I will go out on a limb and say that we will see at least one of the two (Crocker or Phelps) under 50 for the first time. Maybe even both, but I predict Phelps will take it......
Any others?
If he can beat Scott Lautman 200 fly record in the 50-54 age group, then he will be great!
Rob, I'll let Scott know that beating his record is now the standard to be considered "greatest swimmer ever!" :)
Interesting observation Lindsey. I don't know if that makes Phelps greater...but it sure shows how much has changed in the world of swimming (in terms of times and what not) since the days of Mark Spitz.Spitz’s times in 1972
• 100 m freestyle: 51.22 (world record) 1st
• 200 m freestyle: 1:52.78 (world record) 1st
• 100 m butterfly: 54.27 (world record) 1st
• 200 m butterfly: 2:00.70 (world record) 1st
Those times at worlds 2007
• 100 m freestyle: 51.22 61st
• 200 m freestyle: 1:52.78 55th
• 100 m butterfly: 54.27 37th
• 200 m butterfly: 2:00.70 27th
It's dangerous to compare era's,so much has changed.Spitz swam before the mega-yardage explosion of the mid-70s.Training is different,the strokes are taught differently,SDK etc. Spitz was great,Phelps is great. Phelps may be the greatest of all time.He certainly had a better first Olympics than Spitz did.
I thought Phelps did rather poorly at his first Olympics?
He got fifth, yes, but he was:
only 15 years old
racing guys who had been in this situation before
used a much different race strategy that would not get him world records today.
On the upside, he did swim a best time in Sydney. The following year, he broke the world record and never looked back.
Now, about this supposed "race fixing" by Crocker. He didn't fix the race. Don't be daft (as the Brits say). He was trying to time that last stroke right, and doing it at the normal speed would have meant a longer glide. As in breaststroke, the hardest thing about the race is timing the finish. Both guys had long glides to the wall. Michael's just got him to the finish .05 seconds quicker.
Crocker's swim in Montreal was amazing, his 50m split was faster than Athens or Melbourne, he didn't die at the end, and he was less than a foot from the wall when he finished his stroke. Thanks for the video link, I saw that race in person, it is great to see the replay.
how did crocker lose?
www.youtube.com/watch
look at the video, on the finish crocker bends his arms in and it almost looks like he slows down on purpose. Iv been watching alot of videos of crooker and he never finishes like that. Kind of looks like the race was fixed. I'm not saying it was fixed becasue there is no way that would happen. But what was crocker doing?
It looked to me like Crocker just didn't time the wall as well as usual, he had a full meter of glide while Phelps finished his stroke closer to the wall with less glide.
It's dangerous to compare era's,so much has changed.Spitz swam before the mega-yardage explosion of the mid-70s.Training is different,the strokes are taught differently,SDK etc. Spitz was great,Phelps is great. Phelps may be the greatest of all time.He certainly had a better first Olympics than Spitz did.
I thought Phelps did rather poorly at his first Olympics?
