Lochte - 19.87 50 yds Underwater - Jeah!

Interesting video interviewing Ryan Lochte on Youtube. His laidback nature has been covered many times before so I will pick out the other interesting points....

a). Best times underwater

50yds - 19.87
50m - 22.6 (Presuming LC)

b). Fell ill during Beijing

From another interview

"How did you get sick in Beijing?

When you go different countries, our team had meetings that year. They tell you what not to do, what to do when you go to this country. Well, [in] one of their meetings [they said] don’t use the tap water to brush your teeth, drink out of, whatever. I think I slept through it, or I wasn’t paying attention [laughs] ... because when I went there [to Beijing], the first thing I started using was tap water to brush my teeth. Next thing you know I was sick, I had the stomach flu, all this stuff. As soon as I stopped using the tap water, it went away. We got there Aug. 4 and I didn’t swim my first race until Aug. 9, so I was pretty much sick for about six, seven days."

c). Disappointed with his WR and Gold in the 200m Back

Felt he had a 1:52 low/1:51 high in him.


And one final Lochte story from Beijing

"Tell me about the 200m backstroke race you won in Beijing.

It was funny because in the 200 backstroke ... the suit that I wear for the 200 backstroke is legs. It’s from my hips all the way down to my ankles. And there’s a string that you’re supposed to tie and I don’t know why but I completely forgot about tying my suit. So they said, ‘Swimmers, jump in.’ As soon as I jumped in, my suit blew up into a parachute. All this water rushed in, there’s air, water in there. I was freaking out. I am at the Olympics, I forgot to tie my suit, how is this gonna happen?

I didn’t have time to tie it so I didn’t worry about it. When I did my start, I remember kicking underwater and all this water rushing in and [my suit] is going [makes gestures with his hands to demonstrate his suit filling up and bubbling out]. The whole race, I was thinking about my suit. The whole race, I was like, ‘This can’t be happening to me. This is my one chance and I am gonna blow it.’

How did you set the world record while wearing a suit with water in it?

I have no idea. I honestly think if I would’ve tied my suit and there wouldn’t have been any water rushing through it, I think I could’ve gone at least a second faster. I was ahead of Aaron Peirsol because he was right next to me. We were dead even the whole way. Going into the last 50 [meters], I remember flipping right before him. Usually my underwaters are my specialty, so I remember kicking underwater -- I saw him come up -- but I was just kicking underwater. And then at the very end I just leaned my head back, closed my eyes and just focused.

You won the bronze medal in the 200m and 400m IM races. Were you disappointed?

My first event was the 400m IM that I bronzed in. If I wasn’t sick, I think I would’ve done a lot better. I got really sick when I first got to Beijing and I think that was a factor in my performance throughout the meet. After my 400 IM I got better as the days went on, so I was able to recover for the backstroke.

The 200 IM, that was right after my 200 backstroke. I had 22 minutes in between each race. It was hard. I remember by the time I got out of the pool, I walked around in through the media and I walked down. By the time I got into the warm-down pool, I could only do one lap and then I had to get out and go to the ready room for my next event. I was sitting there ready for the 200 IM and I was still breathing heavily from the 200 backstroke. I couldn’t catch my breath so it was a hard double-double."

Duel in the Pool - Re-think Part 2

Following on from my last post re: Duel in the Pool I'd like to further John Lohn's point he makes here.

I would go a step further and consider a world wide contest of USA (or The Americas) vs Europe vs Rest of the World

2 swimmers per event from each nation.

The prospect of an Australian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, South African, Tunisian, Zimbabwean etc. team would be phenomenal.

Duel in the Pool Re-think

As the dust settles on Duel in the Pool, I've decided to look at how this event could have worked out. Hopefully it will give an indication of the potential this has in the future if the sponsor/political issues could have been resolved. I realise this is all theoretical and the chance of getting all these guys at the same time on top form is slim, saying that most of these guys were swimming fast just last week at the Europeans.

Here is how a full strength Europe might have looked (assuming a squad of 36 swimmers):-

Men
Leveaux, Bousquet, Bernard, Biedermann, Colbertaldo, Prilukov, Wildeboer, Donets, Vyatchanin, Borysik, Duboscq, Scozzoli, Giorgetti, Cavic, Svortskov, Jukic, Goddard, Cseh - 18 Swimmers

50m Free - Leveaux, Bousquet, Bernard - Probable 1-2-3 for Europe although always tough to call 50 Free.
100m Free - Leveaux, Bernard, Bousquet - Leveaux and Bernard in the top 3, Adrian probably taking 2nd or 3rd for the US.
200m Free - Biedermann, Bernard, Leveaux - Biedermann wins it, Vanderkaay 2nd, Diebler 3rd.
400m Free - Biedermann, Colbertaldo, Prilukov - Biedermann wins it, Vanderkaay 2nd (would be a great race though), Colbertado 3rd.
800m Free - Biedermann, Colbertaldo, Prilukov - Possible 1-2-3. La Tourette might have sneaked a 3rd.
100m Back - Wildeboer, Donets, Vyatchanin - Thoman probably would have still won (ignoring the DQ), Grevers in 2nd, one of the European's in 3rd.
200m Back - Wildeboer, Donets, Vyatchanin - Vyatchanin 1st, Grevers 2nd, Donets 3rd.
100m Breast - Borysik, Duboscq, Scozzoli - Good race, Alexandrov 1st, Europe 2 and 3.
200m Breast - Borysik, Duboscq, Giorgetti - Same as 100. Alexandrov 1, Europe 2 and 3.
100m Fly - Cavic, Bousquet, Svortskov - In a suit you'd have to say Cavic, with Phelps 2nd, Svortskov 3rd.
200m Fly - Svortskov, Jukic, Cseh - Svortskov 1, Phelps 2, Jukic 3
200m IM - Goddard, Jukic, Cseh - Goddard 1, Cseh 2, Jukic 3
400m IM - Goddard, Jukic, Cseh - Cseh 1, Clary 2, Jukic 3
4 x 100m Free - Leveaux, Bernard, Bousquet, Biedermann - Winners, smash WR (possibly sub 3minutes)
4 x 100m Medley - Wildeboer, Duboscq, Cavic, Leveaux - This would be close! I'll go with US though

Total Male Points - 86 Europe/47 USA

Women
Steffen, Halsall, Veldhuis, Pellegrini, Balmy, Jackson, Adlington, Simmonds, Spofforth, Putra, Jukic, De Ronchi, Efimova, Sjostrom, Segat, Belmonte, Miley - 17 Swimmers

50m Free - Steffen, Halsall, Veldhuis - Europe 1-2-3
100m Free - Steffen, Halsall, Veldhuis - Europe 1-2-3
200m Free - Pellegrini, Balmy, Steffen - Pellegrini 1, Schmitt 2, Balmy 3
400m Free - Pellegrini, Balmy, Jackson - Pellegrini 1, Jackson 2, Schmitt 3
800m Free - Adlington, Balmy, Jackson - Europe 1-2-3
100m Back - Simmonds, Spofforth, Putra - Simmonds 1, Hoelzer 2, Spofforth 3
200m Back - Simmonds, Spofforth, Putra - Simmonds 1, Hoelzer 2, Pelton 3
100m Breast - Jukic, De Ronchi, Efimova - Soni 1, Hardy 2, Jukic 3
200m Breast - Jukic, De Ronchi, Efimova - Soni 1, Freeman 2, Jukic 3
100m Fly - Halsall, Veldhuis, Sjostrom - Halsall 1, Magnuson 2, Vollmer 3
200m Fly - Sjostrom, Segat, Belmonte - Descenza 1, Vollmer 2, Segat 3
200m IM - Segat, Belmonte, Miley - Smit 1, Kukors 2, Segat 3
400m IM - Segat, Belmonte, Miley - Smit 1, Knutson 2, Miley 3
4 x 100m Free - Steffen, Halsall, Veldhuis, Pellegrini - Europe destroy the WR
4 x 100m Medley - Simmonds, Jukic, Halsall, Steffen - Close race but Europe to edge it

Total Female Points - 76 Europe/55 USA

Total Points - 162 Europe/102 USA

As I've said before the chances of this happening aren't great but hopefully I've shown how this event could have turned out/could turn out in the future. Two things to bear in mind for next year's event - a) the suits. Expect Phelps to win every race he swims in. b) Lochte swimming for the US.