Kitajima World Record

the t-shirt says that the Japanese sentence reads "I'm the one that swims" (of course that's my traslation into English) and the article quotes what Kitajima said in his interview after the race: "It's not the swimsuit that swims. I want people to instead turn their attention to us athletes who are training hard and trying to do the best we can." I was wondering if something did get lost in translation. Thank you for that update. Go Hansen.

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. Funny how in your small little world and even smaller little mind you would take a legitimate duscussion between Sam and I as whining on my part. So put that in your shorts next to that rolled up sock....missy.

quicksilver, thanks for your explanations. My point was to only to clarify Kitajima's intention when he had that t-shirt on which I was afraid got lost in translation. In no way am I trying to justify everything he has done, and with the past history of bad attitude or etiquette that you described you are probably right about his poor sportsmanship. I'm Japanese but not a nationalistic a%$ who tries to justify everything my country's athletes do when it's actually not respectable. After all, the reason I registered and posted on this thread is because I saw the first poster of this thread who's interested in a video of the race and I thought I might be of help; I'm not like Kitajima's PR staff :) Anyway, with LZR on Hansen may also easily set a new WR before the Olympics. I hope all the competitive swimmers around the world are allowed to wear what they want to wear in the Olympics and I am looking forward to great competitions. Cheers!

To quote an 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 call. As a matter of fact I do understand that....that is why I put the cheating directly on Kitajima....character is not only what YOU do when people are watching but also what YOU do when you hope they aren't.

I understand what everyone is saying about sportsmanship, and I don't think that Kitajima was trying to be offensive with his shirt. On the other hand, the guy just smashed a world record by about a second. I think that swimmers should try to be respectful of each other, but at the same time it's their decision to choose how they celebrate. If the other swimmers don't like it, all they have to do is set a new record and celebrate in their own way. Mark Spitz was probably one of the most arrogant swimmers around, but he did wonders marketing the sport of swimming. I see no problem with Gary Hall kissing his biceps before the 50 and then stepping up to win a gold. It gives the sport a little personality. Swimming has very little visible emotion in it (to the average spectator). Think about the other sports where you can see the player's emotions (even in golf with the Tiger Woods fist pump). This is much harder to show when you're in the middle of swimming a 200 breastroke. 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.

Oh, and Sam is excluded from further intelligent discussion... Story of my life.:whiteflag:

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. Agreed. Gary Hall's circus show is pretty entertaining. Hope he makes the team this time around.

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. I don't like Gary Hall Jr. much but I agree with this comment. That's why I have no problem with Amanda Beard's pics and great rivalries. I don't mind highlighting the great fitness and bodies most elite swimmers have. Great athletes have egos - part of the fuel to make them perform. I'm perfectly OK seeing some of it.

I am not saying they should have changed the judges decision after the fact,I was merely pointing out that I lost respect for him.

One of the great things about sport is the human aspect of it, and thus this discussion. There are no facts in human judging, just interpretations. Interesting you bring this up because I just watched the movie Rashomon last night which delves into the subjectivity of human perception. Very interesting movie if you haven't seen it!