Wednesday, July 27, 2011

View From the Stands: Day Four Ramblings From a Sleep Deprived Fan


Michael Phelps wins the Men's 200 Fly Last Night in Shanghai

Is anyone surprised?  I'm not.  Michael wasn't going to lose this race in an international competition.  In winning it Braden Keith points out this makes Phelps the swimmer with the most World Championships in any one race (5.)  No doggie paddling here.  Phelps wins gold and so the stars realign.  Volcanoes stop erupting, plate techtonics stop shifting, ph balances stabalize.

Phelps and Lochte will meet again for the Men's 200 IM final.  They haven't raced each other in this event since Nats last year when Lochte won.  Phelps didn't swim it at the last WC in '09 when Ryan broke the world record.  At the time, all the cameras pointed to Phelps in the stands who a good friend and sportsman and cheered him on but you know what he was thinking......






Going into finals Lochte is seeded 1st 1.56.74 and Phelps is seeded 2nd 1.57.26 with both swimmers basically laying on lounge chairs and drinking mai tais throughout semis.  This is going to be fun, maybe not the greatest racing these 2 have ever done/will do but definitely fun.  Lochte pulled the "he's breathing to his left at this wall so......bye....." trick during the 200 free which Phelps isn't going to fall for again.

In other news, Universal Sports again failed to provide a live feed for American audiences.  They had "technical difficulties."  Seriously, I want my $10 back.   I could have bought a really bad bottle of wine for that money.  Between the United States failing to provide a reliable feed for World Championships and the debt ceiling crisis I'm really starting to worry this is the end of America's greatness.  I wonder if because we're in danger of defaulting to the Chinese they've sabotaged our feed.  We, the swimfans, should march on Washington demanding reliable swimming coverage and/or tickets to Shanghai.  POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

God, I'm sleep-deprived.  Sorry.  See y'all tomorrow and tune into Swim Brief on US Stream for this week's Top 40 countdown and finest swimming commentary around.  Oh, and special "shout out" to the anonymous poster who said I was "hot."

3 comments:

  1. I’m tired, I can’t concentrate, I have no focus at work. All I want to do is read articles about Phelps, Lochte, illegal kicks, the chinese coming home strong, will cielo cry again if he wins.. has the TWS been spotted at all (had to add that). I find myself constantly checking the swim brief blog, The Swimmer Circle, The Swim Geek, and SCAQ for new posts.. oh ya and Swimingworld, Universal Sports, ESPN, SI and CBS Sports. This day cant end fast enough so I can go home, eat dinner and park myself in front of the TV with my heat sheets.. only to go to bed as soon as prelims are over so I can wake up early and watch Ryan/Phelps face off. AND THEN REPEAT EVERYTHING ALL OVER AGAIN. Then come Sunday night I will be lost.. Worlds will be over…. But wait, I will then have Nationals and the World University Games.. thanks god for the small things… :)

    RANT END

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  2. Ah, the end of season letdown. No one looks forward to that.

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  3. You should email Universal Sports about the technical difficulties. I politely asked them how much of a refund they would be crediting me for. They wrote back with an apology and credited me $5.00. I thought that was fair.

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