Laszlo Cseh is still a poor man's Michael Phelps. He's good at so many things but won't be the best in the world at any of them. He set a Hungarian record in the 100 fly with a 51.98 this past weekend. Which is awesome but won't win him any medals at World's this summer. He's probably one of the top five overall swimmers in the entire world and yet may fail to medal this summer.
The other big story from out of Hungary is Bence Biczo. He went 1:54 in the 200 fly, which makes him the most exciting man in the pool of swimmers that might beat Phelps in a 200 fly. I'm going to call this the "Takeshi Matsuda Group" for now because Takeshi's been at it the longest. Biczo is the most exciting because Nick D'Arcy can't stay out of trouble, and he's still only a "junior" swimmer with a 1993 birth year.
The Paris Open should officially mark the return of irrational confidence in Cesar Cielo. He was 48.2 and 21.6. The meet had a ton of swims that raise eyebrows about swimmers preparation for these meets versus Shanghai Worlds. I mean, how much faster is Yannick Agnel going to be in the 200 free come August than the 1:45.5 he just went? Alexander Dale Oen nearly went faster than any American breaststroker last summer with a 1:00.33. Also, Matt Grevers beat Camille LaCourt, meaning that all is right in the backstroking world, except Grevers is not on the US World Championship squad.
Back in the US, they held the now extremely long named TYR Fran Crippen Swim Meet of Champions out in Mission Viejo. As you would expect a host of US contenders were on hand but there were relatively few relevant swims. with many swimmers at a crucial training point for Shanghai. Tyler Clary had a strong 200 back (1:56.2) but is still two seconds behind Ryosuke Irie, who has been a consistent 1:54 for months. Jason Lezak showed he can still sling a 49 in the 100 free whenever and remains a strong possibility to make another Olympic relay next summer at age 36.
That's our rundown? Feel like we missed something big? Show us up by posting it in the comments section!
I'm just going to make the general observation that Lezak is not human. All the men in my neighborhood at age 36 are using riding mowers already. Slobs. This is just not normal.
ReplyDeleteLezak can sling whatever he wants, whenever. The man is a straight-up badass. I'm glad he's on Team USA!
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, about that whole Grevers not going to Shanghai thing... Remind me again why our Worlds selection meet was last summer? Scheduling? *sigh*
SV: Unless you can throw down a 49 100 free then, yes. Now you know to ask me first before you make decisions.
ReplyDeleteRobin: Excellent point. Explain to us again why they used everyone's 8-10 age grouper times to determine the team for Worlds?
It shouldn't be any surprise that Dale Oen is faster than any American, he is solidly one of the best in the world, 3rd best ever in textile (and only 5 have broken a minute-Gangloff and Alexandrov are not among them.) However, he doesn't usually put up anything close to impressive in season times. I think he beats Kitajima in the 100 this year. Also I wouldn't get too excited about Grevers, last year he went 53.0 in season and didn't make the team, so there's no guarantee he would this year.
ReplyDeleteI guess we need two inane qualifying methods: One where we pick the team so close to the big meet (Olympic Trials) that our swimmers have scant amounts of time to prepare to retaper and another where we pick so far away that we don't allow for people to get faster in between. No one will ever be happy.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to point out that Roman Sloudnov popped a 1:00 like two months ago. The guy was the first man under a minute. He was at his prime in 2001 and he can still go :00 in season. If Dominico comes back to stare death in the face, maybe we can have a Sydney medal showdown.
ReplyDeleteFirst Anon, why wouldn't I get excited about Grevers? I'm a fan, that's what I do. I don't waste my free time watching unexciting things like paint drying. Why follow a sport if it doesn't excite you? As for guarantees, there never are any. It's my understanding that's why they actually swim the races instead of just comparing stats on paper. I still think Grevers would be a valuable addition to our 2011 Worlds team, and I look forward to seeing him keep moving ahead toward London.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying that you can't get excited about his times, it's just foolish to say he belongs on the team, and that he is in any different position than he was last year. They swam the race last lear, and he wasn't in the top three, which is where he had to finish. I don't waste time lamenting Grevers' absence instead of getting excited for Thoman and Plummer.
ReplyDeleteDidn't see that Sloudnov had been :00 in season-that is impressive. So still possibly a Hansen, Kitajima, Moses, Sloudnov, Duboscq, Dale Oen final? Fioravanti could present the medals.