Sorry, I should have thought of this when I started my first thread on this topic.
In a nutshell, I am trying to predict who is more likely to win the 200 IM in London this summer, Michael Phelps or Ryan Lochte?
Phelps owned this event throughout the tech suit era; Lochte, however, beat Phelps at Worlds in Shanghai last summer, in the process establishing the first (of still only 2) world records since FINA banned performance-enhancing suits.
You can read the replies on the earlier thread here:
forums.usms.org/showthread.php
Couroboros had a particularly good line of reasoning, for example.
Also, Skip Montero checked out inTrade, which creates "markets" for different events (most famously elections) to allow people to put their money on predicted outcomes. It turns out, however, that anything that smacks of sports gambling is prohibited, so Olympic outcomes are not likely to be on inTrade.
But enough preamble.
Who do you think will win? I know, neither has even made the event in Trials yet, and it's possible that one or both could be bumped. But assuming they both make it, who do you think--as opposed to hope--will win?
If you need more fodder for rumination before casting your vote, check out their race at Shanghai.
Ryan Lochte, Michael Phelps - 200 IM World Record 2011 - YouTube
Pretty amazing...1:54.00 in the 200 LCM IM for Lochte.
According to the Swimming World conversion utility:
Your time of 1:54.00 in long course meters
converts to 1:37.70 in short course yards
It's possible that this conversion underestimates Lochte's yards time given that he now arguably has the best SDKs in the world.
Interesting.
Early odds are running 3 to 1 in Lochte's favor.
Those who agree with this, please feel free to explain your rationale.
Do you have any specific ideas about what Lochte will need to do to win? It seems like he widened his lead on the *** stroke leg at Shanghai, and got a great ***-to-free turn, much better SDK off that wall than Phelps. But Phelps was coming on strong at the very end, and Lochte didn't win by much.
Will he need a bigger lead this time coming into the final length? Or can he hold off Phelps' final sprint if they are neck and neck on freestyle?
Interesting.
Early odds are running 3 to 1 in Lochte's favor.
Those who agree with this, please feel free to explain your rationale.
Do you have any specific ideas about what Lochte will need to do to win? It seems like he widened his lead on the *** stroke leg at Shanghai, and got a great ***-to-free turn, much better SDK off that wall than Phelps. But Phelps was coming on strong at the very end, and Lochte didn't win by much.
Will he need a bigger lead this time coming into the final length? Or can he hold off Phelps' final sprint if they are neck and neck on freestyle?