Given that we've had 2 consecutive ridiculous gold medal hauls by Mr. Phelps and 1 in the past by Mr. Spitz, when will we see a similar feat by a female swimmer? Why haven't we in the past? Is there somehow more parity in women's swimming?
I would submit that we might have seen 6 or more golds in one Olympics from Tracy Caulkins in 1980 if not for the boycott. And, we might have seen it from Shirley Babashoff in 1976 if not for the East German women.
The only current contender I could see is Libby Trickett. She won 5 golds at the 2007 Worlds. She had a great Olympics by most standards, but didn't approach her Worlds gold medal haul. There are other multi-talented women out there (Coughlin, Hoff, Coventry, Rice), but none have attacked that kind of schedule successfully so far.
Katie Hoff tried to have a Phelpsian performance but came up short. I think that she could do it at London.
Coughlin could have gotten 8 medals but it doesn't seem that she wants to put the effort into that type of schedule. It just seem that it was like pulling teeth to get her to do the 200 IM. She could have medaled in the 100 fly or maybe 200 fly.
Katie Hoff tried to have a Phelpsian performance but came up short. I think that she could do it at London.
Coughlin could have gotten 8 medals but it doesn't seem that she wants to put the effort into that type of schedule. It just seem that it was like pulling teeth to get her to do the 200 IM. She could have medaled in the 100 fly or maybe 200 fly.
