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.
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Actually she swam a really good 100 free back in February at the Missouri Grand Prix meet. If she could have gone the same time at Trials it would have placed her fourth ahead of Hardy.
So, assuming she could improve enough in the 100 free to get on all 3 relays, what would her schedule have to look like? 100-200-400 frees and 200-400 IM? That would be pretty similar to Phelps' schedule. Or, 200-400-800 frees and both IM's. If she works on 100 free speed, she should probably drop the 800. Then again, I'm guessing she'll decide she doesn't ever want to attack 4-5 individual events again and pick her 3 best. That would still leave her with a potential for 6 golds.
Actually she swam a really good 100 free back in February at the Missouri Grand Prix meet. If she could have gone the same time at Trials it would have placed her fourth ahead of Hardy.
So, assuming she could improve enough in the 100 free to get on all 3 relays, what would her schedule have to look like? 100-200-400 frees and 200-400 IM? That would be pretty similar to Phelps' schedule. Or, 200-400-800 frees and both IM's. If she works on 100 free speed, she should probably drop the 800. Then again, I'm guessing she'll decide she doesn't ever want to attack 4-5 individual events again and pick her 3 best. That would still leave her with a potential for 6 golds.
