Olympic Trials Thread

Watched a bit of the trials on NBC Sunday and I'm quite impressed with the temporary pool they installed in Omaha. Not so impressed with the new swimsuits being worn. I understand technology is good and all, but the lengths of the suits are getting ridiculous. And SI's story about how the Speedo suit includes a "girdle-like" mid-section makes me hope the international body takes a stand and develops a uniform standard for suits.

 

There is a standard, and the LAZR meets all the requirements.

 

For what it's worth here are the general guidelines. Considering how tight the suits are, it seems like a swimmer could improve buoyancy by trapping some air into a suit.
The general swim wear rules from FINA (General Rule 5) state that swim suits, caps, and goggles:

* Must be of good moral taste
* Must not have any offensive markings or symbols
* Must not be transparent
* Must be approved by FINA
* Must be available to all competitors
* May be one or two piece
* May not extend past the ankle, wrist, or neck
* May not have additional parts like arm bands or leg bands (two pieces does not include these pieces!)
* May be excluded from a competition by the referee of that competition if the suit or body markings do not comply with the rules (this part of the rule includes body marking, like tattoos, too)

The approval process for swimsuits, caps, and goggles (Annex 11, FINA Requirements for Swimwear Approval) defines the steps a swimwear supplier must take to get their swim gear approved for use by FINA. These steps must be repeated every 4-years. These regulations also list more specifics on swimwear rules, including:

Swim Suits

* Male swimwear must be one piece, women's swimwear may be two pieces comprised of one piece for the upper body and one for the lower body
* Swimwear material must not endanger the health of the swimmer
* Swimwear material must be "regular" with no outstanding structure or shape, like scales, and nothing can be added to the fabric to form a structure. No scales, dots, etc. (looks like a lot of swimwear used at the last Olympics may not meet this rule - scales, trip wires, silicone dots, etc.)
* Swimwear may have paint or impregnated markings, but these may not exceed "usual" thicknesses
* Seams must be functional and must not form shapes beyond joing fabric together
* Laces can be used on swimwear, but only to hold the suit around the waist

 

Outstanding Jere Longman piece on the Queen in the NY Times today


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/sports/olympics/30queen.html?ref=sports

 

She was the kid who almost got knocked down in the homestretch yesterday and came back to finish third, right?

 

The race by Tyson Gay was amazing. The crowd was definitely going nuts.

My least favorite part of this so far was watching the NBC coverage and they showed a clip of the 100 meter guys warming up and the crowd was clapping in the background and the announcer says, "These fans are getting pumped up for the 100 meters, listen to them clap."

Well, announcer guy, they were actually clapping in unison because the long jump was going on. You know, the event that came down to the last two jumps and you barely aired any of it. Also, did NBC need to waste 5 of their 60 minutes on watching Jeremy Warriner run in his quarterfinal heat? The same race where he jogged the last 30 meters?
Both 400-meter hurdles races had wild finishes and they should have spent more time on the long jump, but so is life relying on NBC.

 

If Gay, Bolt and Powell all make it to the 100m final in Beijing, it's going to be a great race. They all seem to be running close to, or at, their best right now.

 

When you hear people grumble about the LZR Racer, keep these things in mind:

1. In an Olympic year, world records always fall. And they usually fall at the Olympic Trials. Because trials are a "win or go home" scenario, no one can save their best for the Olympic games. You have to pretty much be peaking at your Trials. Which is why all these records started falling at the European World Championships and Australian Olympic Trials, and that's when the other companies started bitching about the "unfair" advantage.

2. What you're seeing is really the progressive evolution of swimming. 25 years ago, there were no double-jointed 23-year-olds making a million bucks a year who were 6-foot-5 and had hands and feet the size of basketball players as well as no ass. Keep in mind, Mark Spitz was 21 years old when he retired (for the first time) from swimming. Phelps is 23 and might be as his best four years from now in London. There's no reason why swimmers should be reaching their athletic peak in their early 20s instead of their mid-to-late 20s when they're more mature, physically and mentally. Look at track, where Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson were breaking world records as they got older. (I think Johnson set the 400m mark when he was like 32. It still stands.) Plus part of it is just the kind of athletes who are going into swimming. Janet Evans was a shrimp compared to Katie Hoff, who is 5-foot-9 and has the build of a basketball player.

3. All the talk of the suits also prevents people from addressing the much bigger elephant in the room: Doping. Believe me, there is doping. How you prove it, I don't know. But it exists.

 

I'm excited for them because we had one swimmer qualify and two others from our paper's area swim in the meet.
Not bad for three towns with a populations when combined, wouldn't be a city.

 

We have a diver... Christian Smith dove across the line to claim the third spot in the men's 800. Nicholas Symmonds went from last to first in a span of 100 meters to win it. A co-worker commented that it looked like they were jogging the last 100, and the winner just jogged faster.

Well, no shit. You run with lactic acid running through your veins and tell me how it feels.