Huntington beach: 156 swimmers compete and swim in 56-degree water for a $16.00 an hour lifeguard job!

56-degree water is quite formidable. It's how cold the water at Alcatraz is in June. From the L.A. Times:

"... In Huntington Beach, 156 applicants compete for 25 summer jobs paying $16 an hour. The test: a roughly 1,000-yard swim and a 500-yard ocean sprint, followed by a nearly mile-long run-swim-run.

"Employment opportunities are not what they were," said Huntington Beach Marine Safety Lt. Mike Baumgartner. ..." [Los Angeles is suffering through a 10.5% unemployment rate.]

[Link]

The article did not mention that you can't wear goggles either.

Is the 'International Olympic Commitee' playing hardball with the 'USOC' or is it the other way around?

The IOC is taking the international credit crisis quite seriously and they are leveraging external profit centers for more money. In fact they are pointedly asking the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) to take a smaller cut in both Olympic Sponsorship deals and broadcast revenue sharing.

In none too subtle ways, the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid has been hinted as the carrot the IOC will use to get the USOC to agree to smaller percentage deals. From the L.A. Times:

Many IOC members have been applying public pressure for three years to insist that the USOC reduce the shares it gets from global Olympic sponsorship (20%) and U.S. broadcast rights money (12.75%)

[Link]

Now, though the IOC has categorically stated that they can ride out this credit crunch, IOC reserves have dropped 14% to $400-million dollars due to their financial officer making a bad bet against the dollar.

From another L.A. Times article:

As of last week, IOC reserves had dropped about 14% in 2008, to $400 million, according to IOC Finance Commission Chairman Richard Carrion of Puerto Rico. The stock market decline was an obvious reason for the drop, but another loss shows just how hard it is to hedge bets. The IOC's investments in currencies other than dollars also dropped because the dollar strengthened -- until the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to nothing this week.

[Link]

There is a Nigerian proverb that states: "When the mouse laughs at the cat, there is always a hole nearby!"

The fact that the USOC will not negotiate a compromise means the USOC is the "mouse" here and that the proverbial "hole" has got to be the massive interest USA media companies have on bidding for the Olympic Games. From AP News:

NEW YORK (AP) — CBS Corp. and Time Warner Inc. executives have discussed joining forces to bid on rights to televise the Olympics in 2014 and 2016, turning that competition into an even greater clash of media titans.

TV empires headed by incumbent NBC, Fox and ABC-ESPN have all said they expect to bid on the U.S. rights to the games. Because of the economy, the International Olympics Committee has said it is prepared to postpone its bid selection until after the host city is named next October for the 2016 Summer Games.

[Link]

Another curious thing that has been suggested is that IOC appears to be planning to wait till a host city is selected before opening the bidding for television rights for the 2016 Olympic Games. Now, if Chicago is selected, I suspect USA Media interests would bid more frantically since the US would be the host country. From Hellenic Athletes.com:

According to the IOC, a contract for the US market could be quite the bidding war as NBC, CBS-Time Warner, Fox and ABC Sports-ESPN are all reportedly chomping at the bit to televise what could be another US based games. The IOC’s main revenue source is broadcasting rights, with close to $4 billion alone for the 2010-2012 two-Games package. NBC’s portion -- long the lion’s share -- is about $2.2 billion, from a bid agreed to back in 2003.

And that is the issue -- prices agreed to many years in advance. The US rights deal has been considered the most important IOC television contract because it represents one of the largest source of funds..."

[Link]

Though I am hoping for a Tokyo 2016 Summer Games, I suspect that Chicago is the likely pick especially since the President elect of the United States has ties to that city, that there is a global recession in the horizon, and several enthusiastic USA media conglomerates are ready to go to auction. Hence it appears that Chicago is the likely candidate, and the IOC will likely place a bet on that horse.

As for the economic health of the United States and its global standing post Beijing. Our government has made a lot of bad choices. Americans have made a lot of bad choices and we share the blame for this economic credit collapse. Our government and the citizens herein generally only change when we HAVE TO and the people I associate with feel a sense of panic and severe embarrassment at this time!

Now is an opportunity for the US to change and get innovative or to simply circle the drain as we have been doing.

The "feeling on the ground" here in the US is that we are about to print up a lot of money and spend it on taking the US to the "next level" with massive energy projects and infrastructure projects like this country did in the 1930's and 1950's. I suspect Chicago 2016 will get some of that money and I bet the IOC really wants to hear that.

So, post cash infusion into our economy, I expect either a renaissance on a "Biblical scale" or the United States becoming a second tier nation in the next 30-years with a ferocious military. I for one am betting on the renaissance for that's what Americans do, they believe, and we take chances.

Phillip Hersh of the 'L.A. Times' calls speedsuits a farce after reading the blog: 'Sports Science.com'

The L.A. Times, after reading the blog, Sports Science, comes out and calls speedsuits a farce: "...Australia and the United States, the sport's major powers, have realized what a farce this is and have called for bans on the suits that utterly transformed the sport.

If that happens, swimming will be left with a mess like the one track and field has with the dozen world records that still exist from 20 years ago, when most fans feel that state-sponsored Soviet Bloc doping (and catch-us-if-you-can doping in the United States) were significant factors in the setting of nearly all those records.

Ban the suits now, and swimming's 2008 records may stand for decades.

That would be no more preposterous than the current situation, when swimming's records stand for nothing. ..." L.A. Times article: [Link]

Snippet from Sports Science.com: Swimming, on the other hand, has leapt forward, and I do believe that this is an indication that doping is far less significant to swimming performance, which is the statement I began this analysis with. The reason for this, I believe, is that swimming is such an "inefficient" activity (even the world's best swimmers are only 7 to 9% efficient, I'm reliably informed), that any technology that reduces drag in the water has an enormous effect on performance. On the other hand, drugs which improve strength and power (as the drugs of the 1980s would have done) may have a far smaller effect, with so much of the gains being lost to the inefficient swimming stroke.

This is an oversimplification, and the obvious argument is that doping may be very effective, but is "masked" by the added introduction of technology. If they've been doping for years, technology would still move the event forward when it is introduced. I'd be keen (as always) to hear your views and opinions on that statement. ..." [Link]

Cycling has moved forward in regards to addressing friction drag. Skiing has too. Other sports from track and field, cross country and the marathon have accepted technology and swimming should as well.

BTW, I am loving that start dive from our most courageous, Speedo LZR, wearing swimmer who somehow squeezed into a LZR and got to swim in the Omaha Olympic trials pool.

The photo of above is from photographer: Ben Vankat's photostream at Flickr.com.

Michael Phelps "talks story," as the Hawaiians say, in this 'L.A. Times' article.

I wish I could say I saw this when I picked up the L.A. Times this morning but Swim News brought it to my attention first and they deserve credit. I subsequently did a Google news search and found it online.

Phelps discusses Libby Lenton's world record swim which was later denied by FINA. He suggested that Libby is a competitor and she tried to hold onto him by drafting. Phelps gives a nod of respect to that by stating it was a smart thing to do. He discusses seeing his near naked body on a cover of a magazine that proclaims he is the "world's greatest athlete," Also what it is like to live on his own etc. etc.

Bob Bowman has some comments as well about Michael's swimming performance at Worlds that nearly crosses the line into paranormal phenomena. Los Angeles Times article: [Link] Swim News on the Times article: [Link]