What does it mean when we look at the performance of the US men's swimming team at Beijing without Phelps....... i.e. without the man carrying the team? Is he merely the "Vince Young" of a slightly above average football Team?
We essentially lose the 400 free relay, 100 fly (Ian moves form 4th to 3rd), 200 IM and 400 IM (Lochted moves to silver), 200 free and 200 fly. That's makes 6 less golds and one extra bronze.
The US would effectively only win 2 individual events...... the 200 and 100 back.
Is Phelps a true representation of the state of US men's swimming or and exception?
www.nbcolympics.com/.../index.html
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You guys are forgetting that in the relay, Michael Phelps did not put us in the lead. If I remember correctly, and I am since I just watched it, Lezak actually won it for us by swimming the fastest 100m split in history (at least I think that's what they said). As for Phelps being either a true representation of US swimming or the exception, I think he's probably an exaggerated representation of the elite US swimmers. There are a lot of guys that can swim a bunch of events really well, just not at that level.
You guys are forgetting that in the relay, Michael Phelps did not put us in the lead. If I remember correctly, and I am since I just watched it, Lezak actually won it for us by swimming the fastest 100m split in history (at least I think that's what they said). As for Phelps being either a true representation of US swimming or the exception, I think he's probably an exaggerated representation of the elite US swimmers. There are a lot of guys that can swim a bunch of events really well, just not at that level.
