Mr. Woods, Mr. Federer... meet Mr. Phelps
Michael Phelps broke another world record today down at the FINA World Championships in Melbourne, lowering the record he set last month in the 200 fly by a full 1.62 seconds, a jaw-dropping improvement. Phelps now owns the eight best times ever posted in the 200 fly. The second-place finisher in Melbourne came in a full three seconds behind him.
And here it was just yesterday that Phelps made headlines around the world by breaking Ian Thorpe's 200 free world record from 2001 - defeating Dutch rival Pieter van den Hoogenband, erasing Thorpedo's mark from the books, and serving historical notice to Mark Spitz all in a single race. After all, at the Athens Games Phelps was only one gold short of Spitz' record seven Olympic gold medals, and one of the races Phelps did not win in Athens was the 200 free. That race forever will be remembered as one of the great swimming showdowns of all time, as Phelps took third behind Hoogie and Thorpe. (Was I in attendance you ask? Why yes, oddly enough I was... the podium shot up there is from the Large archive).
If, as seems evident from his World Championship performance, Phelps has seized control of the 200 free (he's now the only man to crack the 1:44 barrier in the event) while maintaining his utter dominance of his other signature events (the IM's and butterflys) he seems almost a cinch to equal and potentially break Spitz's record in Beijing. Whether he manages that or not, I think a lot of people will agree that Phelps' performance in Melbourne the past few days has cemented his status as the greatest swimmer who ever lived. Which is some serious shit.
7 Comments:
hows my boy GH jr?
bejing or bust!?!?!?!
There's also a fever swooping our nation for those championships these days. We have our own superfish who is crushing her opponents and she's just getting started. Laure manaudou.
press coverage of the swimming at the moment here in oz is like a funeral.
Tell us more, ML. When I was down there for the Sydney Games I was fascinated by how big swimming was a sport for Aussies.
It's almost expected down here that we will dominate swimming because it's part of our culture and a big part of our self image, living next to the sea, being athletic & all that. It's one sport where we can compete as a powerhouse on the world stage (being that Aussie Rules football, both forms of Rugby and Cricket aren't global and all of our soccer talent flees os)so it gets a lot of attention when we win. Over the years some of the biggest names in Aussie sports have been swimmers starting with Dawn Fraser and running all the way through Thorpie & Grant Hackett today, when they win they are canonised by the media and become national icons here. Because of this it's become par for the course for Aussies to win more than we lose in the pool and with the retirement of Thorpe and the shocking decline of Hackett in the last week the press here is in shock and seems to focus on nothing but the fact that Hackett will have no chance in Beijing, which is either morbidity or a long bow approach to legend making come the olympics I suppose. You wouldn't have believed how much press Thorpie's retirement got. It was an absolute shitstorm in the media for the best part of a month (as are the persistent Thorpie gay rumours) Funny thing about all of this though is that at the same time the aussie girls are dominating and it's just treated as business as usual.
here's a pic I took of the Dawn Fraser pool in Balmain Sydney. Is where "our Dawn" trained back in the day, totally surreal spot. The pool's in Sydney harbour and borders on what used to be industrial areas. I was too hungover and a little frightened to swim... but they sell beers and pigs in blankets (sausage sandwiches) poolside to those watching the water polo.. all very aussie..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92068415@N00/383414696/
ml - I couldn't see that picture - I got an error at the url. I swam at a wonderful pool in Sydney that was a short bus trip away from the Media Village - I wish I could remember the name of it. Indoor heated 25m pools and 2 outdoor 50m. I would go there on about 2 hours sleep before my shifts at the IBC and swim laps alongside the old poolwalkers and the youth teams getting their practices in before school. One morning I showed up there and three lanes were taken up with some very serious looking shaven swimmers. As I was doing my pedestrian breaststoke, I noticed a woman about to get in the pool built like a defensive back, and then I noted the nails, and I realized that she was Inge de Bruijn, and they were the Dutch swimming team, men's and women's. That swimming facility, I must say, is one my fondest of many fond memories from the Sydney Games.
I also have some great Thorpe stories to tell, but I'll leave that for another time.
On another note, I'm curious what the coverage of Phelps is like down there. What he's doing is just superhuman, and you know, here in the States, it's getting minor coverage at best.
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