August 18, 2008

Swimfan

Last few things (well, maybe) about Michael Phelps in the Olympics:

1) Was this the best athletic performance you've ever seen? Growing up, I always wondered what it must have been like to watch Spitz do his thing in 1972 - I was just short of a year old, so if I saw it live, I don't recall - and now I don't have to wonder anymore. Feelin' lucky that I got to see the new standard being set. This was one of two sports records I always figured was completely safe. The other? Well, I got to see that one broken, too - in person, no less.

2) He was so focused on his mission that, as he said during a news conference this weekend, he didn't even know what the outside of the swimming venue looked like. I like that. Although he should go take a look - that Water Cube thing is damn cool.

3) The video of his .01 second win over Mike ("Let-me-say-something-stupid-to-fire-up-the-best-swimmer-in-the-world") Cavic was shown ad nauseum over the weekend on NBC, but if you're not sick of seeing it, here's a neat slideshow of still images that shows again how much ground he made up in the last few meters of the race.

4) Wonder what the city of Baltimore is going to name after him, and whether city leaders will do something soon or wait until after London 2012.

5) How about this for the Democratic party ticket: Obama-Phelps '08?

That's probably enough.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What I enjoyed most about the whole Phelps phenomenon coverage was when around race 6 the headlines were along the lines of...

"Phelps wins gold, no world record"

Like he's letting us down or something.

Did you see the remake of the Spitz SI photo with Phelps and his gold medals? That was pretty excellent.

Anonymous said...

1) They showed swimming too late for me to see (like 10 p.m. or something TOTALLY unreasonable)
and
2) I hadn't seen the split-second win - frame by frame or otherwise, so thank you for the link
I'd maybe be more prone to vote for Obama if he had a b'moron with him in the running!

Your escalator operator said...

L - Yes, just saw the new SI cover yesterday. A little weird 'cause it looks like he's naked, but, um, otherwise, it's so cool. Also, you're right about the non-WR in that one race. All he could do was set the OR? Jeez.

B - That one was worth staying up for. I've finally gone to bed before 11 the last few nights, now that swimming is over. Much better.

GlutenGirl said...

What I find disturbing about the Phelps Phenomenon is the number of websites dedicated to talking about what it would be like to sleep with him. Particulary disturbing are the references to his "dolphin meat"... Ew...

Oh, and yes I know I am a little late with my comment seeing as how the olympics are way over but I am way behind in my blog reading.

Your escalator operator said...

Well, GG, it was worth the wait for the phrase "dolphin meat."

I'm sort of curious about these sites that you seem to be frequenting, but on the other hand: I don't really want to know.