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One of the great athletic feats of all time happening this week -- who cares?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Baltimoreguy, Mar 29, 2007.

  1. GB-Hack

    GB-Hack Active Member

    But here's the point Leo. Last year the U.S. Championships didn't get any coverage. They never do. Neither do the worlds.

    But, there are American athletes who are proving they are the best in the world, and one (Phelps) who is showing he may be one of the greatest ever to participate in the sport. The fact that it's happening in Australia should be neither here nor there. But according to you it is.

    The Olympics were in Australia recently. Doesn't mean they didn't get serious coverage, even though they were being held in the same part of the world as this event. The soccer World Cup was in Germany. It got great coverage. The U.S. team, a group of world-beaters, at the swimming world championships deserve the same.

    But they don't get it, apparently, because the time difference means no-one can watch it live, which means it never happened.
     
  2. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

    Re: One of the great athletic feats of all time happening this week -- who cares

    Phelps needs a national advocate, one capable of marshaling the facts and making a reasoned argument for his supremacy.

    Jemele Hill?
     
  3. Baltimoreguy

    Baltimoreguy Member

    I was there when Johnson put up his 19.32. I think that might have been one of those things that you had to see in person to appreciate fully. As he came into the straightaway, I had an uncanny feeling like I was seeing something that didn't quite adhere to the laws of nature. He quite simply looked as though he were running at a speed faster than any human being was capable of attaining. The closest thing I can compare it to is those Powerade commercials where Vick throws the ball out of the stadium or LeBron sinks repeated full-court shots. What you were seeing looked real to your eyes, but your brain still couldn't believe the visual evidence it was receiving.
     
  4. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    Couple things:

    It's not readily on TV because sports TV outlets are too busy covering March Madness, spring training and the NFL offseason. Somebody mentioned Tiger, but I assure you - even Tiger doesn't get the coverage he deserves. Nor Federer. But we'll talk about Carl Pavano and Tubby Smith hour after hour.

    It's up to the newspaper editors to find this news and splash, because TV isn't going to. ESPN shows more poker than it does Olympic sports. Maybe 30 or 40 times more poker. It even shows more bowling.

    Fox shows Summer Sanders a lot, but I'm not sure that counts anymore.
     
  5. GB-Hack

    GB-Hack Active Member

    I will say I think ESPN has reduced their golf coverage so far this year. They're probably going to ramp up for the majors, but I'm not sure they do as much off-site for things like the Players championship and the like.

    The NFL overdrive is killing me, as is the poker. At least they're starting to put more tennis on, but right now they've had more coverage of the recent NCAA swimming championships than the World Championships, which is a real shame.
     
  6. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    Having covered my share of track & field, Michael Johnson is one of my favorite athletes of all-time, both for his talent and for being a class act all the way.
    I remember watching the 19.32 while working. Myself and another track fan stopped what we were doing to watch and when he came off the turn we just looked at each other and said "oh, my God" because even on TV you could tell he was on his way to something special...especially if you knew that Michael's straight-up style made it tough for him to always run the turn real well.

    Phelps is a special athlete, too. But unfortunately the only super athletes more overlooked in this country than track guys are swimmers.
     
  7. Rhody31

    Rhody31 Well-Known Member

    I enjoy swimming, but I think the U.S. doesn't care about track and swimming because for most of the season, the competitors aren't worried about winning. They're worried about times, which is horseshit. I don't want Phelps breaking a world record at a big meet. I want him beating it two weeks before, then beating it again at the meet. That would impress me. None of this tapering to get ready for big meet X.
     
  8. GB-Hack

    GB-Hack Active Member

    You may enjoy swimming, Rhody, but you evidently have no idea about the sport. Swimmers just going every time they went out would be like NFL players showing up a week before the regular season opens without any offseason workouts or preseason games.

    You have to train for these events to make sure you maximise your speed when it counts, ie National Championships, World Championships and Olympics. No-one expects NFL players to play a full game during the preseason, or baseball players to play nine innings in the first week of spring training when it doesn't matter, they expect performances during the season and postseason. The only difference is the regular season for swimming is making your cut times to qualify for these events and get selected to the team, and the Championships are the postseason.
     
  9. Baltimoreguy

    Baltimoreguy Member

    Fresh from the website of The Sun (who might be the only US outlet with a reporter at the Championships):

    Phelps snagged his fifth gold medal and his fourth world record in five days today, this one as a part of the American 4 x 200-meter freestyle relay team.
     
  10. goalmouth

    goalmouth Well-Known Member

    Unfortunately for Phelps, the biggest swimming story this week has been the dad beating his daughter. CNN's been headlining the video all week.
     

  11. You were saying:


    BC-SWM--Thorpe-Doping Report,0347
    LáEquipe: Thorpe showed áabnormal levelsá of banned substances
    PARIS (AP) ä Five-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer Ian Thorpe showed ààabnormal levelsáá of two banned substances in a doping test last year, the French sports daily LáEquipe reported on its Web site Friday.
    Anti-doping officials in Australia threw out the case for lack of scientific proof, but the sportás governing body wants the investigation reopened, the paper said.
    LáEquipe said Thorpe, who retired in November at age 24, turned up irregular levels of testosterone and luteinizing hormone in a test on May 2006.
    Synthetic versions of testosterone, the male hormone, can act like steroids to improve performance. Luteinizing hormone is released by the pituitary gland and produces testosterone in men.
    FINA, swimmingás ruling organization, has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the highest tribunal in the sports world, to overturn a decision by Australiaás anti-doping agency to close the case, LáEquipe said.
    CAS secretary-general Matthieu Reeb did not answer messages from The Associated Press left at his home and the courtás headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.
    An official at FINAás headquarters, also in Lausanne, said she could not comment because all the organizationás senior officials were in Melbourne, Australia, for the world swimming championships.
    The news broke in the middle of the night in Melbourne. FINA president Mustapha Larfaoui was scheduled to speak at a news conference there Saturday.
    Thorpe won five Olympic gold medals, 11 world titles and set 13 long-course records and 23 overall in his career.
    At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, he won the 400-meter freestyle and was part of Australiaás winning 4oo-mewter and 800-meter relay teams. He also took silver in the 200 freestyle and 400 medley relay.
    At the 2004 Athens Games, Thorpe won the 200 and 400 freestyle golds and the 100 bronze. He also took a silver in the 800 freestyle relay.
    AP-CS-03-30-07 1354
     
  12. GB-Hack

    GB-Hack Active Member

    Yes, because L'Equipe has been on the mark in the past with other foreigners and doping tests. This should wait for an official statement.
     
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