Kitajima World Record

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: To be fair, most swimmers don't know much about cycling. All I know about cycling is what Lance Armstrong did and that that Landess guy was on roids.

When does the statute expire on the Kitajima whining? He won, move on.

To be fair, most swimmers don't know much about cycling. All I know about cycling is what Lance Armstrong did and that that Landess guy was on roids. 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.

Not whining...just stating the facts as we all know them...... There's nothing factual about human judgment in sports competition, that's the only fact. Now move on, it was 4 years ago.

Geek, would you like me to send you the videos? I'll even put them in slo mo so even you can see it? And since when is stating an opinion based on fact whining? No thanks, saw them four years ago, when I moved on and stopped whining. You keep it up, though. He won, Hansen lost, he got the medal. Time to man-up, missy. Interesting how you allow yourself the luxury of not making the call, but not the officials in this meet, who, btw, don't have slo-mo for 4 years to dissect, wring their hands about, cry and complain, and remain all around biter and jaded. As an official myself I tend to understand how these things work.

To quote someone learned in the field of officiating - "as an official, if I "think" I see something I should not call it.....I should only call what I "know" I have seen." Whoever said that was S-M-A-R-T. You gotta figure that person probably understands officiating and split second calls. I shall apply this wise reasoning to my officiating the next 6 Thursday nights and hope no one replays a call for me in 4 years. And, if you think you are breaking new ground calling my mind small, you are merely the latest in a long line. Oh, and Sam is excluded from further intelligent discussion since he said ball cancer. I've been chuckling for hours on that. Whine on, white boy! Wake up to a brand new day.

I think it's a good rivalry and we need a few characters in swimming. It's become very milk toast so I'm all in favor of a some trash talking.

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.QUOTE] I am not a Kitajima sympathizer, so with that being said... I get really tired of people saying he cheated. There is no question he took a dolphin kick off the wall. It was not illegal beacuse of the gutless judges that didn't disqualify him for it. In fact they changed the rules to allow for it going forward. The fact that so many people call him a cheater is just not right. You are not cheating unless a judge says you are. The judges are the ones to blame for that.

I think Lance's accomplishments are more staggering overall than Phelps. Things might change after Beijing. But Lance won THE most competive, most famous bike race 7 years in a row. And the TDF is 3 weeks of hell. He often won in spectacular fashion - over all kinds of rivals. He crashed, got up, and beat people. He won faking that he was weak. So he won with tactics, overwhelming fitness, versatility, etc. Lance also beat Europeans at a sport they normally dominate. He even won Olympic medals though not gold. Lance benefited from the publicity of his cancer, PED accusations, a divorce, Sheryl Crow, the yellow bracelet, and his charitable work.

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.QUOTE] I am not a Kitajima sympathizer, so with that being said... I get really tired of people saying he cheated. There is no question he took a dolphin kick off the wall. It was not illegal beacuse of the gutless judges that didn't disqualify him for it. In fact they changed the rules to allow for it going forward. The fact that so many people call him a cheater is just not right. You are not cheating unless a judge says you are. The judges are the ones to blame for that. I really have to disagree with you on that one....I have a video that shows how he not only did it on the start, but off the wall as well. And by that way of thinking Sam....steroids are not cheating unless you get caught? Cheating is still cheating whether you get caught or not!