When Katie Hoff made the Olympics in 2004, she was young, inexperienced, and got overwhelmed. Since then she's dominated swimming in America, done well globally, and in 2008 she has been overwhelmed - again. To me, she just looks the part of the nervous girl, constantly re-adjusting her goggles and plastering them to her face before races, taking deep breaths, etc. You don't see this out of Coughlin, Phelps, Piersol, and the list goes on and on. How is she going to perform at the highest level if she's a nervous wreck before races?
She was the prohibitive favorite in the IM's, and one of few favorites in the 2, 4, and 8 Freestyles. She got 4th, 3rd, 4th, 2nd, and an FTQ, respectively. We should all be so fortunate to be that good, but from a US Swimming standpoint, I think this has to go down as a disappointing performace. The only thing saving her (media-wise) is Phelps. Otherwise she'd have been the spotlight athlete. She was even mentioned as having a chance for 5 golds. She's failed to meet expectations. And it's a common occurrence in US women's swimming since the '88 games. Jenny Thompson comes to mind.
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Former Member
I think we're also missing the fact the morning finals are affecting some performances more negatively than others.
This may be the result of normal training times for some being in the afternoon or evening as opposed to the morning.
I don't buy this at all. Many are swimming superbly in the morning finals. Just not US women. Nothing ever impacts everyone the same. Our team spent days in Singapore to get into the right time zone. We're 6 days into it now and some people are just swimming badly.
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Former Member
I think we're also missing the fact the morning finals are affecting some performances more negatively than others.
This may be the result of normal training times for some being in the afternoon or evening as opposed to the morning.
I don't buy this at all. Many are swimming superbly in the morning finals. Just not US women. Nothing ever impacts everyone the same. Our team spent days in Singapore to get into the right time zone. We're 6 days into it now and some people are just swimming badly.
