Phelps is going down ....

Very well said. I disagree that Phelps has "no class." He just suffered a stunning defeat from a competitor who dropped four seconds in one year. Going from 1:46.00 (Olympics - 5th place) to the fastest the world has ever known by a full second (1:42.0) is...unbelievable. Biedermann is not a 17 year old who is still growing. He is a grown man at 23. 4% improvements (Biedermann's rough percentage improvement) are not in the cards for most 23 year old men. Furthermore, the nature of this defeat forces Phelps to completely re-evaluate every aspect of his race, and subsequently his training. Biedermann had an unbelievable final lap (25.7 to Phelps' 26.5), normally the strongest point of Phelps' race. If Phelps cannot depend on his final lap to catch and outlast his rivals, he can only hope to get so far ahead that Biedermann cannot catch him. Except...Biedermann beat Phelps on the opening 50 meters too, and then beat him quite badly in the final 50 meters. Bidermann's defeat of Phelps was total, and Phelps really has no place to go, strategically, to win. He just has to somehow pray he is capable of a 1:41, hope Bidermann doesn't improve significantly, or, more likely, hope that Biedermann's race was a product almost solely of the suit, which Biedermann will not be allowed to wear in 2010. The knowledge of a loss that is probably attributable to a suit that Phelps was not wearing is a bitter defeat indeed. Yes, it would have been nice to see Phelps be more congratulatory after the race, but he is human like everyone else.

Very well said. I disagree that Phelps has "no class." He just suffered a stunning defeat from a competitor who dropped four seconds in one year. Going from 1:46.00 (Olympics - 5th place) to the fastest the world has ever known by a full second (1:42.0) is...unbelievable. Biedermann is not a 17 year old who is still growing. He is a grown man at 23. 4% improvements (Biedermann's rough percentage improvement) are not in the cards for most 23 year old men. Furthermore, the nature of this defeat forces Phelps to completely re-evaluate every aspect of his race, and subsequently his training. Biedermann had an unbelievable final lap (25.7 to Phelps' 26.5), normally the strongest point of Phelps' race. If Phelps cannot depend on his final lap to catch and outlast his rivals, he can only hope to get so far ahead that Biedermann cannot catch him. Except...Biedermann beat Phelps on the opening 50 meters too, and then beat him quite badly in the final 50 meters. Bidermann's defeat of Phelps was total, and Phelps really has no place to go, strategically, to win. He just has to somehow pray he is capable of a 1:41, hope Bidermann doesn't improve significantly, or, more likely, hope that Biedermann's race was a product almost solely of the suit, which Biedermann will not be allowed to wear in 2010. The knowledge of a loss that is probably attributable to a suit that Phelps was not wearing is a bitter defeat indeed. Yes, it would have been nice to see Phelps be more congratulatory after the race, but he is human like everyone else.