Kitajima went 2:07.51 to break Hansen's WR by .99 sec.He was wearing a LZR in defiance of Japanese swimming authorities.I can't find video of the swim yet,can anyone else?
Former Member
I can't find video of the swim yet,can anyone else?
I just barely made it to start recording this race in time, which was aired in Japan past midnight :snore:
www.mediafire.com/
The codecs are XviD and MP3 for the video and the audio portion respectively.
Edit: As you can see from my member profile I just registered to post my vid hoping I might be of some help after stumbling this forum by googling. I'm not an avid swimming fan so please be easy on me. :)
Edit2: Sorry for going off topic. There was a 4-episode scientific TV documentary/report series aired here in Japan back in March/April, and the 2nd episode was devoted to Michael Phelps, I found the whole program on Veoh.com in decent quality if you haven't seen it. I'm not the one who posted it, though I myself also recorded it:
www.veoh.com/.../v6466224dMZ2XHED
Looks like you need to install a program called VeohTV or something in order to download it in full length rather than viewing just the first 5 min within the browser. I didn't try installing it since I have my own recording on my PC.
I believe the defiant part was he wore a t-shirt on the medal stand that translated to "I am the swimmer." In other words, shouldn't he get to choose which suit he wears?
By all means. Unless of course, he signed a contract agreeing to wear only the suits of the manufacturer who is signing his paycheck!
i take the shirt to mean, not literally, "let my swimming do the talking." while we all yap away, he swims.
he's got the best time now. lets see how things turn out in beijing - if he can keep his money where his shirt is.
Good point. But wouldn't you say Lance/Lemond are at least on the same level of accomplishment as Phelps? They are/were household names.
Maybe Phelps needs to get ball cancer or chased around by French media looking for syringes.
It is hard to compare such things but I think Armstrong's accomplishments are greater than Phelps' to this point plus he has the whole cancer thing going for him. People are not talking about Phelps as a potential political candidate, for example, as I've heard from time to time about Armstrong. (And you have to admit LA has a great name.)
I don't believe LeMond was more famous than Phelps is now -- I'm not going to argue whether being the first American to win the TdF ranks higher than Phelps' accomplishments -- and Landis is much more infamous than famous, if you know what I mean. If he hadn't tested positive and fought it so much then I think very few outside of cycling would know him.
In an Olympic year I would expect recognition of Phelps to be high --in the US, swimming is being positioned more than usual as one of the premer Olympic sports, displacing tarnished T&F to a certain extent -- but maybe it is a little early still.
Prior to the 2004 Olympics Kitajima was one of my favorite athletes:breaststroker,good work ethic,beautiful stroke,etc.His roar of triumph didn't bother me,he had just won the Gold after all.His illegal kick is another matter.I think it had to be deliberate.I think after Hansen's WR he was afraid he couldn't win fair.The Hansen/Kitajima rivalry is a good one and good for the sport.Anything that gets us noticed is good.
Stacky,thank you so much for the link.
It's hard for the general public to relate to the athletes and this is one of the reasons college swim teams are being cut--no one gives a crap about swimming (doesn't generate income or notoriety). Just my two cents.
Quick story regarding this:
So I am riding on Sunday morning with a guy who is a Semi Pro mountain biker and Level III road biker. We were talking about the Olympics and I brought up Michael Phelps. About halfway through my story of his amazing abilities, he interrupts me and says:
"I am sorry I don't know swimming well, who is Michael Phelps?"
I was dumbfounded, if this were some fat lazy guy sitting on political blogs all night, or playing Grand Theft Auto 24/7 I might understand. This was a guy who is a professional cycler. I truly didn't know what to say. It just reminded me again about how unknown our sport really is. I just don't get it sometimes.:dunno:
