Late Night Snack: Wait, there's more!!!

Yes swim fans, just when you thought it was safe to return to your job, your family and your friends remember Nats start on Tuesday!  That's right folks, your National Team will stumble into the Avery Aquatic Center in Stanford jet-lagged, disoriented and exhausted.  I expect Ryan Lochte to sit his ass down, open a huge bag of In n Out, crack open a case of Bud and order Coach Troy to scratch everything.  At least Coughlin and Phelps had the wherewithal to just go home.  Our very own Chris DeSantis will also be on scene without the distraction of Team Denmark.

Here's the psych sheet:  http://www.usaswimming.org/_Rainbow/Documents/26b81e02-e130-480b-8e0a-ddeafd6d832b/psych%20sheets_11Nats.pdf

The Viking takes a break and the whole world of swimming falls apart...

Michael's painful secret is out... his ass has dyslexia.

Dang, guys... the Viking gets too busy to blog for a week or two and everything seems to go crazy. (I haven't had time to even follow world championship results for that matter-- yes, feel sorry for me.) A partial list of what I found when trying to catch up on some of the old news I missed?: Mark Schubert got hired at a juco, they announced they are thinking about bringing body suits back in 2013, they let Cielo swim and he cried and pee'd everywhere all the time (you know, because that is what furosemide makes you do,) Chris DFLSantis made a crazy call about Dale Oen winning the breast and was actually right, more breaststrokers were caught on video cheating with dolphin kicks again, open water swimmers were withdrawing from their races, and now Phelps is swimming for Australia.

What?... Phelps is changing his citizenship?


Not really... I am sure some of you caught this story last week, but when I closed my hotmail the other night I came across this article that says Phelps forgot his suit at warm-ups at worlds and had to borrow one from Eamon Sullivan. I have to wonder if he got his butt chewed like my swimmers do when they are late for warm-up because they forgot their gear.

Hmmm... somehow I doubt it. That would be cool to see though.

Is it time to start officially calling them "Textile World Records?"

Ryan deserves more credit for this one than he is gonna get.

After watching the replay of Ryan Lochte absolutely destroying the textile world best in the 200 back, I am a little saddened that we haven’t done anything official to recognize those achievements other than saying “while it is not a world record… it is a textile best.”  Just listen to the commentators.  It sounds like a let-down when they justify that the record he was chasing was "really fast."

He took it from a 1:54.0 to a 1:52.9. Before the days of tech suits we would have had our minds blown by that swim. It should be remembered in the same way that Mary T. Meagher was for being the first under 59 in the fly but skipping the 58’s completely in the process by hammering out a 57.93.  If not for the tech years, our world record progression might never have listed a 1:53! Instead of being a dominating swim that changed the face of backstroke forever, it is really something we could pass off as a “pretty good try” in comparison to the 200 IM, a swim where he has his rival Michael Phelps within a tenth of a second of him. Yes, it was a true world record, but it was not nearly the dominant performance that the backstroke was. Lochte owned that 200 back. He is in completely uncharted territory with that swim, except… oh yeah, it’s not a world record.


We all have chatted about the issue before on various blogs, and have debated all sorts of options with asterisks and the like. I am not unhappy that the world records are listed the way they currently are. I am glad that news sources and bloggers have come up with a pretty standard way of describing it, but I still worry. Now that Lochte has actually broken one of the rubber suit records and the man vs. technology articles have finally been written we might all feel a little better about it for now, but when it is really gonna hit us is in London. You see, when Spitz took his seven golds a big part of what made it awesome and what made it that much more impressive to the world at large, is the fact that he broke seven world records at the games. There was an undisputed aura that went with his achievement-- he was the best. No doubt about it. Phelps, in comparison to that in taking his eight golds, broke seven records as well, leaving nothing to be dismissed for those concerned about it being less of a achievement.

In London, Ryan Lochte has hinted that he is looking at matching or possibly outdoing Phelps' magic eight golds. Just the fact that he might attempt such a feat deserves a little more reverence than the current system will give him. The sad part is that even if he pulls it off, it will be hard to listen to the commentary:  “Lochte takes eight golds with one world record and seven textile bests” just doesn’t sound as impressive. Maybe I am splitting hairs here, but I am pretty sure that my non-swim-geek friends just aren’t gonna be as moved.

It really is not that I want to take the tech suit records away-- I want those athletes to be honored and recognized for the world-leading performances of their generation. I just worry that in London, even though I expect that multiple world records might be broken, many of the greatest swims in history might be overlooked as this one feels it is to me, and this whole mess will sink in a little deeper for all of us who are in the know.

Just Keep Swimming

                              
I have made it very clear I'm not a technocrat when it comes to swimming but what I saw this morning, alone in my kitchen with nothing but the light from my laptop and the life-saving grace of my coffee was magnificent.
 

I can't help it but when you become a parent everything is colored by that perspective.  Even Missy Franklin and Ryan Lochte.  I thought of my daughters who have been working so hard at their swim lessons.  They're trying to perfect breaststroke which I realize with all the current events, is ironic and perhaps impossible.  They received their report cards for the end of the session.  The comments were identical:  "Good job!  Remember kick out and don't flutter!  Your pull is really good!"   Hahahahahaha. (Oh, my sides hurt from laughing.  Things you don't write on the report card of a kid whose mom is a swim blogger. )


I think about the lessons we parents try desperately to instill in our children.  Work hard.  Be nice to others. Be good to yourself.  Don't cheat.  Flush.  All the things we think will help our kids grow to be somewhat functioning adults.  Traits perhaps we admire in ourselves or wish we could do better with.  Mistakes we made we don't want to see them make.  There could be blood on the floor due to our efforts, we just want our kids to be happy.  Missy Franklin's ginormous brace-face smile and Ryan's fist pump and internal/external exclamation of "jeah" represents the culmination of all these things we try so hard to instill in our kids.   They represent the best of the best.  The exemplary example of what can be.

It says to me, as a parent, "keep going."  The end result may not be a gold medal or a world record but we all try our best every day.  Some days something monumental happens.  Some days it's a small victory.  Some days you just feel like you're sinking.  The world may celebrate with you or you may pat yourself on the back in solitude.  All achievements are magnificent in their own way.   What's important is that you just keep swimming.

Breaking: LIVE audio webcast TONIGHT with The Swimmers' Circle!

It's true. Tonight at 8:30pm EST, our very own Chris Desantis will host a LIVE audio streaming webcast to "Pregame/Tailgate" the World Championships. He will be talking with another swim blog, The Swimmers' Circle, and they should have a lot of great things to say.

You can catch the live webcast here on this website. There is rumors of another "special guest" and it MAY or MAY NOT be Eminem. I don't want to ruin any surprises, but you shouldn't miss the webcast. It should be a lot more entertaining than Chris and Gus talking this morning about making coffee and how tired Gus is because he has a 25lb cat who sits on his head to wake him up at 4:45am every single morning and slowly ruins his life because he is never happy and always meowing and just wants love and attention and never-ending support and won't leave him alone.......

But I digress. Turn in tonight, swim fans, and rejoice!

Grades: Day Four

Day Four is in the books. As always, we here at the Swim Brief break down the Grades, this time organizing them into the day's Great, Good, and Ugly. 

THE GREAT

Michael Phelps: A. He defended his World 200m butterfly title, and has now won his signature event back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back. Still, he was quite a distance away from his Beijing time. Does it really matter? No. It’s just good to see The Greatest be great.

Nathan Adrian: B+. I’m giving him a B+ because he competed in the semi-finals, BUT he swam very fast. 48.0 is a quick time, and landed him one-tenth-of-a-second away from Magnusson. Adrian really came through last summer, but leaping from a Pan Pacific Championship to a World Championship is a big one. However, it’s the next step the Cal Bear needs to take prior to London. Sprinting is all a mental game. Is Adrian headstrong enough to take this event? Would it be an upset over the Aussie and Brazilian?

Federica Pelligrini: A++. She was trending on Twitter, which means a lot of people were watching swimming today (Desantis and I were audio commenting the finals at 6am EST).

THE GOOD

Tomorrow’s Men's 200IM Set-Up: B. While on paper this should be an epic show-down, I’m not quite sure Phelps will beat Lochte here. We saw Lochte just dominate Phelps the final 50m last year in Irvine, and Lochte’s mid-freestyle only looks stronger than ever. Phelps might be riding a wave of momentum after his 200m fly win, but Lochte has thought about this showdown too long to lose. This will be the best race in London, but not tomorrow.


Sun Yang: B+. Sure, he’s the best ever in the 800m distance. But I’d like to see what he can do in the 1500m next year. Can he top Grant Hacket’s seemingly untouchable 1500m world record next year? The 19-year-old is definitely China’s new superstar-in-the-making, but the Chinese do just fine on their standardized tests without having to ace this one. Keep your eye on this one.

THE UGLY

Universal’s Live Feed: Says something about a sport when you can get the biggest meet in 3 years live, but you have to pay 10 bucks to get it. I don’t want to pay 10 bucks to get it. And if I do pay 10 bucks to get it, I want stellar commentary and pristine tech support. Reportedly the feed went down today. Not cool.

Illegal Dolphin Kick? Check out this Swimming World story on an alleged illegal dolphin kick used by Felipe Silva. Watch the video and sound off, because I’m pretty sure breaststroke is not butterfly, and visa-versa.

Shanghai Day 4: Phelps Is Ok, Pellegrini Shines

Michael Phelps won the 200 fly, ok? He's still pretty good at that event, in fact he's now never lost it at a World Championship meet where he's actually swam it. That's extremely impressive but also a reminder of the herculean standard that he always has to live up to. If he wins we all shrug our shoulders. If he loses we all go to Defcon 5. Here are my other highlights from Day 4 finals in Shanghai:

Femke Heemskerk flew off the blocks in the 200 freestyle, but Federica Pellegrini had the race under control the entire way. She blew past most of the field on the second 100 to finish in the gold medal position. Heemskerk, meanwhile, ended up with the splits of an overzealous age grouper. Somewhere I am picturing a very frustrated Jacco Verhaeren.

The men's 800 free was all Sun Yang, as like Lotte Friis he led wire to wire. Unlike Lotte Friis, however, he still looked catchable for most of the race. Ryan Cochrane managed to sit on Yang's hip for the majority of the race but was unable to make a move. Gergo Kis used a crazy 26.6 final 50 to blow past Ous Mellouli for bronze.


In the 200 IM, Lochte and Phelps showed that they could be faster than anyone else going 80-90%. I'll leave the rest of this race for Lisa later in the day.

Finally, in the most important event of the day: the 50 Breaststroke. Unfortunately for fans of classy celebration, Felipe Silva won and immediately started thrashing the water behind him and preening on the lane line. C'mon Van Der Burgh!