"he kind of lost some respect by the swimming community for this. "
I doubt by anyone that matters.
What I meant to say was that he lost respect by the press last year after the Dual in the Pool in Australia. When he lost his WR and World Championship and then went to the Dual in the Pool a few days later and lost the 200 Back again to Michael Phelps and the 100 Back to Ryan Lochte, the press keep hounding him saying "whats wrong with Piersol" and commenting he has just lost 3 backstroke races in a row.
Then last summer he went to the meet in Europe and Phelps swam both backs at Nationals in Indy. They went head to head in both backstrokes with the time clock and Phelps won the 200 (1:54.65 to 1:54.77) and also won the 100 (:53.01 to :53.17) and I remember reading an article about Phelps in USA today shortly thereafter and the press saying he should try both backstrokes because now Piersol doesn't seem to be unbeatable anymore.
Aaron Piersol had a chance to set swimming history last year at the 2007 World Championships. If he won he would have been the first man to win 4 straight World Championships in and individual event. He won the 200 Back in 2001, 2003, and 2005. He would have beat Michael Phelps to this achievment and now it appears that Michael is going to do it in 2009 if he can win the 200 IM. The press was talking about that a lot. Now it appears that he is back and winning the trials and setting the World Record in the 100 Back, the press will take notice.
This sets up the great race in the 200 Back with Ryan Lochte in a rematch from the World Championships. If Aaron wins and breaks the World Record at these Olympic Trials and then does a repeat performance in August at the Olympics winning both events, then they are going to start talking about him as one of the greatest, if not the greatest backstroker in swimming history.
The only reason I picked Randal Bal was because he looked so good in both his races. In the 100 Back heats he went :53.28 and then in the semi finals he went :53.09 and I thought he would drop a couple of tenths more and for sure be :52.9 something and challenge the World Record. He looked good until the last 25 and then he hit the lane markers toward the wall and that was the difference. He split :27.87 as opposted to :27.39 in the semi finals and that was the difference because the other four swimmers when :27.4 range.
I thought Ryan Lochte would go faster because he did not have to swim a hard 200 Free about 30 minutes before this event. I figured that had to take something out of him and it would be worth at least 3 tenths of a second. He did the exact time from the semi finals of :53.37 so apparently scratching the 200 Free did not help him.
I am not surprised about Matt Grevers because I remember him beating Ryan Lochte in the 100 Yard Back at the NCAA in 2005. Now that the pressure is off from making the team, he can be more relaxed than others when he does his other events.
"he kind of lost some respect by the swimming community for this. "
I doubt by anyone that matters.
What I meant to say was that he lost respect by the press last year after the Dual in the Pool in Australia. When he lost his WR and World Championship and then went to the Dual in the Pool a few days later and lost the 200 Back again to Michael Phelps and the 100 Back to Ryan Lochte, the press keep hounding him saying "whats wrong with Piersol" and commenting he has just lost 3 backstroke races in a row.
Then last summer he went to the meet in Europe and Phelps swam both backs at Nationals in Indy. They went head to head in both backstrokes with the time clock and Phelps won the 200 (1:54.65 to 1:54.77) and also won the 100 (:53.01 to :53.17) and I remember reading an article about Phelps in USA today shortly thereafter and the press saying he should try both backstrokes because now Piersol doesn't seem to be unbeatable anymore.
Aaron Piersol had a chance to set swimming history last year at the 2007 World Championships. If he won he would have been the first man to win 4 straight World Championships in and individual event. He won the 200 Back in 2001, 2003, and 2005. He would have beat Michael Phelps to this achievment and now it appears that Michael is going to do it in 2009 if he can win the 200 IM. The press was talking about that a lot. Now it appears that he is back and winning the trials and setting the World Record in the 100 Back, the press will take notice.
This sets up the great race in the 200 Back with Ryan Lochte in a rematch from the World Championships. If Aaron wins and breaks the World Record at these Olympic Trials and then does a repeat performance in August at the Olympics winning both events, then they are going to start talking about him as one of the greatest, if not the greatest backstroker in swimming history.
The only reason I picked Randal Bal was because he looked so good in both his races. In the 100 Back heats he went :53.28 and then in the semi finals he went :53.09 and I thought he would drop a couple of tenths more and for sure be :52.9 something and challenge the World Record. He looked good until the last 25 and then he hit the lane markers toward the wall and that was the difference. He split :27.87 as opposted to :27.39 in the semi finals and that was the difference because the other four swimmers when :27.4 range.
I thought Ryan Lochte would go faster because he did not have to swim a hard 200 Free about 30 minutes before this event. I figured that had to take something out of him and it would be worth at least 3 tenths of a second. He did the exact time from the semi finals of :53.37 so apparently scratching the 200 Free did not help him.
I am not surprised about Matt Grevers because I remember him beating Ryan Lochte in the 100 Yard Back at the NCAA in 2005. Now that the pressure is off from making the team, he can be more relaxed than others when he does his other events.
