backspace wrote:
Tnfmedia wrote:You do realize he held the world record in the 200 freestyle until biederman broke it in the now illegal swim suit? You are right he sucks at freestyle
Um, Phelps achieved the record in the now illegal swimsuit as well..
I'm pretty sure that Biederman's suit was technologically more advanced than the one Phelps used, but maybe that was just the American media making excuses for him. Regardless, when Biederman beat Phelps and broke the WR, Phelps wasn't in the best of shape relative to years past.
Many of Phelps' WRs came in meets where he was swimming a huge number of events compared to his competitors. If he focused on only a few races per meet he could have lowered the bar even further on his WRs. I don't think that he ever swam the 400m freestyle in major competitions but, based on the endurance he has for the 400m IM, as well as his gold medal and WR in the 200m freestyle, he probably was capable of breaking or at least challenging the WR in that event as well.