Is anyone else bugged by the fact that Phelps didn't compete in any of the heats or semis for that? He's just swimming in the final. Seems a bit lame to me.
No, becasue that's how it's always done. the second fastest-qualifier in the trials swims the preliminary, and the winner of the individual event swims in the final. In fact, two years ago, Phelps was the second-fastest qualifier in the trials for the butterfly leg, and swam in the Prelims, and then he beat Crocker in the actual Olympic race, giving him the right to swim in the final as well, but he gave up his spot to Crocker to allow him the chance at the Gold.
Agreed. Interesting, only 4 of his gold medals have come from "straight" events, as 4 from medleys and four from relays.
Source
Interesting, it would be interesting to see how he went, if did another freestyle event (either 100m or 400m), but probably would have to drop one of the medleys, as it would have been busier for him.
I would be a bit more impressed by Phelps if he had been in the 1500 meter freestyle.
How is that interesting? He has to swim every event, not just 8? He's not a long-distance swimmer; that's an entirely different specialty.
^ Even if he did make it to that final, I think Grant Hackett will win. Will be interesting to see if Phelps can back up in 4 years time, and win in any of his individual events.
You mean like he did this year, backing up his wins in those events in 2004?
He has already said that he's planning on changing focus in training to sprints after this year, becasue he wants to do something new.
It seems most of the top swimmers didn't swim the heats either in the relays.
Because that's how it's done. It both a) gives more people a chance to comete and medal (since the prelim swimmers get medals as well) and b) reduces the number of overall swims for everyone, allowing them to remain in top form.
Longevity is the key to a great athlete which is a large par of why I think all of this grandeur about Phelps being the greatest athlete ever is ludicrous. Get back to me in 12, 16 years and then we'll talk.
So, in 16 years, he would be 39, and would have competed in 7 Olympics (this is his 3rd). Which no swimmer has ever even come close to. Whata completely fucking unreasonable standard to set.
Well done Phelps, I just watched his race on the BBC, it was incredibly close.
It was, and the other guy basically committed and error by going for the wall too early. If he had had a decent finish, he would have won, so it was a combination of luck and Phelps putting himself in the position to take advantage of the error.
However, I have to say that as I Brit I much more enjoyed watching Rebecca Adlington's race on the BBC. Olympic Record in the heat, World Record in the final by 2.12 seconds and finishing 6 seconds ahead of the silver medallist. Fantastic achievement by her.
Well done for her! She broke the oldest standing record in swimming too.
