Swimming being exposed as joke in these Olympic games

Completely agree with this. To be honest, this whiny, defensive behavior is something I've only seen in the road running community.

the amount of ignorance in this thread is outstanding.

swimming is on the same level as track in terms of doping, athleticism required to do well, and how much of a sport it is. plain and simple folks

perfect way of saying this. I was a swimmer from 7-15 and was pretty good overall but ended up quitting to run because i liked the kids on my HS cross team compared to the swim team. I enjoyed both sports but I am going back to the pool now and have forgotten how much I enjoyed this sport.

----------------- wrote:

Let's be serious, the best ATHLETE in these games is Ashton Eaton...who runs, jumps and throws. Until someone beats him across all those disciplines, including Bolt, it is a ridiculous argument that no one can win.

Can he swim?

Alan Bennet wrote:

----------------- wrote:

Let's be serious, the best ATHLETE in these games is Ashton Eaton...who runs, jumps and throws. Until someone beats him across all those disciplines, including Bolt, it is a ridiculous argument that no one can win.

Can he swim?

Until Eaton wins 20 Golds, it's still Phelps.

In the Know How wrote:

Alan Bennet wrote:

Can he swim?

Until Eaton wins 20 Golds, it's still Phelps.

Make that 21!!!!!!!!!!

Eaton would win 21 golds if track and field had a pentathlon, heptathlon, septathlon, octathlon, novathlon, etc. That would be about as legit as all those bogus swimming events.

In the Know How wrote:

Alan Bennet wrote:

Can he swim?

Until Eaton wins 20 Golds, it's still Phelps.

beep

bugeyed wrote:

Eaton would win 21 golds if track and field had a pentathlon, heptathlon, septathlon, octathlon, novathlon, etc. That would be about as legit as all those bogus swimming events.

This.

Same with Bolt if we had a 100 with block start, 100 standing start, 120m dash, 140m dash, 200m dash, 4x200, 4x150 and the 147.3m dash which is essentially what swimming has with all of their events.

However, phelps is definitely the greatest swimmer of all time and a once in a lifetime talent.

21(!) gold medals, some within minutes of each other. How can anyone take this seriously?

bugeyed wrote:

Eaton would win 21 golds if track and field had a pentathlon, heptathlon, septathlon, octathlon, novathlon, etc. That would be about as legit as all those bogus swimming events.

Plus a relay or two in them.....

uhhhh wrote:

bugeyed wrote:

Eaton would win 21 golds if track and field had a pentathlon, heptathlon, septathlon, octathlon, novathlon, etc. That would be about as legit as all those bogus swimming events.

This.

Same with Bolt if we had a 100 with block start, 100 standing start, 120m dash, 140m dash, 200m dash, 4x200, 4x150 and the 147.3m dash which is essentially what swimming has with all of their events.

However, phelps is definitely the greatest swimmer of all time and a once in a lifetime talent.

Not even close. Bolt has won both 100 and 200 in same olympics. Most freestylers who are good at 50 are usually good at 100, but often it was won by 2 different people. There are a few 50m free specialists who bomb in the 100 also. S

The double was last done by Alexander Popov in 1996, and he did it in 92 also. So kindof equivalent to Usain Bolt. So, Bolt has the same amount of opportunities to medal as Popov.

In terms of time, 50 and 100m free are closest to 200m/400m, and Michael Johnson was the last to double at that wasn't he?

Does Bolt get to do 100m relay? Yes! Does Johnson get to do 4x400m relay? Yes.

So you could say timewise roughtly speaking:

50m free = 200m

100 free = 400

200 free = 800

at this point swimmers seem to slow down less than runners at double the distance as 100 free wr is 3+ secs slower than 400 wr, yet 200 free wr is only just over 1 sec slower than 800 wr, suggesting swimmers are more fit than runners.

400 free = 1500

1500 free = 5kms

Looking at the world records, you can see swimmers tire less than runners the further they go. So there you go, swimmers are more fit than runners.

HardLoper wrote:

Bad Wigins wrote:

Another dumb thing about swimming is the predictability. They don't have to deal with traffic, nobody will trip and fall, they don't get lane DQ's like sprinters. They don't have to deal with wind (as an indoor sport it should be in the winter games along with basketball) and they don't face the risk of a no-mark or fouls like field events.

Yeah I'd like to see them swim laps around an oval shaped course

Me too! Brenda would find a way to trip and fall out of the pool.

Was thinking about this thread last night during the 200m Men's Fly.

Phelps won gold about 2 seconds slower than (his own?) World Record pace. I think we are just witnessing a few genetic freaks who have worked really hard at specialty strokes. That is why we are seeing some records fall and others not even being sniffed.

If records were falling across every discipline, I would be more willing to attribute it to better technology or drier water or whatever across the board.

Side note: that (Hungarian?) lady with the husband/coach in the green shirt and bad ponytail has undescended testicles. No doubt about it.

thejeff wrote:

Was thinking about this thread last night during the 200m Men's Fly.

Phelps won gold about 2 seconds slower than (his own?) World Record pace. I think we are just witnessing a few genetic freaks who have worked really hard at specialty strokes. That is why we are seeing some records fall and others not even being sniffed.

If records were falling across every discipline, I would be more willing to attribute it to better technology or drier water or whatever across the board.

Side note: that (Hungarian?) lady with the husband/coach in the green shirt and bad ponytail has undescended testicles. No doubt about it.

Here's a really good TED talk that explains why WRs keep falling over time:

yeah, and you are right it does seem to be a road runner thing, I know some hippy dippy ultra guys that aren't like this at all, and I know some very very high level track athletes that do not seem to have this $hitty attitude either. It's those dudes in the middle that hate everyone else.

thejeff wrote:

Was thinking about this thread last night during the 200m Men's Fly.

Phelps won gold about 2 seconds slower than (his own?) World Record pace. I think we are just witnessing a few genetic freaks who have worked really hard at specialty strokes. That is why we are seeing some records fall and others not even being sniffed.

If records were falling across every discipline, I would be more willing to attribute it to better technology or drier water or whatever across the board.

Side note: that (Hungarian?) lady with the husband/coach in the green shirt and bad ponytail has undescended testicles. No doubt about it.

that Hungarian chick is most definitely on some type of drug. having that kind of improvement from 2012 to now is insane. At least with Phelps he was at the top of his age group from a young age and swimming in the Sydney Olympics as a scrawny kid and he had improvement you would expect from training like he does but this chick went from 2000 Phelps to 2008 Phelps missing that whole competitive but not unbeatable phase.

bugeyed wrote:

Eaton would win 21 golds if track and field had a pentathlon, heptathlon, septathlon, octathlon, novathlon, etc. That would be about as legit as all those bogus swimming events.

10/10

this is correct