Olympic Swimming

Such a shame that we will no longer see the greatest swimmer and olympian imho ever to swim at another Olympics. Phelps went out with a bang which he wanted to and got a few medals as well.

Such an unbelievable swimmer and olympian, was nice of FINA to give him a special award.

Best swimmer of all time without a doubt.
 
It'll be a long time before we see another Phelps-type swimmer.
This year, we saw just how difficult it is to multi-event.
The tall american 17 year old girl - I think she entered 6 events - and struggled to handle the schedule. When she was fresh, she invariably won the event, but when she had to swim a heat, before a final, she struggled.

Phelps' body was designed for swimming - short legs, long body and arms, big feet. He is as close to a fish as you will get.
 
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Panzerbjorn said:
I don't think they were 'unbothered' at all.

I think what most of the swimmers have said is that they did the best they could on the day.

While it might not have been enough for a medal, they are still immensely proud to have achieved what they have.

I'd rather that was the main message from these Olympics than the "I'm so sorry, I've let everyone down for only winning a silver' that we have heard from some of the other athletes.
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I think the main problem is that many athletes are here to make up the numbers. They feel that they have delivered, just because they have made the Olympic team. IMO, the coaches are not placing high enough expectations on the swimmers. They should tell them to aim for medals.

You can bet that in China, the coaches mentally brain wash their athletes into believing that they are World beaters and that anything less than a medal is failure.

Unfortunately, the British love to support and adorn losers. And this has been a problem for decades, if not centuries.

For me, Michael Johnson's comments are the best. Have a listen to him and you get an idea of the mental attitude of a Champion, ie. an athlete is here to improve, win and try their best. And unless you are breaking records, you haven't done your job. You are not here to make up the numbers and be happy to go out in the first round of an event (which a lot of British athletes are happy to do).
 
Womens 10km swim under way now. Been looking forward to this until i just checked the world record time, think i'll be flicking back and forward for the next 2 hours :p
 
sunama said:
You can bet that in China, the coaches mentally brain wash their athletes into believing that they are World beaters and that anything less than a gold medal is failure.
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Corrected - I believe they even have it written on the walls in the training facilities (literally, not figuratively). Seems to be paying dividends, however!
 
Not sure, apparently she'd planned to be way out in front at this point but is stuck in the pack. Not really something i'd normally watch so i'm a bit clueless.
 
Everyone who finishes a race like that deserves a medal, i don't think i'd have been able to swim that length at any point in my life never mind be competitive.
 
sunama said:
Snip!
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We were third in the standings for number of athletes in finals behind the USA and China; we were top of the European countries; the majority of the team wasn't just 'making up the numbers' nor did they go out in the first round (and I bet they wouldn't be happy if they did so).

The disappointment was that we got very few medals out of all of those finalists.
 
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