I would put a partial down payment on a condo and rent it out til the market corrected or perhaps as a permanent rental. Oh the possibilities when choosing either a "grill" or an investment?

From MTV:
"...You can call rapper/jeweler, Paul Wall, "George Foreman" because he’s selling everybody grills—even recent Team USA gold medalist Ryan Lochte. The New York native set the world on fire Sunday when he followed up his gold medal-winning performance in the 400-meter Individual Medley in London with his own flash of patriotism: a $25, 000 custom red, white and blue diamond-encrusted American flag grill custom made by the rapper known for keeping other rappers’ mouths shining like disco balls. Paul Wall gave RapFix the scoop on designing the accessory...." 
[Link]

FINA president Julio Maglione also calls John Leonard's comments "stupid..."

Now the President of the international governing for swimming, namely FINA President, Dr.Julio Maglione, is coming forward and not only criticizing John Leonard's embarrassing remarks but with a twist of grammar possibly drags in other American coaches, journalists and perhaps even USA Swimming executives for suggesting Ye Shiwen doped.

From US News and World Report:

Asked about Leonard's comments, FINA president Julio Maglione told The Associated Press that people are free to say "stupid things" if they want.

"It's a big mistake," Maglione said of Ye's doubters. "The people that said this is crazy."

He said FINA spends $1 million to drug-test the top 30 swimmers in the world two or three times a year and "swimming is absolutely clean."

He said that he has absolutely no suspicions about Ye and that her critics are jealous because China is becoming a swimming power.

"It's best for the swimming," Maglione said. "Not only two or three countries. We have now 15 countries that take medals, 20 countries. That is important that many countries in the world take medals."

[Link]

Where is USA Swimming on this on and why are they not distancing themselves from these comments or making John Leonard apologize or resign over this international row?

And on to more serious news: Missy Franklin's boyfriend!

Excess sugar alert 

From Zimbio:

While friends and family members are undoubtedly elated by the gold, you can bet her beau John Martens, who's also a swimmer, is ecstatic too. The pair started dating just under a year ago and even practice at the same pool. “We try to support each other,” Martens said. “If we had a bad practice or a bad meet we try to bring each other back up, to tell each other to focus. It’s only one bad day. You can work through it. Just that type of positive attitude.” Aww. 
 [Link]

John Leonard, your unmeasured words have now inspired the Chinese to accuse Michael Phelps of doping!

Mr. Leonard, who gave you the authority to speak out loud about perceived doping issues for USA Swimming? You have embarrassed the staff at Colorado Springs and now in retaliation a Chinese doctor with unequally unmeasured words is accusing Michael Phelps of doping.

Do you realize that you have spoken for and in place of the USA Swimming executive director and you had no authority to do that? If I was a board member at USA Swimming you would be so fired!

From the Los Angeles Times:

"... LONDON -- First, there was this screaming headline in Britain's Daily Mail: "US Attacks China Over Drugs Row Supergirl Swimmer."

But the next move in the swim pool tat-for-tat war of words between the United States and China was truly bizarre and strangely out of focus, as a former Olympic doctor from China promptly decided to throw Michael Phelps and his 14 gold medals under the bus. ..." 
[Link]

Throwing around doping allegations without the "grow-ups" or professionals whose job it is to police this sport will kill the swimming category.

"Killing the category" is an adverting and marketing term which means you never hurl insults regarding the quality of your direct competitor's product or service. i.e. "Joe's Pizza" does not state that "Burger Baby" has "rat poop" in their food because the end user or customer will simply avoid ALL fast food once "Burger Baby" retaliates. 

Monday, July 30, 2012

California State Supreme Court Denies USA Swimming's Request to Keep Coaching Molestation Documents Confidential

This was sent to me by a reader... 

California State Supreme Court ruling marks the seventh time that USA Swimming has been ordered to produce confidential coaching molestation documents...

USA Swimming argues that they want to protect the innocent but does that wash?

Two law firms representing a plaintiff named Jancy Thompson in a case seeking monetary damages for the alleged sexual abuse and molestation by a USA Swimming certified coach named, Norm Havercroft, claims that the molestation could have been prevented if USA Swimming made this guy's name public.

Snippet from the press release:
SAN JOSE, CA – July 31, 2012 -- The law firms of Corsiglia, McMahon & Allard of San Jose, California, and Shamberg, Johnson and Bergman in Kansas City, Missouri, are announcing that the California State Supreme Court on Friday denied USA Swimming's request  to keep confidential the last twenty years of sexual molestation complaints filed against its coaches. In denying the petition for review, the State Supreme Court refused to hear USA Swimming's appeal of a lower court decision  that ordered the organization to turn over twenty years of coaching molestation records without redactions. Since the Supreme Court has denied the petition for review, the Court of Appeal ruling governs the case and further appeal in a California state court is not allowed.

The Omega signage everywhere is seducing me!

I wear an Omega Seamaster de Ville automatic circa 1964 and I look at it every time I see a swimmer reach for the wall and then either fist pump or splash the water in an expression of victory!

Now I want another one! Omega should make a "Poolmaster de Ville" chronometer with a "touchpad yellow" dial and their red logo boldly blazing across it.


IOC Medical Commissioner: Just one of many measured voices in support of Ye Shiwen!

Apparently an IOC exec is not taking to kindly to Craig Lord and John Leonard's accusations. In a measured tone he politely scolds and if you read between the lines you can make out these words, "You do your job and we'll do ours so sit back and enjoy the show and don't subscribe to jackasses who are such sore losers."

From ABC News:
"... At a briefing Monday in London, reporters peppered Arne Ljungqvist, the International Olympic Committee's medical commission chairman, with questions about Ye Shiwen, China's 16-year-old swimming sensation. Ljungqvist said "it is very sad that an unexpected performance be surrounded by suspicions."

"Suspicion is halfway an accusation that something is wrong," Ljungqvist said. "I don't like that. I would rather have facts." ..."

What do more measured people have to say?
"... I get paid per month, per swimmer four times more than I do with my home swimmers," Wood said from Australia after Ye qualified comfortably fastest Monday in the 200 medley heats. China pays him bonuses for Olympic gold and for swimmers' personal bests, and he also got a bonus for Ye's 200 medley world championship win in 2011.

"China is putting a lot of money into its program and I am only too happy to work with them," he said. "The whole Chinese philosophy is that they want to be the best they can. ..." 
[Link]

It's a three-page must read and these comments are just on the first page alone.

I want to finish with this: When NASA and the European Space Agency landed the Huygens probe on a very cold moon of Saturn called Titan, the data stated that the atmosphere was made methane, or natural gas. the same blue flame that comes out of our gas stoves. In fact the planet was cold that this methane rained down from the skies and created mighty rivers and a thick cloud cover.

With this in mind, this is an extraordinary claim but most people believe it because we have faith in them because of past accomplishments. How do we know it's not "ethane" or "helium?" Can any of us read the spectrometer data and verify it?

Can any of us cross examine a drug test?

I say dissolve your bigotries in the Olympic performances and revel in their excitement and result and let the professional behind the scenes do their jobs and jackasses like John Leonard should be scolded by their respective employers.

Go Ye Shiwen, Go World!



John Leonard rhetorically beats up 16-year-old Chinese Olympian, Ye Shiwen!


A 'rhetorical question' is when you pose a question as a statement so as to make a direct point and escape direct responsibility for the covert remark.

To give you some back ground, John Leonard is the executive director of the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA), the coaching body that both educates and certifies coaches for USA Swimming.

To make it simple, it's an organization where you PAY both the teacher to teach and to certify you. (I wish I could have "paid the teacher" to" teach" and "certify" me in the fourth grade.)

I must mention that John Leonard threaten to sue both myself and Sarah G. after we found out that his corporate filings are not only a complete mess but that his 501c status may be non-existent as well. Not only did this "executive director" back off from suing me, he actually was forced to admit under oath that all the criticisms he levied against both Sarah G. and myself were wrong and that our accusations were absolutely correct! - Ultimately, I don't like the guy.

I have that deposition and I will be sending it to USA Swimming so they can see how their Coaching certifying body does business and I will include suggestions that will propose a better system whereas both departments are separate.. I will also publish it to this blog as a follow up to "whatever happened to John Leonard's corporate filings."

For now, John Leonard said this about a teenage swimmer who had an extraordinary swim in London. Her name is, Ye Shiwen, and in the final 100-free of the her 400 IM she swam a 58.68 thereby capping a world record in the event. She was ultimately the talk of the town both out loud and within whispers.

"We want to be very careful about calling it doping," said Leonard, who is also the executive director of the USA Swimming Coaches Association.

"The one thing I will say is that history in our sport will tell you that every time we see something, and I will put quotation marks around this, 'unbelievable', history shows us that it turns out later on there was doping involved. That last 100m was reminiscent of some old East German swimmers, for people who have been around a while. It was reminiscent of the 400m individual medley by a young Irish woman in Atlanta."

He went on to say:

"I have been around swimming for four-and-a-half decades now," he said. "If you have been around swimming you know when something has been done that just isn't right. I have heard commentators saying 'well she is 16, and at that age amazing things happen'. Well yes, but not that amazing. I am sorry."
[Link

Why is it that USA Swimming tolerates him as to what I consider to be a paid liability. Talk about unmeasured? He may think this stuff or he may bring it up to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) but to make it publicly known to a London paper is essentially Leonard acting as an indirect  mouthpiece for both USA Swimming and their certified coaches.

Both should give him a spanking for bad manners.



Somebody dust off Mark Schubert and send him to London, please! We could use a little leadership here.

[ I regret this post - I take it all back ] I just saw Natalie Coughlin's split again for the 4x100 free - Why she was not rewarded with a slot in the finals is beyond comprehension. Compound that with the mens 4x100 silver medal whereas Lochte, swimming outside of his expertise was summarily immoral as well. Smells of showboating and it went badly.

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.

Ryan Lochte: still surfing Michael Phelps coattails post 400 IM win

Back from the Alcatraz race - I couldn't blog while I was away but I was indeed watching when Ryan Lochte handed Michael Phelps his "bum" in the 400 IM. Now, despite handily beating him by an astonishing four-seconds the front page of the New York Times gave the top billing to Phelps rather  than Ryan Lochte.

The headline read:  "Phelps lags behind Lochte and misses a medal!" Note, Michael Phelps was the news and Lochte relegated as the minor player rather than the "dragon slayer" - [Link]

In the 4x100 free we actually exceeded expectations destroying the Australians; (like guitars ;-) Their best guy James Magnussen had been mouthing off a bit targeting Phelps as an opponent he was going to enjoy beating but that prediction proved ineffectual.

Though the French looked much better on paper than the USA, It was the United States that led the whole way till Yannick Agnel went "Lezak" on Lochte. I suspect that if Jason Lezak would have been swimming that leg he would have had the experience and the heart to hold that lead handed to him by Cullen Jones.

The first person interviewed after the race was Michael Phelps rather than Ryan Lochte. Phelps was gracious and obviously did his part rather well. The race was a definite disappointment when you saw what a lead Lochte was handed. Here was a chance for Lochte to be the icing on the cake and be appreciated for stepping in but per his admission, "this is not my specialty" was not only accurate but it was definitely not a classy thing to say especially when you follow it up we are the "best four guys."

Ryan Lochte may still be a breakout swimmer with lots of endorsements and face time but apparently he needs Michael Phelps whereas Michael Phelps doesn't need anybody.



Thursday, July 26, 2012

USA Swimming rebuttal to the Kelley Currin press release!

To USA Swimming's credit they searched for Kelley Currin, found her after hearing a rumor only and spoke with her. That's impressive. However, they made one fatal mistake in my opinion...

According to USA Swimming; (see below), their investigator was seemingly concerned and advised Currin to check with a lawyer or face the potential of being sued by the predator, Rick Curl, since her settlement was suppose to be confidential.


USA Swimming's job is to protect its swimmers and not be a nice a guy and give out legal advice. I look at it as trying to protect the economic interests of the victim and getting all the ducks in a row first but the moral conundrum here is whether the protection of the many outweigh the economics of a single person.

Running to go catch a plane, excuse the typos.

From USA Swimming:
"Acting on information it had received about a possible incident involving an unidentified swimmer in the past, USA Swimming worked for months to identify Ms. Currin, and then to locate her. USA Swimming found Ms. Currin and raised this matter with her. She did not come to us.

USA Swimming’s third-party investigator first spoke with Ms. Currin in April. At that time, Ms. Currin sent the investigator the confidential Settlement Agreement she had signed with Mr. Curl. Because this agreement was described as “confidential,” USA Swimming advised Ms. Currin to speak with an attorney before the investigator sent the settlement agreement on to USA Swimming in order to protect herself from legal jeopardy. Ms. Currin’s first lawyer agreed with that approach, and the investigator did not forward the agreement.

On Wednesday, July 18, Ms. Currin advised USA Swimming that she had a new lawyer. On Friday morning, July 20, counsel for USA Swimming emailed the new lawyer and advised him that if, as Ms. Currin’s new counsel, he was comfortable with USA Swimming seeing a copy of the Settlement Agreement, we would ask the investigator to send it to us immediately. Friday afternoon, Mr. Allard attached the Settlement Agreement to an email sent directly to USA Swimming. The following Monday, USA Swimming initiated a National Board of Review proceeding against Mr. Curl based on information contained in the Settlement Agreement."


Olympian Leisel Jones called "fat" in polite terms by Australia newspaper!

John Q Swimmer sent this to us. Leisel Jones has been to four Olympics come Friday. An Australian paper is dismayed that she is overweight. As for me I prefer to see aesthetically fit people do do sports but that is my problem not theirs.

From Yahoo Sports:

It did not go over well but it still doesn't mean it's not true or if it even really is a bad thing. From Yahoo Sports: "...Leisel, 26, has swam in the Olympics since the 2000 Sydney Games when she was 15. She owns three gold medals, four silvers and a bronze. Her record is secure. But, admittedly, she doesn't look like the same girl she used to when wearing a form-fitting swimsuit. 
The question that comes up is: Does it matter? Is it the media's place to question the fitness of an athlete who has already proved herself by making the team in the first place?..."

[Link]

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Will be swimming the Alcatraz Sharfest this weekend - blogging will be sketchy!



It will be fun.

Ryan Lochte: Never take a girlfriend to the Olympics


Not one to measure his words he puts his intentions right out there; he's there to have fun. or his exact quote:

From SF Gate:
 "... My last Olympics, I had a girlfriend – big mistake. Now I’m single, so London should be really good. ..." [Link
Now it look at his hat, is there anything he can't make look stylish and classy? (wait... Shoes, grills and saggy Speedos excluded please.) I believe his choice of hat is a Bucket hat or it could be a small brimmed fedora; can't tell from here.

I respect Lochte's talent, his charm and attitude. He will make a formidable adult if he grows up.


Press release regarding Cullen Jones and Citi - Follow his progress at site Citi set up.

Today at the USA House in London, Olympic swimmer Cullen Jones helped unveil these one-of-a-kind ‘Signature Steps’ as part of Citi’s Team USA sponsorship. Representing each of athlete’s step on the journey from ambition to achievement and the lasting impact of the Every Step of the Way program for athletes of all ages in communities across America. Fans can join in and support Cullen’s Olympic journey as he competes in London at citi.com/everystep.

[The website will be a good way to follow the athletes you like - tony]

Attorney/Victim Press release regarding the Rick Curl sex scandal!

Sexual molestation victim, Kelley Currin, is represented by Attorney Robert Allard. He is the same attorney who represented Jane Doe versus US Swimming lawsuit in San Jose. Both are asking that USA Swimming to ban swim coach Rick Curl for life and it actually should have happened months ago.

The most chilling news in this press release is that USA Swimming got the victim report in April and still allowed this "piece of work" to get deck pass to US Olympic trials.

USA Swimming should have suspended this guy as soon as they were done reading the fax.

SAN JOSE, CA – July 25, 2012 -- Molestation victims’ rights attorney Robert Allard is representing a swim coach molestation victim who is asking USA Swimming to ban swim coach Rick Curl for life based on a signed admission by Curl that he molested the then 13 year old swimmer. The victim is now 43. The Washington Post today reported on the molestation allegedly suffered by victim Kelley Currin. 
Currin states, “It is disappointing that USA Swimming has known about Rick Curl and his admission for several months now and has chosen to act only when the Washington Post reports the admission. 
I faxed the settlement agreement and admission by Rick Curl to a USA Swimming investigator in April of this year. I also followed up and communicated via phone with USA Swimming's Susan Woesnner, the so-called "Athlete Protection Officer". I know now that Woesnner was giving me lip service by saying they were sympathetic but then going ahead and giving Rick Curl coaching credentials to the US Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska. For USA Swimming to tell the media that they just learned of my complaint late last Friday afternoon" (July 20), is an outright lie. There was nothing sent to USA Swimming on July 20 that it did not already have in its possession. The only thing that changed is that the Washington Post got involved. Only then did they give the appearance that they were concerned about my complaint. The fact is that USA Swimming has known about Rick Curl for years.” 
Attorney Robert Allard is asking USA Swimming to protect the victim from further abuse by having her recall in detail a painful chapter in her life. Allard states, “USA Swimming and its leaders should resign in disgrace for allowing Curl and other swim coaches to molest young swimmers.” To date, more than 60 USA Swimming coaches have been banned for life for sexually molesting young swimmers.
Currin also states, “Despite Rick Curl’s signed admission, USA Swimming wants me to relive the molestation by going into detail on every sex act committed by Curl. This is insulting to me and to every molestation victim.”

Washington Post - Curl-Burke founder Rick Curl faces hearing on former swimmer’s account of underage sexual relationship in 1980s

A 33-year-old swimming coach by the name of Rick Curl had sex with a 13-year-old swimmer of his and successfully hid it for nearly 30-years by paying hush money via a "settlement."

Why is it that if a crime is committed that a lawsuit settlement can prevent the victim from going forward and reporting it? That is what 19-year-old Kelley Currin thought when she was pushed into signing an agreement to keep Rick Curl out of jail. She was wrong. It never matters what the settlement says, it matters what the law says and the law said she had rights.

From the Washington Post:

“I was stifled for 23 years from saying anything because I signed a piece of paper when I was 19,” Currin, now 43, said last week in an interview with The Post. “Now, I’ve gotten to the point in my life where I’m done being quiet about it . . . It was a crime, what happened.”

Added Currin in an interview Tuesday: “It’s been 23 years, six months and two days. That’s better than 23 years, six months and three days. All I can do is all I do today to make a change. . . . I can’t go back. It’s very disheartening that I was scared for so long.”

[Link]

USA Swimming and the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) had to have heard the rumors about this guy. I would never buy that USA Swimming nor ASCA never heard a rumor about this and here is why...

"... A teammate at Curl-Burke said Currin told her shortly before the 1988 Olympic trials what had happened.  
“I was pretty much in shock,” said the swimmer, who declined to be named. “It was so under cover. I would room with Kelley on trips, are you kidding me? . . . It still blows me away. . . . She told me all the years it occurred, and that there was sex. She thought he loved her and she loved him. She thought she was going to grow up and they would get married.

“No one else came out in my era and said, ‘Oh yeah, me, too.’ And I was there the whole time.” 
[...] 
Currin said she also confided in the late Richard Quick, a former U.S. Olympic team coach who was at the University of Texas when she arrived, and a number of other prominent coaches.

Pete Morgan, who coached Olympic medalist Ed Moses and has coached under Curl since his earliest days, said he heard rumors of an inappropriate relationship and asked Curl about them on a number of occasions. Currin claimed that Morgan had walked in on her and Curl when they were kissing in a hotel room, but Morgan denied witnessing such an incident. ..."

This article is a serious indictment on how swimming is policed! Wait, actually, how it is NOT policed, monitored, or governed.

This is bigger than the Penn State scandal. We have more victims than the Sandusky/Penn State scandal has too. There are more cover-ups, more hush money, and no executive accountability. Though USA Swimming has a reporting infrastructure which it was forced to put in place, I am summarily not impressed with it's preventative infrastructure.

How can you have a supreme reporting infrastructure when whispers of sexual abuse that echo from the late Coach Richard Quick of Stanford all the way up to this blog and USA Swimming is the last to hear of them and investigate?

Finally to really throw some salt on this "infected wound" there was a 39-year-old swim coach recently arrested by the name of Noah Rucker for having an inappropriate sexual relationship with the 17-year old who he was coaching. His employer, Rick Curl - do these guys network or something?

Here is Rick Curl's club page listed at USA Swimming - It may been taken down when you go to read it but I have a screenshot above:  [Link]

Here is my call to action: Demand that the USA Swimming Board put a head on a spear much like Penn State did to it's executive staff and put in a new leadership that is as effective at preventing sex abuse as effective as the Little League of baseball. If they don't, fire them too. What is yours?



Tuesday, July 24, 2012

The Ronda Rousey slam is going too far! - She is on the national radar now that's for sure!

I have been super hard on Phelps for the past 2-years but when a commenter stated he may have "spectrum issues" I felt like a jerk and almost cried. (Yeah, I freely admit it.) I did a bunch of research on the net to see if this suggestion was true but there was no official statement only armchair psychs giving their opinions.

Finally I began reading Amazing Pace, a Phelps biography that a writer recommended after a long chat we had on the subject and within that read it is all there why he is the way he is.

The moral of this quasi-apology to Michael Phelps and what I have learned as a result of mistakingly assuming "everyone sees the world as I do" is the following: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle" -- John Watson

I am going to remember it this way. "Everyone you meet is fighting a private battle." I am going to remember that people play their cards so close to their chest that those mortals we feel are dynamic powerful and perfect are really just as broken as everybody else. Personality is modular, we are good at some things, great at others, losers at most.

So, three days in a row the Rousey' slam has appeared in the press in some form or another; to Michael Phelps' credit he hasn't responded. I blogged it at the time since it agreed with how I felt rather than what was real. If Rousey's intent was to get on the national radar, Phelps' name recognition and/or successfully associating her name with it with it has made her nationally known at Michael Phelps' expense.  Rousey wasn't talking to a friend at a kitchen table or in a coffee shop, she made a hurtful statement without understanding who she was criticizing.

Rousey needs that tall glass of humble juice and she should make it a double!




Monday, July 23, 2012

Mercury News op ed: After Paterno - now what about USA Swimming's child molestation scandal?

Robert Allard wrote an op ed for the Mercury News. His bio beneath the editorial suggests that the San Jose Andrew King molestation case may have been settled. Here is his bio:

"... Robert Allard of the law firm Corsiglia, McMahon & Allard was the attorney for Jane Doe in her civil case against USA Swimming. He was named California Lawyer of the Year in 2012 for his work in exposing the USA Swimming cover up and sexual molestation scandal. ..."

Note the past tense when the Andrew King lawsuit was mentioned.

Coach Andrew King was sent to jail for molesting 14 swimmers. He is right up there with Jerry Sandusky with the amount of pain and suffering he caused yet Allard states no one within USA Swimming had to pay a price or nobody within the executive staff had to pay a price even after USA Swimming executive director, Chuck Wielgus, failed to investigate a sex abuse complaint and insisting that it be kept confidential.

Evoking Joe Paterno's de facto cover-up of a child molestation situation Robert Allard states that USA Swimming is equally capable yet no board member was forced to resign or held accountable.

If you don't know about the Joe Paterno/Penn State scandal, Penn State has been hit with a $60-million-dollar fine by the NCAA and may not participate in a college bowl game for four-years, they also have been forced to reduce their football scholarship program from 25-to-15 athletes after it was discovered that it's coach, Joe Paterno, covered up a serious sex abuse investigation thereby thwarting an arrest.

Here is a snippet from his op ed:
"... To understand how this culture can flourish, one need only look at the individuals in charge of USA Swimming. [Executive Direstor Chuck] Wielgus effectively thwarted any investigation of King by ordering that a swimmer's

To understand how this culture can flourish, one need only look at the individuals in charge of USA Swimming. Wielgus effectively thwarted any investigation of King by ordering that a swimmer's complaint of sex abuse be kept "confidential" in 2002. 
Wielgus then attempted to deceive the American public on ESPN by stating that King was not even on USA Swimming's "radar" until he was arrested in 2010 for child molestation.  
[Link]

Ask yourself this: Is that admission on par with Joe Paterno?

This is what the former FBI head, Louis Freeh, investigation said about Joe Paterno and some of his staff:
"These men [President Graham B. Spanier, Senior Vice President‐Finance and Business Gary Schultz, Athletic Director Timothy Curley and the late head football Coach Joe Paterno] concealed Sandusky's activities from the Board of Trustees, the University community and authorities," the report stated. "They exhibited a striking lack of empathy for Sandusky's victims by failing to inquire as to their safety and well‐being, especially by not attempting to determine the identity of the child who Sandusky assaulted in the Lasch Building in 2001," when then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary reported witnessing Sandusky sexually assault a young boy in a locker room.

"There were more red flags here than you could count over a long period of time," Freeh said Thursday in a press conference.

[Link]

Again ask yourself this: Is that admission on par with Joe Paterno?

[UPDATE: I emailed the author of the op ed, attorney Robert Allard, and asked what the status of the Jane Doe versus USA Swimming was and this was his reply:

"...My client is relieved that this matter is over. She is proud of the fact that her courage in bringing forth this little lawsuit in San Jose and withstanding over a year and a half of scorched earth litigation directly resulted in USA Swimming and the United States Olympic Committee being forced to totally revamp their child protection laws. [...]"

-- Robert Allard



Sunday, July 22, 2012

Missy Franklin to get a tattoo? YES!


Will it be a sleeve? - A tramp stamp? - Some Olympic rings on her neck or under her eye? - NO, NO, NO! But I hope the idea of her getting a tattoo makes it a rite of passage for heroes only and all the kids her age and a little older take notice and stop defacing the beauty of their youth.

From Reuters:
"I'm definitely going to get a tattoo," she said at a pre-Olympic training camp in central France. "I'm going to get it after the Games." 

It has become common practice for Olympic athletes to get tattoos although most generally wait until after all their events are over before getting their body art partly to avoid jinxing themselves in case they get injured, but also because they do not want to compete while the wounds are still healing and risk infection. 
[Link]
Guess who is wearing the artwork above as a tattoo?




Stung in the face today by what I believe was a ctenophores (comb jelly fish)


I am training for an open water race next week in San Francisco so I drove out to Zuma beach in Malibu for my second 1.2-mile open water training swim. (Yes, I should have taken this race more seriously but I prefer pool swimming for many reasons and most of those reason are about time and social value.)

3/4-of-a-mile into the swim I got stung by a jellyfish. I have never known Southern California jellyfish to be dangerous so when it happened I kept swimming. There was a lot of pain for about five minutes but it  was quickly subdued by the unseasonably cold water; (La Nina is still going strong here),  latter the pain returned when I exited the water and lasted about 35-more-minutes or so.

On the beach walking back to the car, I saw what I believe to be several comb jellyfish strewed all about. There were about four-inches-long and were gelatinous blobs with no tendrils or colors. We usually get big ones, a different type that have purple stripes and blobby tendrils when the water is warm. These guys almost look like plastic-bag litter. Seagulls were feasting on the ones that washed up with the high tide which I guess means that Seagulls like hot sauce?

In 2007 at the FINA World Champion of Swimming in Australia the open water race featured some seriously dangerous jelly fish. After the race I was enthrall by the condition some of the racers were in. Several swimmers had long lines of red across their arms am faces. It was as if they were flogged with a fiber optic strand with barbs. I made a post about it that quoted the winner:
"... In the 5km nothing worried me, the conditions were perfect," [Russian swimmer Larisa] Ilchenko said after her win. "Today, I could hear the girls behind me screaming in the first lap. I expected it to be the same as the 5km, instead we're all walking around with spotty red faces. ..." 
 [EuroSport Link expired - New Link as Proof]
Spotty red faces? That is dedication to the race.

If here is a moral to this story, the moral is that open water swimming is probably more dangerous than MMA fighting. If one audited the last two or three FINA World Championship open water races, two at the very least were scandalous. It's amazing what peril open water swimmers are in even when they race within FINA sanctioned races. This is not just a FINA problem but a global one.

I don't think open water racing at the Olympic level will survive. One death; and dying in an ocean or lake is not hard to do, and this Olympic event will be axed.


Friday, July 20, 2012

Michelle Jenneke can dance better than Natalie Coughlin and she does it at the starting blocks too!



I want to see a swimmer do this at the starting blocks before their race in London. It certainly worked for Michelle Jenneke. Watch the video all the way through.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Finding Nemo 3D - "Just Keep Swimming" PSA for USA Swimming! - It's so bad it's really good.



Nathan Adrian has great hair and I think this PSA will work!

MMA girl fighter Rhonda Rousey calls out Phelps for offending her!


So it is not just me. Phelps needs to drink a tall glass of "humble juice.


"Now raise your hands, who would hang out with Rhonda? - I would hang out with Rhonda! 


From Yahoo Sports:
From During the Olympics, Ronda was upset--that her USA teammate, Michael Phelps-- didn't want to hang out with the rest of the Olympic athletes. "Michael Phelps needed his own private section of the club...Even the NBA players--who are a bigger deal than he is--hung out with us...We're your teammates! We're not a bunch of groupies! Come hang out with us. Who the hell are you? I don't like being somebody's teammate and being treated like I'm a groupie...Get over yourself. All you do is swim. If someone slapped you every single time you jumped in the pool then I'd have a little more respect."

[Link]

Did you see Ryan Lochte's cover on Time magazine? - I bet Octagon is "face-palming" over it!



In my opinion if Michael Phelps never announced his retirement and stated he was looking for 7-gold medals come London and that nothing was going to stop him, not only would he have been on the cover of Time Magazine but Octagon would be making twice as much money!

It's face palm time! - Great cover too!

From USA Today:

"... For TIME there were too many athletes for one cover. So they released five,including three in the U.S. Swimmer Ryan Lochte, gymnast Gabby Douglas and hurdler Lolo Jones all are featured on separate covers. British heptathlete Jessica Ennis is the cover in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while Japanese soccer star Homare Sawa is the cover is Asia. ..."

[Link]




Wednesday, July 18, 2012

International Olympic Committee crushes knitting group!


More on "ambush marketing" from NPR but the last paragraphs of the article were actually jaw dropping. When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) found out about a knitting group on Facebook called, "Ravelry," which featured an annual event called the "Ravelympics," that was an unacceptable infringement on the Olympic trademark and the event had to be CRUSHED. Seriously, I kid you not! The focus of the article is essentially that the IOC and the USOC are going to squeeze every potential penny it can get out of every single athlete it can muster even though this financial policy seems so alien to the Olympic movement once you read its Olympic Charter:

Point number-ten of the Olympic Charter first then below that an NPR quote for a stark contrast:
"...To oppose any political or commercial abuse of sport and athletes; ..." 
Peter Carlisle from Octogon told NPR  that "...he's frustrated by the blackout rule. ... As the USOC limits an athlete's ability to raise money, Carlisle says, it's also using that athlete's publicity rights to raise money for itself. ..."  
[NPR Article: Link]

Please note it's the US Olympic Committee doing the suppression of income but the IOC is allowing it to happen.

The money the IOC raises for themselves is in the billions-of-dollars -  Welcome to the glorious world of "Athlete Trafficking." Govenment sanctioned, governments approved.


Perhaps some day an athlete will tell his sponsor, "The second I get off the gold medal podium, run that commercial! Run it everywhere! Run it all over the world. I have proved that I was the best on that day and I don't need a gold plated medal to remember it."

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Marketing lockdown: Olympians must shut down any commerce operations that market themselves and/or a product!!


From tonight till the Olympics are over Olympians are not allowed to market themselves or sell any sort of goods, endorse any product with their likeness or otherwise. If they do what the International Olympic Committee calls "ambush marketing" they are summarily penalized and the penalties are harsh.

However if the goods manufacturer, service provider or retailer is an Olympic sponsor, the marketing of the Olympian's likeness can continue.

Now, guess who wins, guess who loses?

Hint, if I am going to the Olympics and the best I can do is make it to the final in the 1500m Free and hopefully finish in 6th or 7th place, I probably don't have a high-end sponsor paying me tens of thousands of dollars to look cute and sell well. Hence, I may want to sell t-shirts of the my sexy likeness and maybe a coffee mug from my website so as to put something in my bank.

Think of it as an independent band selling t-shirts and CDs out of the trunk of their 2003 Scion XA.

From the Washington Post
“...Absolutely terrible,” said Erika Wright, who represents Lochte. Evan Morgenstein, the chief executive of PMG Sports — whose client list includes several prominent swimmers, gymnasts, skiers and other athletes — said the USOC “has rendered these kids indentured servants. ...”

[...] 
The IOC allows official association with the Games — use of the Olympic rings, images of venues and the like — to 11 “worldwide” sponsors, companies such as Coca-Cola, General Electric and McDonald’s. Such deals have been estimated to be worth $100 million for every four years, a period encompassing one Winter and one Summer Games.

The USOC receives 20 percent of the revenue generated from those deals. The USOC also has relationships with a long list of companies — Deloitte, Hilton, Kellogg’s, Nike, among others — that grants those companies rights to use Olympic themes in its ads domestically. Those relationships go a long way toward funding the U.S. Olympic program.

[Link]

Ryan Lochte in an AT&T Commercial - "Warming Up"



FOX Sports attacks Tyler Clary

FOX Sports actually pays Jen Floyd Engel? - She is actually on the payroll for FOX Sports? This is summarily the worst article I have ever read at FOX Sports.

Arguably the most important page in a newspaper is the sports section. It is the most important page because it chronicles man's achievements rather than his failures. I wish it were the business section but companies lie. Hence, the sports page is probably the most honest and most accurate page as well.

So, what did Jen Floyd Engel decide to do with her little corner of FOX Sports? She decided to spank and humiliate Tyler Clary in public over the philosophical points of fairness.

From FOX Sports:

How exactly does one out-incredible eight gold medals in a single Olympics? And what if Phelps does not win every event he swims in London? Will Clary be right? Will everybody agree with him?

How do I say this nicely?

Tyler Clary, meet life.

Life, meet Tyler.

Life, tell Tyler how you work.

Life: I’m not fair.

Kate Upton has a better rack than I do. Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Tom Brady have unfair amounts of natural talent, and everything that comes with such talent. Bill Gates does not have to balance his checkbook. And on and on and on. 
[Link]

This would actually be a remarkable lesson if her audience were 8-years-old but they are not. Instead,  her little "straw-man"scolding is really nothing short of both teasing & degrading as she insinuates that Mr. Clary can't understand a phrase more that 6-words long. In fact, I think it crosses over the line into selective bullying. Here is a question, where was Engel when Bob Bowman said much, much worse? Maybe Engel needs six-word sentences to understand my point: How do I say this nicely? 
Tyler is an eleven-time All-American

He is a college graduate.

Speaks both honestly and respectfully. 
He works harder than Phelps. 
He changed his named to honor his stepfather. [Oops, 8-words.] 
He voiced his opinion politely.

So, Ms Engel, thanks for your "mommy scolding" it really added a solid "adults are in charge" sort of feel at FOX Sports.

Time lapse - Aquatic Center London 2012 HD

London Aquatics Center: How to make a fast pool!


Is it ethical to create a pool that has a statistical advantage of producing better times than any other pool? Could we be entering a statistical void where world records are set in selected pools only such as London, Beijing or whatever they cook up fro Brazil?

This pool boasts that its wave and current suppressing technology will make a faster pool. Compound this with the $3,000 Omega starting blocks with its beveled, "track start" edge one has to wonder if we are getting to the point where a pool has to be well above average for a world record to be set?

If exaggerated pool technology is ok then I find any argument against tech suits summarily anemic. An individual can buy a tech suit and its fabric therein can be regulated to keep each suit more or less equal but how fair can it be if specific pools provide superior hydro technology for faster swims by manipulating the water?

Notable quotes  from TVNZ News:

The circulation system, which in backyard pools just keeps the water clean, will also contribute to the fast water. It will be adjusted so the water level remains as constant as possible, minimizing the "bounce-back" the creates turbulence.
[...] 
"The larger a body of water and the further away the reflective surfaces; the better the pool is at absorbing energy," Ireland said. FINA, the international swimming federation, mandates minimum pool dimensions. For London, the main competition pool will exceed the 2-metre required depth by a full metre.
[...] 
If all goes as planned, even with Americans Michael Phelps and Missy Franklin, Australian Stephanie Rice and their rivals all churning up the water like so many human paddle-wheel boats, the surface should be nearly as calm as a pond on windless day.

[Link]

Monday, July 16, 2012

Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat painted Olympic rings in 1984

From HypeBeast.com

"Coinciding with the start of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, the city’s Gagosian Gallery is now home to Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat‘s collaborative 1985 Olympic Rings painting. ..."

[Link]


USA Swimming really wants people of color to swim! - This partnership illustrates this.

I saw this on Saturday and I was too tired to post it. Then a couple days later a PR person named Charlie sent me this press release straight-up and I was surprised! Moving on, what USA Swimming really wants to achieved is diversity on our sport. That can't be denied and these efforts should be supported...

I am running this press release in it's unfiltered form and I am sorry it's late.

From Simone Smalls PR, Inc:

USA SWIMMING PARTNERS WITH NATIONAL SORORITY ORGANIZATION, SIGMA GAMMA RHO, TO ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION IN THE SPORT OF SWIMMING, FROM LEARN-TO-SWIM TO COMPETITION


About Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.

Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. was founded on November 12, 1922 on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana by seven schoolteachers. The sorority’s aim is to enhance the quality of life in the community. Public service, leadership development and education of youth are the hallmark of the organization’s programs and activities. To learn more about Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. and its service initiatives, log [on here: Link]


NEW ORLEANS, LA, July 16, 2012 – On Saturday, July 14, at Sigma Gamma Rho’s biennial Boule celebration in New Orleans, La., USA Swimming representatives announced its new partnership with the historically black sorority. The effort is part of USA Swimming’s SwimToday campaign, a national recruiting effort aimed at arming parents with the information and resources they need to get their children involved in the sport for its health and safety benefits.

A first of its kind for both Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. and USA Swimming, this partnership will accomplish the following:

1) Make water safety education and learn to swim programs a part of the sorority’s mandatory member curriculum and community service outreach beginning this fall. 
2) Provide an easy entry into the sport of swimming through the sorority’s more than 100,000 members and 500 chapters across the United States. 
3) Make water safety a mandatory part of their Rhoer Curriculum as well as part of their youth symposium and Project Reassurance teachings.

Under the terms of the newfound partnership, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. will function as an extension of USA Swimming’s online SwimToday.org platform, which provides the tools, resources and information that individuals of all ages need to learn to swim, find a learn to swim or competitive swim program, meet their fitness goals and be active in the sport. Visit www.swimtoday.org to view these resources.

“Our new partnership with USA Swimming is a perfect fit within Sigma Gamma Rho’s ongoing efforts to safeguard our youth through our Project Reassurance umbrella theme of Healthy Choices, Healthy Living, Healthy Generations,” says Joann Loveless, International President of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. “Research shows that youth who participate in sports experience a multitude of benefits such as: an increase in discipline, lower teenage pregnancy rates, better grades and higher self-esteem. This collaboration with USA Swimming provides our sisterhood the opportunity to promote these ideals within the local communities of each of our chapters through water safety education and childhood swimming lessons.”

By providing Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. chapters with resources and support to aid in educating its members on a local, regional and national level, USA Swimming hopes to educate the Sigma Gamma Rho community on the benefits of and opportunities available within the sport of swimming. This fall, USA Swimming and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. will also develop a sorority-specific call-to-action initiative that will focus on highlighting water safety on the grassroots level within their chapters’ communities.

“Partnering with Sigma Gamma Rho offers us the opportunity to reach thousands of families across the nation, and to provide them with a simple entry point into the sport of swimming.” said Matt Farrell, USA Swimming’s Chief Marketing Officer. “By empowering individuals with the resources they need to get their kids started in the sport, we are, helping keep kids safer around the water while opening the door to a beneficial and life-long fitness activity. With all eyes on the pool in London, we also hope that partnerships like this one will help diversify our sport, and increase participation by a historically underrepresented group.”

2012 marks a historic year for USA Swimming as the U.S. Team has never had more than a single team member of African-American descent and none before the 2000 Sydney Games. This year’s London-bound Olympians of African-American descent include veterans Cullen Jones and Anthony Ervin who are returning gold medalists from 2008 and 2000, respectively, and newcomer Lia Neal who, at 17, is the second African-American woman to ever make a U.S. Olympic Swim Team and the first since Olympic Silver Medalist Maritza Correia in 2004. Lia Neal, who is also half Chinese-American, joins a winning legacy of Asian-American women Olympic swimmers like Evelyn Kawamoto (two-time bronze medalist at 1952 Helsinki games), Catherine Fox (two-time gold medalist at 1996 Atlanta games), and Natalie Coughlin, who is returning to London for her third Olympics and is an 11-time Olympic medalist. Nathan Adrian, who is Chinese-American, will also swim for the U.S. again in London having already claimed Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008.

“With the ever-increasing diversity of the sport on the world stage, it is of the utmost importance for USA Swimming to play a proactive role in helping kids become safer around the water as well as to provide opportunities for them to excel both as a team and as individuals,” said Talia Mark, Multicultural Marketing Manager for USA Swimming. “With all eyes on the pool in London, we hope to inspire kids of all backgrounds to get involved in the sport, this is where we believe Sigma Gamma Rho’s expertise in community outreach can play an integral role.”

Throughout 2012 and beyond, USA Swimming looks to continue to expand the reach of the important message of water safety education and learn to swim programs, as well as the benefits of swimming for health and fitness, and increase the accessibility of competitive swimming programs through its SwimToday.org campaign and partnerships like this one with Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.

For more information about getting involved with USA Swimming, to learn to swim, to join a competitive swim team or to swim for health and fitness, please visit... [here: Link]

[*]Approximately 10 people drown every day in the U.S., and more than one in five fatal drowning victims are children younger than 14, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Furthermore, 60-70 percent of the U.S.’s African-American and Hispanic children cannot swim, and African-American children drown at a rate nearly three times higher than that of their Caucasian peers. Of children who come from a non-swimming household, only 13 percent of them will ever learn to swim, according to a national research study by the USA Swimming Foundation and the University of Memphis. Drowning is also a silent killer as most young children who drowned in pools were last seen in the home, had been out of sight less than five minutes, and were in the care of one or both parents at the time, according to the Present P. Child Drowning study.

Cavic profile: For those who ever had a back injury, this article is pretty inspiring!

Milorad Čavić was born in the OC; (Orange County, California), to Serbian parents. A lot of famous butterfly swimmers have come out of the OC and Gwen Stefani is one of them!

 ÄŒavić has swam for Serbia in the past three Olympics and is currently rated third in the world in the 100m Butterfly. At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing it appeared that ÄŒavić had out touched Michael Phelps defeating Phelps in his signature 100m Butterfly event but Phelps had stopped the clock first beating ÄŒavić by a scant one-hundreth-of a-second. To put that slice of time into perspective: an eye back is 3-to-4-time slower than that hundredth-of-a-second finish. It was both a victory and a loss that was talked about for months.

See this New York Times article for an explanation and recap: [Link]

When I read the article I got the feeling that ÄŒavić is so over the Phelps rivalry and seems to appreciate his health, his talent, and his future way more than a single race that decides who gets a gold plated medallion. You see ÄŒavić sustained a back injury shortly after Beijing that both broke and humbled him. He could not tie his shoes, he needed assistance getting out of bed, he could not even dry his legs after a swim because the pain was so bad.

Friends, family members and doctors told him that he could never return to his former greatness... but he did and he is proud of that. Now he is rated number three in the world.

From Sports Illustrated at CNN
Like Phelps, Cavic is planning to retire after the London Games[.] 
"At this point, nothing else motivates me. It's just all about the Olympics, and if I could win an Olympic medal, that would be the perfect ending to my career," he said. 
"If I don't win a medal, I just hope that when I touch the wall I'm going to feel that inner peace, knowing that I gave everything that I could," added Cavic, who is 28. "I'm no longer a kid. I'm ready to walk away as soon as this Olympics is over." Cavic already has plans for his post-swimming career 
"I'm a candidate for the athlete commission of the IOC," he said. "I hope I get elected to that, and that would be one step toward what I hope to get into someday -- sports politics." 
[Link]


Will Michael Phelps or Ryan Lochte "belly flop" in 2012? - Nope, but these guys did!


Welcome to the 16th Annual "Belly Flop Showdown." May the plushiest belly win! - Here is a link to the photo gallery at the Denver Post: [Link]

Found a movie of it over at Laughing Squid as well: [Link]

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Rome Neal: “My daughter’s name is Lia Neal and she just made it to become an Olympic swimmer, and she’ll be swimming in the Olympics in 2012"


Rome Neal is a Jazz singer located in New York, city. Recently he took to his microphone and told his audience some really good news.

From the New York Times:
“My daughter’s name is Lia Neal and she just made it to become an Olympic swimmer, and she’ll be swimming in the Olympics in 2012 in London, England, the 4x100 relay,” Neal said.

The audience applauded and cheered enthusiastically. “Lia is 17 years old,” he said, “the second African-American female swimmer to make it to the Olympics.”

[Link]
A must read especially for parents.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Ryan Lochte - lead feature athlete in US Magazine's "American Heroes"


Was at the store this morning after a long-course-meters workout and while checking out my two gallons of milk among other items I notice that US Magazine has an Amercian Heroes issue.

So, the celebrity industrial complex is hard at work now picking some temporary American icons for the typical American housewife to adore. (Wait, do we have housewives anymore?) In the half-inch thick magazine I was surprised to see that Ryan Lochte got top billing or he was the first athlete profiled over all the rest. Next came Michael Phelps.

I was surprised and it also taught me something both PR-and-marketing wise: Never pre announce your retirement unless it's your farewell tour and you are getting a cut of the ticket sales.

When Phelps announced his retirement some years ago, he simply put a shelf-life date on his endorsement potential.  In other words, if he never talked about retirement I suspect he would have been on the front page of that magazine and booked solid till 2016.

Here is what Ryan Lochte's website has to say about it: [Link]

Friday, July 13, 2012

This I Learned From an Info-Graphic: The Tug of war was an Olympic event!


Oh, I agree with the creator of this graphic, they have to bring the tug of war back! Just get rid of Bicycle Motocross which belongs in the X-Games anyway. Besides, 11-year-olds don't watch the Olympics anymore.

So, note in the infographic above what a pivotal role aquatics has played in the Olympic games. I am impressed but I am worried at the same time. Why hasn't our sport broken out after a complete century of Olympic games? Hmmm, perhaps because it needs to change with the times?

Click on the graphic to enlarge it.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Tyler Clary did not call out Michael Phelps!

Tyler Clary is being scolded by the opportunistic press to paint him as something that he is not.

Tyler Clary is a strong capable man but the sportswriters in the past 48-hours are setting him up as an ad hoc straw-man for "calling out" America's "sweetie", Michael Phelps. Clary never called out Michael Phelps and Phelps has seemingly fallen for it or has pretended to. (Reports say that Phelps is upset.)

The press loves conflict and reporters need ink or electrons; (if it's the internet), to stay employable. So, stretching the truth goes a very long way for a reporter. In the last Olympic-cycle they chose Alain Bernard as their straw man and now they are doing it to Tyler because it is profitable.

Conflict, drama, and fear sell papers. "If it bleeds, it leads" permeate media newsrooms all throughout America.  Sportscasters loved  Mohammed Ali as they pretended to loathe his poetry and lack of manners. Matt Drudge, fearing Hillary Clinton was ill stated on his radio show with high emotion: "Hillary dear, take care of yourself. We need you..." Later he mentioned elsewhere: "I need Hillary Clinton. I need to be part of her world. That's my bank."

"That's my bank!?..."

That is a pretty revealing statement and I think it applies here to Tyler Clary who is in my opinion is being "mugged" in the press with abject glee and forethought for he is not the new "Ryan Lochte", his "arch rival."

Everything Clary said about Phelps has been uttered in one way or another by Phelps' coach, Bob Bowman, in both the press and on TV yet that is not ever mentioned - Compare the evidence.
Tyler Clary as quoted at CNN:
“The fact that he doesn’t have to work as hard to get that done, it’s a real shame,” Clary told the paper. “I think it’s too bad. You see that all too often, where you get athletes that are incredibly talented that really take it for granted. I think the things he could have done if he’d worked as hard as I do would have been even more incredible than what he has pulled off.

[Link]

Now let's get Bob Bowman version of Michael Phelps' work ethic.
Bob Bowman as quoted at ESPN 
Form ESPN:
"I used every trick I had," Bowman said. "At first, I tried to be really patient, which is not a strong suit. I acted like it didn't bother me even though it killed me. Then I said, 'Screw that,' and got all over him and he missed like two straight weeks." 
[...] 
Bowman said he confronted Phelps about his commitment a few times, describing their conversations like this: "He wouldn't show up and I'd say, 'Where the f--- are you?' And he'd be equally urbane and intellectual, and then would miss two more weeks."

Tyler Clary, after seeing an effigy of his "straw-man-self" burn at Faranheit 451 as coaches, pundits and other people who take this recreational sport as seriously as religion, takes the high road and apologizes via Twitter.

He had nothing to apologize about. Nothing at all for everything he said was true and published elsewhere, but perception trumps reality and Tyler took the high road because it has a better view and apologize to the "DIVA."

So now that I have gone negative, I need to offer something positive:

There is a famous story about President Ronald Reagan, George Bush and a guy named James Baker. I will cut to the chase and tell you the ending.  George Bush after saying terrible things about Ronald Reagan when he ran against him for the Republican presidential nominee became his Vice President. James Baker who called Reagan's economic policies "Voodoo economics" became his Secretary of State.

Ronald Reagan turned enemies into both friends and staunch allies. Michael Phelps could have done the same thing. I recommend he read Chris Matthews' book, Hardball. 




Lochte relishes the rivalry - Says it could "change the sport".

Have you noticed that when Phelps and Lochte talk about racing each other, they talk as if their 8-man finals are a merely a "two-man final?" It is as if the remaining six-swimmers are simply "movie extras" sent down from "central casting" for NBC.

From RTE Sport:
He will compete in four individual events in London and in two of them, the 200m and 400m individual medleys, he'll take on Phelps, owner of a record 14 Olympic gold medals. Lochte relishes the rivalry -- saying he believes that it could "change the sport".

[Link]

Phelps and Lochte do not have a lock on the gold medals they pursue and these games will be our toughest ever in the pool.

As for Lochte: Have you seen the 200-free times posted between last years 2011 FINA World Championships of Swimming and today? The times separating the top six swimmers in the 200-free is only a 1/2-second and please note that Yannick Agnel is the top seed if you just go by the times.

As for Phelps: In the 100-fly the top four swimmers are within a 1/2-second of each other and Tyler McGill is just an "eye-blink" away form beating him.

Finally, both Phelps and Lochte have to contend with each other in two grueling events, the 200-and-400 IM. As of late history has shown that they do have a tendency to trade places. If they split the difference, Lochte's legacy dilutes.

So, is Lochte correct when he says that his time has come and that he could change this sport? I don't think so. What would change the sport is if Ryan Lochte matches Phelps' accomplishments or surpasses him then the sport will change.  I hold up Matt Biondi as an example: 5 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics yet only the old timers within this sport remember him. Will anybody outside the sport really remember Ryan Lochte if he "just" matches Matt Biondi's accomplishment?

If Ryan is going to be remembered, it will be due to his good personality and great looks not his medal haul. Opponents are in the way and we may see the rise of China a new swimming superpower.




Diana Nyad documentary at You Tube - It's official, she's boss!

"... The documentary, which runs 17 minutes, chronicles Diana’s history as a swimmer and her ongoing mission to swim from Cuba to Florida..."

Some underwater stuff of her swimming too. I now know why her shoulder hurts her. Her stroke is great if your swimming a 50-free and you need lots of power, It's throughly anti-shoulder to the side she breathes from if you are going to swim from Cuba to Florida. She should adopt a Kara-Lynn Joyce stroke and bend at the elbow when she starts her pull.

Diana Nyad has quite a resumé. When the public at large or those individuals way outside our sport think of famous swimmers they can only name three. Michael Phelps, Mark SPitz and Diana Nyad. This is worth a look!


Wednesday, July 11, 2012

USA Swimming provides Indiana university performance differences between male and female childhood athletes!


USA Swimming contributes to an athletic gender study that may be potentially groundbreaking.

From Science Daily:
The study analyzed data provided by USA Swimming that consisted of the best 50-yard freestyle performances for all USA Swimming-registered male and female swimmers ages 6 to 19 who competed from 2005 to 2010. This included 1.9 million swims. 
The study found no difference in swim performance in children younger than 8. It also found little difference in 11-and-12-year-olds.

[Link]

This suggests to me that male/female results within the preadolescent age groups do not have to be gender specific. I wonder what the positive or negative consequences would be if that was attempted?


How fast is 100th-of-a second? Visa shows you with the help of Michael Phelps and Morgan Freeman




Megan sent us this and it's pretty boss. Thanks Megan!

This Visa spot titled, “100th of a Second,” features Michael Phelps’ legendary .01 second win in the100m butterfly as he out-touched Milorad Cavic to give him his 7th gold medal in the 2008  Beijing Olympic Games.

The spot is woven with footage of that dramatic finish with high-rez, slow-motion photography, of natural events within nature that take more than .01 seconds – the beating of a hummingbird’s wings, lighting striking, a blink of an eye – while the Morgan Freeman ultimately asks us fans “just think of the cheers if lighting strikes twice.”

Ryan Lochte in Men's Health Magazine: From Big Macs to recovery meals

"My recovery meal is two grilled chicken breasts with Alfredo sauce, whole-grain spaghetti, and a salad with lemon juice and olive oil," Lochte, 27, tells Men's Health this month. [Link]

Even ADWEEK is disgusted by how exploited Olympic athletes are!

ADWEEK is a weekly publication that covers all sorts of media markets from print to internet.

ADWEEK specializes in covering the relationships between big business and their creative agencies so both sets of corporations are friends of ADWEEK.

Hence, like the old saying goes, " Only Richard Nixon could go to China," only ADWEEK can out exploitation of the Olympic athlete:

Ann Killion writes:

"...one of America’s top steeplechase competitors, Ben Bruce (who has bunked at [Nick] Symmonds’ place in Eugene, Ore.), was forced to go on food stamps after failing to convince Nike to increase his meager stipend. ..." 
"...To make up the shortfall, synchronized swimmers in California work shifts at a Santa Clara bingo hall. ..." 
This spring, a group of 20 Olympic athletes, including former greats Mark Spitz, Dara Torres and Jackie Joyner-Kersee, sued TOP sponsor Samsung for using their names and images without permission in the company’s much-publicized Genome Project. The Facebook app allows fans to see how they’re connected to famous Olympians past and present. But they say the company never asked for the rights to use their images and names. [...] “I would have thought someone in the room, at some point, would have said, ‘I think we need to get written consent from the athletes,’” says attorney Rich Foster 

[Link]

But how much money are we talking about here? How much revenue is being generated off the backs of the athletes? The ADWEEK article states "... The Olympics will generate $6 billion to $7 billion, possibly more, in sponsorship and advertising revenue. ..."

Although these publications and blogs write articles decrying exploitation, a hand full of Athletes like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, or the "dream team" are millionaires and they have no reason to be an advocate for the poorly paid athlete. The only way change will be effected is if the athletes as a huge collective body refused to participate. Read the article!