Recently at SwimNews, Craig Lord posted the following quotes:
"The blogs and forums of the swimming world are awash with opinion and speculation and accusations that range from libellous fabrication to the probable but unknown, with a sound nugget of biting truth in between. One thing many comments have in common: many believe that the first round of FINA independent suit testing was fixed to favour the LZR."
and
"a footnote to the blogging blockheads who believe that scribbling notes on the internet under a made-up name places them beyond a requirement to operate within truth and the law..."
I have to ask, am I one of the "blogging blockheads" Mr. Lord is referring to? Does he consider my blog to be a libelous fabrication? I am the only swim blogger I know of who doesn’t make my personal info common knowledge, but he could just be talking about all of the “anonymous cowards” leaving comments all over the web. I have to wonder though; does Craig Lord read my blog? Is he a Viking fan?
I really do respect Craig Lord at SwimNews, even if I like to pick on him for out-ranting the best of us. We need a champion for skin. Mr. Lord is the passionate journalist who is bravely leading the charge. I have expressed this before even though I don’t agree with him on all points. I just felt he crossed the line by ripping into Fred Bousqet with what can easily be read as a personal attack. I sided with Brett Hawke on that one. I contend that past generations of athletes whose records have disappeared are not the only victims in the tech mess. With the way things are playing out, our current stars are also victims. Bousqet did nothing wrong. He was playing the game as it had to be played. No world class athlete can afford not to. To face the possibility of having a world record stripped would be hard for anyone under any circumstances.
At floswimming, it was exhausting to see everything become about suits. At times it has been the same at SwimNews… and I am not saying they should shut up about suits. It is the topic of our times and we need loud voices to hash it out until a solution is determined. I just have to say that part of the reason I started my blogspot is that I felt it was unfair to feed the suit monster at floswimming. It’s not fair to Garrett because his site is about promoting and celebrating the sport. When I posted my article about trying to gain a TYR sponsorship (which I still can’t believe hasn’t happened yet) I honestly felt a little dirty, not for what I said, but for starting an argument about suits once again. At that point, the dead horse had already been pulverized to a fine red mist. And when people started cutting into Dana Vollmer after Pac-10’s and NCAA’s I was downright disgusted. I am trying to be selective about what I post at flo nowadays because I don’t want to contribute to the negativity. Just like we need a Craig Lord ranting about suits in our troubled times, we need Garrett McCaffrey to help us to celebrate all of the awesome things that are going on during the peak of swimming’s popularity. I don’t want my contributions to take away from that, so some of my posts, you will only see on my blogspot.
Mr. Lord, I blog under a pseudonym for a reason, and it is not because I think it brings me above accountability. If I am what you consider to be a blockhead, and you want to call me out, you are welcome to join the blogfight and you are also welcome to track me down to talk it out over the phone. It is not hard to learn who I am and get into contact with me… just don’t pass my contact info on to my hategroupies. I have earned a few at flo.
And if you aren’t talking about me… well then, uh… nevermind… I guess. No big deal, eh? Keep fighting the good fight.
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