Look at that smile, isn't that smile full of "awesome and win?" Damn straight it is!Let's go back to August '08 - In a dramatic moment in the 400 meter free at the Beijing Olympic Games, Rebecca Adlington out-touched Katie Hoff at the wall after coming back from a body length deficit in the last 100 meters.
SCAQ coaches and American swimmers were in a state of shock. ;_;
Clay Evans: "... Katie Hoff gave away the 400 free with horrible beginner's finish/ touch. She looped down and up touching with almost a completely flat hand like she did not want to break a nail. Meanwhile the Brit lunged forward plunging in a direct STRAIGHT line to the electronic pad making up at least one foot. It was plain as day in the under water shot. I was dumbfounded at that error. ..."
Erik Hochstein: "... This Katie Hoff finish will be replayed by American coaches for the next decade - yes, even a world-class swimmer can lose a 400 Free on a finish. This type of finish is actually more common than expected - I have seen this quite often at the elite level in the last few years.
I had no opinion at the time but I did feel perplexed after watching most Olympic swimmers avoid such basics like no breathing off the walls, don't look at another swimmer underwater, or even looking up as they glide into wall: (i.e. Milorad Cavic's "FAIL" was a bigger mistake than Hoff's.)
In this Baltimore Sun article Katie Hoff opens up on Bob Bowman coaching style and how someone like Michael Phelps is able to thrive whereas someone like Hoff was like "WTF, dude! This is a swimming pool, not Satan's bladder!" (I made that quote up, I'm serious.)
This is a "home run" as a swimmer profile: [Link]
Better than anyone else, Hoff knows how a swimmer's legacy can be shaped by fractions of a second. In the 400-meter freestyle Olympic final, she led by nearly a body length with 100 meters to go. But at the wall, Great Britain's Rebecca Adlington out-touched her by seven hundredths of a second. Had she held on, she knows it's likely her Olympic experience would have been viewed differently.
"A lot of my struggle was that [race]," Hoff said. "That is something that obviously still bothers me a little bit. But it bothers me a lot to be like, 'Could I have touched differently?' There is nothing more that I could have done. At this point it's like, OK, time to move on and keep going."
