From ABC Sport on November 20th 2009Thorpe says it is embarrassing that athletes were made to apologise for their performances.
"At no point have I ever thought that the reason why I'd broken a world record, or achieved the result that I had, was because of the swimsuit I was wearing," he said.
[Link]
10 comments:
Thorpe is getting a lot of press nowadays, what's up with that?
Anyway, I agree with his point, none of the athletes are to blame for the poor management of suit litigation.
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ian thorpe is one of my favorite swimmers : he doesn't hesitate to speak up for the aborigenes with his fondation . this speach of of him say all about his caracter .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK_GMJ7ie7M
His comment misses the point. It seems the debate is not whether a WR is solely attributable to a suit; it's about how much they contribute (a lot, it appears). Nobody is denying he and others trained their asses off. But the recent moves by the swimming world body is rightfully aimed at bringing the sport closer to the celebration of human endeavor, not the triumph of swimsuit engineering.
Saint Ian is correct. Bowman and Phelps summarily degraded Biedermann at Worlds...
Biedermann was forced to justify why he was worthy of that record.
Shame on you Tony. That's a lie: Biedermann spoke out against the suits several times well BEFORE Rome and before Bowman and Phelps raised the matter in Rome. Stop trying to justify an argument you've lost.
I feel he had to justify it, that is the way I read it. I am not playing politician here.
I will find the passage and post it to this comment section. If I am wrong, I am wrong but I read it that he had to defend why he wore a suit.
Bob Bowman after the Phelps loss in the 200 free: “We’ve lost all the history of the sport,” Bowman said, adding, “If we took all the records out starting with the LZR and went back to 2007, I would be absolutely fine with that.”
Biedermann replies: Biedermann said, adding that the suit debate “is not my problem, it’s not the problem of Arena, my sponsor. It’s the problem of FINA.”
Whoever you are anonymous, I take that to mean he is being forced to apologize for the win
another article about ian :
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/ian-thorpe-helps-struggling-indigenous-children-with-the-foundation-for-youth-charity/story-e6frf7l6-1225804399712
He also said this:
"I feel fine with the FINA result and I also agree with Bob Bowman and I don't have a problem with having my world records marked ... it would be really good to do that."
and this:
What of the move by Bowman and Phelps to boycott all further international competition until FINA gets it right on suits? "When Michael Phelps is really doing that, FINA should react. It is the hammer ["der hammer" in German means "its great"]. When the best swimmer in the world says that, that's amazing. It's really great."
He was not forced to say any of that. He is one of the swimmers who before Rome wore the arena textile suits and said he never wanted to wear the x-glide and even after winning in it he said what britta steffen said. They didn't want the stupid suits taking away from what they did - and they knew, from their experience in 2008, that the suits were unfair, one way or the other.
The publicity they got here in Germany from their wins in Rome was great but every mention of the suits was negative and not the reason why they became household names for a week or two. If they go to Shanghai and win in textile, they and swimming will be just as popular in Germany. It's not the suits, stupid, its the swimmer and the swimming and most of all, the winning.
If you read my blog, I feel that both Britta Steffen and Biedermann earned all of their wins fairly and effectively.
Both are great swimmers and I expect they will win their events in textile suits as well.
And if they do, you may see Michael Phelps retire next year.
I am not impressed with Bob Bowman and I feel he is an embarrassment.
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