Fred Bousquet: "I felt like I was stabbed in the back, not by the U.S., but by my federation,"

Above is Fred Bousquet breaking a US Open record in the 50-m free. Bousquet was interviewed at the Austin Grand Prix and was quite candid about his disappointment over the French loss in the 4x100 relay in Beijing. His reasons succinct, logical, and I believe he is correct.

Here is what the American Statesman has quoted him as saying:

"First of all, I would have swam in the middle of my lane," he explained. Drifting to the ropes, and unintentionally aiding Lezak was one of the tactical mistakes the big Frenchman made.

"I also would have saved something for the final 50," Bousquet added

"It's seven months ago and I'm still angry," Bousquet said. "I'll use that for motivation this year. ..."

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There is more hot rhetoric from the Frenchman and of course Bernard gets misquoted with that "we will smash them" threat which never happened but the article is worth a read.

Finally, Fred Bousquet swims at Auburn; I love that for swimming knows no borders accept when it is race day.

Watch the video above, Gold Medal Mel makes a cameo!

Eric Shanteau storms the 200 breaststroke in Austin

Eric Shanteau is "our" Lance Armstrong and he is definitely a motivated swimmer as of late! From the Statesman:

At the Austin Grand Prix, however, a ripped Shanteau proclaimed, "I'm back, bigger and stronger than ever."

That wasn't an idle boast. Saturday, on the third and final day of competition, Austin's Shanteau blew away the field in the 200-meter breaststroke, setting a pool record of 2 minutes, 9.97 seconds in the process.

The old mark of 2:10.40 belonged to Ed Moses and for years had been a source of irritation to Shanteau and training partner Brendan Hansen, who at one point held about every other breaststroke record.

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