Geese, you'd think that NBC has declared this olympics over now that Phelps is done. They didn't even show his teammates at all during that medal ceremony. Not to take anything away from this feat, but damn I'm kind of glad it is over.
I agree that was ridiculous. You know, I don't compare the longevity of football players and baseball players or tennis players and golfers, becasue their sports are inherently different and place different demands on the body. In the same vein I don't think it's legitimate to compare swimmers and rowers or sprinters to dressage riders in terms of longevity. Swimmers are able to enjoy longer careers now due to better conditioning and the ability to actually earn a living from endorsements while maintaining their intense training regimen, so we'll see how long he decides to go, but to take an arbitrary standard like longevity, derive your baseline from "a few others" in completely different disciplines (none of whom, let me assure you, competed in as many events with a diverse range of skills) and declare it fundamental to "greatness" is frankly absurd.
Gold in the Yngling class in sailing, and a Gold in the men's lightweight sculls rowing, wow! That has put GB up to fourth in the medals table, with another Gold expected from Ben Ainslie in the Finn class. Well done Phelps, what an achievement. Fantastic talent.
3rd on the table!!! This is looking to be our best. games. ever. We seem to have a thing for the sitting-down sports
It was an impressive race, from start to finish. And a truly amazing achievement by Rebecca Romero of Great Britain - after winning a silver medal in Athens 2004 and the gold medal in the world championship in rowing (quad sculls), she won the gold medal in individual pursuit in track cycling today - a completely different sport!
We finally got out first gold medal earlier today (men's hammer throw)! So now we've got a gold, a silver and two bronze medals.
Perhaps, but I think it's just as absurd to call Phelps one of the greatest athletes of all time. *shrug* I think at the end of the day the overhype from before the Olympics started to now has just left a very bitter taste in my mouth. Get back to me in five years and maybe I'll be a bit amicable about calling him one of the greatest.
Just been announced on the BBC that the US team are appealing the result of the women's 100m sprint final earlier today, as their sprinter Torri Edwards says she false started and that threw her off, and led to the other US athletes around her thinking they would hear a second gun. Sounds like nonsense to me, but hey. We'll see what happens.
What? She complains about not getting punished for breaking the rules, am I understanding that correctly?
^It almost sounds more like they are trying to "sacrifice" her so the other Americans can get a do-over rather than her being a glutton for punishment.
Its a clever thing to claim - she only "false started" once, which is permitted. If in some dancing fairy land they ran the race again, she'd still be there, just with a warning card on her lane marker. They have claimed nothing which disqualifies her, but have claimed a rule violation which affects the other runners who saw it. A clever choice, as laughable claims go.
I saw the womens marathon winner, EMH. I kept thinking she wouldn't make it at that fast pace for so long, but I'll be darned if she didn't pull it off and being an old lady of 38 at that. Impressive work. God bless that poor British runner. She was in pain, but she was going to kill herself if need be to cross that finish line instead of quitting like she'd done in Athens. I was rooting her on, too. As for Phelps, he deserves the hype. I don't begrudge him. As for competing in the next olympics, why would he? There's nowhere for him to go but down from here. You can't bash him for not doing it. The man competes in all four strokes. Not even Spitz did that. Phelps is amazing any way you slice it. The US womens 100m sprinters need to give it up. The race is done.
Paula Radcliffe has chased an elusive Olympic gold her whole career. It was a real shame injury limited her performance in what was quite possibly her last chance this morning. At least, as you say, she was able to finish, unlike Athens 4 years ago. Hopefully, she'll still be fit for 2012.
After all she went through, I was impressed with the concern she showed for her training partner who had a fall in the race.
Yes, me too. She's one of the good ones, which makes it all the more sad Olympic glory has always eluded her.
Surprise of the century, Olympic officials rejected the appeal from the American team over the women's 100m and the result stands.
He certainly plans to, but with a different program. He likes competing, and being an ambassador for his sport or something. Link