I just read that the men's 200 MR was DQd at Worlds. That race could've given Phelps a record 8th gold medal... bummer.
Phelps was very gracious about it. He said, "We came in here as a team, we exit as a team."
Sigh.
PS Did you see the size of his HANDS! I would like to swim just one race with hands his size, and feet the size of Thorpe's. (Yep, I have puny little paws!)
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Former Member
Now that I riled some of you up, here are my thoughts.
My coaches always told us not to push the starts on the prelims of a relay you know you are going to win. Granted we were not going for world records.
The US was seated 3.5 seconds ahead of the field. Everyone in the pool knew the only way the US could lose was to deeq. To get perspective, each swimmer could have stood up there on the block for a half second between swimmers before diving in, and they still would have won the relay. Their seed time still ended up being more than 3 seconds faster than the gold medal winning team, as everyone in the pool expected.
Knowing that the meet was in the bag for the US in terms of medal totals, if coach told them to go for the world record in the prelims and not worry about the finals, then the edgy start and subsequent deeq is a bit more justifiable. However, my bet is that they all could have had relatively safe starts, definetly got the gold, and probably still broke the world record. To me, it just seems far too risky to go for it all in the prelims. A gold medal at the Worlds is still an acheivement of a lifetime, world record or not. I never coached though.
Coaches comments?
Now that I riled some of you up, here are my thoughts.
My coaches always told us not to push the starts on the prelims of a relay you know you are going to win. Granted we were not going for world records.
The US was seated 3.5 seconds ahead of the field. Everyone in the pool knew the only way the US could lose was to deeq. To get perspective, each swimmer could have stood up there on the block for a half second between swimmers before diving in, and they still would have won the relay. Their seed time still ended up being more than 3 seconds faster than the gold medal winning team, as everyone in the pool expected.
Knowing that the meet was in the bag for the US in terms of medal totals, if coach told them to go for the world record in the prelims and not worry about the finals, then the edgy start and subsequent deeq is a bit more justifiable. However, my bet is that they all could have had relatively safe starts, definetly got the gold, and probably still broke the world record. To me, it just seems far too risky to go for it all in the prelims. A gold medal at the Worlds is still an acheivement of a lifetime, world record or not. I never coached though.
Coaches comments?
