Though he is swimming through this meet, he finaled, his turns looked magnificent and it was great to see him race.
Swimming World should be more measured when qualifying a great as they did using the hyperbolic adjective, "Fizzled," to describe his 7th place result in a final. We never see such adjectives when Phelps bombs a race but we do get to hear his excuses.
Here is a guy who has gone for zero to a FINA final in less than a year place three seconds behind the world record holder in the event, Chad le Clos! Libby Tricket placed 5th in her return to swimming, Did she "fizzle" too? What outrageous rhetoric!
SKY News has a much more measured response to his race than Swimming World. Has quotes too:
Thorpe, returning to competitive racing for the first time in five years, took plenty of positives from his result in the 100m individual medley final on Friday night, saying it was a great starting point in his return.
The five-time Olympic gold medalist improved on his heat swim to clock 56.33 seconds in the final, and was particularly pleased with the butterfly and backstroke legs of the swim.
And the 29-year-old was far from pleading for patience after the performance, saying he hoped and expected to improve quickly as he aims to win a spot on Australia's team for next year's London games.
'I don't expect patience.. you know, people want to see me do well and see me do well quickly ... I'd prefer to do that and I'd prefer not to wait,' Thorpe said.
'It is what it is... I haven't swum for a long time and I've got to take stock of where I was 12 months ago to where i am now.
'I'm in a final, swimming, reasonably well.. I'm happy and I've made improvement.'
More to come...
12 comments:
Feels rich to say that given your campaign and comments against Phelps.
Phelps generally doesn't bomb when it's important. He knows how to save himself and about balance. He has 14 Olympic gold medals and will probably get more. Why deride him so much? How hard is it to keep that up all the time?
Thorpe's 5 gold Olympic medals pale in comparison to that and Thorpe is someone who trained for, yet did not compete in an Olympics, which looks more pathetic to me than Phelps "bombing" some World Cup race or whatever.
No doubt, Phelps is the greatest swimmer of all time and there will probably never be another Michael Phelps. In fact, I have said on the blog that if the Olympics are still remembered centuries from now, Phelps will be the only athlete remembered along with them - As for my imagined "campaign" against the great Michael Phelps: trust me, he supplies the material for it year-after-year.
to wit: A DUI, A bong, the stripper, the poker tournaments, the casino opening, what I believe to be disparaging remarks after losing to Lochte, the public arguments with Bowman, the tantrum over techsuits, blah, blah, blah on ad infinitum.
The man is bigger than USA Swimming and perhaps FINA itself. It is unfortunate that he did not have that male mentor in his life that was "bigger" than him; (Read that as a father he was proud of), who could have groomed him for success and the responsibilities therein. He did have Bowman but that was a professional relationship.
Now, contrast that to Thorpe and his behavior outside the pool and one will realize why I play favorites. He is classier than James Bond; charitable too.
I don't take your slam personally, I suspect it's 50% spot on.
Thorpe has nothing to be ashamed of, he has never been either sprinter or IMer anyway. Let's not jump into conclusions. We need to see more - especially his freestyle, so we can say if his return is a real success or not. Personally, I'm grateful I can watch this magnificent swimmer again and I still hope for Phelps vs. Thorpe in London.
Likac said...
hope for Phelps vs. Thorpe in London.
jaja.. no color
Likac said...
hope for Phelps vs. Thorpe in London.
jaja, U see it never
your keyboard has been drinking!
Tony Austin said...
your keyboard has been drinking!
Sorry, maybe thorpey's influence
Would not say he fizzled; far from it. A final at a World Cup is not a "fizzle".
I would say, though, that he did not perform the way I thought he would... I thought he'd be a little quicker...
That said, he's a big guy and he's under a heavy training load. (Big guys need more rest to perform well; taper is different for bigger guys. It's a function of muscle mass.) Plus, Touretski's a bit of a mad scientist and might have looking for some specific stroke indications, especially in the butterfly. He - Touretski - certainly seemed pretty sanguine about Thorpe's swims.
Thorpe went 50.2 in the 100 free in Beijing... Came 15th. Have to say, by the standards he's setting for himself, that is a "fizzle".
It's a remarkable time, given that he's only been training for about a year but...
My fingers are crossed for him. I hope he can be competitive in March.
TedBaker said...
Big guys need more rest to perform well
jaja.. five years resting
Your finger is missing the "H" key. In English it is "Ha Ha"
JaJa, is that you Ryan?
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