Swimming Finals at the World Championships in Barcelona, Spain

I saw "the kick" by Kitajima and in a way I think it is unfair that he was not dq'd for that (esp. becasue I wanted to see Brendan Hansen win the gold -- Go Horns!) But at the same time, I have this perspective -- I don't think the kick was an attempt to cheat, he was already leading the heat and had the finals in hand. It was more likely a mental error of engaging a bad practice habit. If he did not do it in the finals (which we coudn't see) then he clearly deserved to take the gold. It's a tough call. Also a reminder to practice good form!!

Hey NY From what I read Dolan does work very hard. Darn hard! Having said that, from what I read and hear Tom Wilkins’s workouts are pure legend and off the planet tough....and the Australian distance guys have been grinding out workouts at distances that are beyond most of our comprehension, and they have been swimming those workouts for years.

Well, Beard swam only two years of NCAA's is doing good. Phelps opt to not do it and he is still in high school. I don't think NCAA's makes or breaks swimmers. I think swimmers like other sports should have the opportunity to make money if they chose rather than swim for a college team. Moses problem is the media and he himself overblew his image. Spitz did the same thing back in the 1968 olympics and came back later. Also, Amanda Beard's teammate Tara Kirk swam all 4 years of NCAA's and isn't doing as good as Beard.

Now some of my suggestions to improved our water polo programs. The first problem is 60 to 80 percent of polo players come from California. California is one of the few states that have a high school program. Unlike swimming where swimmers are develop by age group teams before high school. Most polo players are develop by high school programs starting at summer programs at 7th or 8th grade. Polo you need more upper-body stength, one reason why many water polo players in the world are in their late 20's and early 30's for men and their 20's plus for women. One state has men and women's water polo at the college level but not the high school level.

Moses, unlike Phelps, Beard, does not have a long background of competitive swimming. But, at the end othe day, it just might be that his "makeup" does not favor head-to-head competition. I don't think we can anticipate a Spitz like performance from Moses-or anyone else currently competing at WC. Spitz's "failure" occurred at his first attempt to race multiple individual events and three relays; at altitude at the age of 18. Moses is focused on his usual 2 events and he is in his 20s. I applaud swimmers who make money and hope that Phelps, or any other swimmer, can earn more than the lottery picks in the NBA. Check out the articles on Kitajima in Swimming Technique. Also for those wondering how hard Phelps works check out the January-February Swim Technique article. I think his averaging better than 9:20 for a 5,000 during a "routine" training session suggests that Mr. Phelps can swim distance.

A comment and a question: 1) Thank God I am not a breaststroker! This frimpin' stroke is too darn technical! I'm not talking about fine points to swim it well (I'm completely down with that); I'm talking about all ticky-tack rules to swim it legally! Here we are, in the midst of World Championships, debating whether the guy who just set the World Record should have been DQ'ed. Not only that, look at the results from prelims, semis and finals, and count how many of the finest breaststrokers in the world got DQ'ed! At this level of competition, you have to ask yourself is it the athlete, or is it the rules that are messed up. Calling pass interference in the NFL is more cut and dried than this. 2) For those who follow the women's 200 free closely, can you verify my impression that the finals, from 1st to 8th, was one of the best races in the past 20 years or so. Call me crazy, but the women's 200 free has struck me as having gone stagnant since the days of Sippy Woodhead vs. the East Germans. If memory serves, her WR was about 1:58.something. Aside from Franze busting off a 1:56 every decade or so (and usually at a second rate meet), hardly anyone ever swims under 1:59. Just to make sure I'm not smokin' dope on this issue, I checked the results from the Sydney Olympics. Sure enough, a flyer won the race, and was the only woman under 1:59, with 2nd and 3rd going to a couple of folks who have been around for a while. Don't get me wrong; Claudia Poll's performance in 2000 was an amazing testament to her talent and her longevity in the race. But, none of the medal winners at Sydney were exactly what you would call fresh blood in the event. Now, finally, we have 4 swimmers doing 1:58's, hurrah! I'm thrilled to see it, even if the American ended up one place out of the medals! (One caveat: in criticizing the field in the women's 200 free for the last 23 years, I am acknowledging that I am in no way qualified to even so much as wipe the excess water off of the top of their starting blocks. These women are all incredible athletes, and make me look like the carping, mediocre slacker which I am in fact.) What do y'all think? Matt

Thrope like Phelps is also a very good backstoker. Phelps advantages are Fly and Breaststoke. Even in his worst stroke, Phelps swam a 2:18 or 2:19 200 meter breaststoke this year. He will get a big league after the fly. And Thrope only advantage is freestyle but by not much.

Well, the elite swimmers kick so fast in ***, that it borders on a dolphin kick. I think Tracey Caulkins use a kick that was similar to fly and some swimmers who like that kick border on being DQ. Anyway for many breastrokers a more traditonal whipped kick works better since many of us do that faster than our dolphin kick. What slows down *** is the arm pull and some use the wave style to get more stength from the arms and a little less on the kick. But in my life, I was DQ less for ***. Backstroke is the one I have difficulty, its the back turn and I no longer can do a decent back turn and has a kid I got Dq a lot from the turn.

Howdy everybody. Here is German beer for everyone: www.geocities.com/.../germbeer.txt Now, we can: .) sit, .) watch, and .) debate the action.

Prost Ion! Anyone been watching the coverage on ESPN? I find it almost unbearable but being one of the few times you see any swimming on tv I'll take what I can get.