Why are you such a hater? Phelps coming back to Lockte's level is the best thing that could happen to swimming this quadrennial.
Would people be interested if Phelps was blowing everyone out of the water like he did four years ago?I would actually prefer to see him tearing it up and beating everybody "like a boss." Once he stopped doing that look what he became...
Perhaps the "scorpion and the frog" fable applies to why I am "...such a hater?"
Apparently it's in my nature not to like him post his overwhelming success due to the way he has conducted himself in and out of the pool these past four-years. Nonetheless, I have outlined my reasons over and over - I won't repeat them.
Bowman had a pretty good criticism of both Lochte and Phelps and to be be perfectly honest both these guys need a spanking over their 200-free last night:
Bowman says from SwimNews:
[On playing Cat and Mouse' or in this case cat or mouse]"...Ryan and Michael are so focused on racing each other they do stuff like not take it out fast enough … in the process they forget to swim fast."
Outside the conference room later, SwimNews asked Bowman if he though it would be dangerous to play cat and house when Yannick Agnel, Park Tae-hwan and others are in the mix. "It can be," replied the coach before revealing that he had spoken to Lochte's coach and Us [ What's "Us" mean? -tony] head men's coach Gregg Troy on the topic.
"When they started out racing each other they would do that. They stopped doing it but now they're doing it again," said Bowman.
That to me tells me that their vanity got in the way. Did you see Phelps glancing at Lochte after his turns? Both their times were a full second slower than Yannick Agnel's best time this year and slower than Lochte's Shanghai time of last year.
There's more here:
[Link]
Instead of of concentrating on making the Olympic team and sending a loud and clear message to the world, they were focused on fan perception and ego. Ahh, vanity, one of the seven deadly sins but it sure made for some great entertainment.
8 comments:
"they were focused on fan perception "
YES! YES! YES! This is what the sport needs! It needs personality. It needs controversy. It needs rivalry. It needs to embrace it's fans and give them excitement. This does not happen with world records. NOBODY CARES! It does not happen with lopsided victories. NOBODY CARES!
Michael Phelps brought spectators to the sport with his 8-gold China performance. Now, that's "been there, done that". The same types lopsided victories from 4 years ago will not keep the interest of the masses.
The Lockte/Phelps rivalry is exciting, not because it's about swimming fast, but because it's about winning. Absent the rivalry, Lockte or Phelps breaking world records in isolation, as much as it would be revered by swimming purists, is watching paint dry.
Each of us has a favorite and we should root for them, but to wish for Michael Phelps to walk away... don't be the scorpion.
The problem with the Lochte / Phelps rivalry is that it ignores Park and Angel. If Lochte and Phelps just concentrate on trying to beat each other, then Park and Angel will beat them both.
I spoke with Clay Evans about this and he suggested that the two all ready knew well into the race they were going to make the team so they may have been conserving energy for later events and doing a little brinksmanship so to speak for the press. I am probably horribly reinterpreting this but that is how it came across.
HE also suggested that Lochte and Phelps are not fully tappered
I mean, I've gotta assume they're both not fully tapered. Aside from Clary in the 400 IM, there really isn't anyone in their overlapping events (200 IM / 200 Free) that could have beaten either of them.
Both have had some pretty good swims, both have had some not so good swims.
It seems a lot of times at trials haven't been very fast ( e.g. W 200IM) compared to other international top times this year. Is it safe to assume that most of these top swimmers aren't fully tapered? Or has the world caught up?
I think that too. I think it will be a very sobering Olympics on the men's side in all the freestyle events save for the 200-free.
As for the women, I am very excited about Allison Schmitt; I am really loving her "go large or go home" approach. I find it both refreshing and scary at the same time.
It's disconcerting when Lochte and Phelps agree that they will have to swim faster in London. It should be the other countries saying that.
I feel like there's something about the pool because every event so far with the exception of the backstrokes has been slightly slower than expected across the field. Phelps was actually faster in the 200 free in-season, which has never happened before to him when he tapered.
I have pools I swim faster in and pools I swim slower in. I swim slow in the Cal Tech pool, I swim slow in the Van Nuys/Sherman Oaks pool but I beast it when swim at Santa Monica College or LMU.
I want to believe that the pool in Omaha has issues but I can't because they have those $3,500-or-more Omega starting blocks, a calibrated pool with clear water, and the pool is deep.
I suspect this could be an omen
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