In his pre-Trials press-conference, Michael Phelps quipped that we would know if he was planning on swimming the 400 IM if the ‘stache was gone on Sunday.
Well, we seem to have gotten our answer. Phelps posted the above picture earlier today of before-and-after shaving his face, and there’s little reason for him to shave Sunday if he’s not going to swim Monday (the 400 IM is the only event he’ll swim.
So we still haven’t heard the words come out of his mouth “I am swimming the 400 IM”, but going by Groundhog Day rules, the ‘stache is gone, so we’ll declare that the nuclear winter of the Clary-Phelps-Lochte IM is on.
Jeahh!!!!
Looks like Day 1 heat sheets are up and Katie Hoff is out of the 400 IM.
So Hoff is opting for the 4free?
this is scary. hopefully her 400 tapers better than shanghai. i was hoping to see the IM queen reclaim her crown!
Well he is on the psych sheet for the 4im tomorrow and Lochte ia on the 4im and 4free which surprised me. Gemmel, Dwyer, PVK in the 4 free, not both
correction: lochte and gemmel in both. Not Dwyer and PVK
Ryan is probably using the 400free as a warm down. I guess the official warm down pool might be too crowded for his taste.
That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read… Okay, maybe not but it’s up there in the top20
Dwyer not in 400IM?! Thats surprising
Yeah disappointing but smart; he has an outside shot at 4Free, not 4IM
Hmmm it’s not like Phelps would have had any trouble making it out of the heats with that wicked ‘stache. Hell it probably would make him faster.
What?? I thought Hoff’s best shot at making an individual event is the 400im! For some reason I felt that she could get down to the 4:33s again and take out Leverenz. :/
forgetting beisel?
Austin Byrd,
I assume John26 already implied that the first sport is taken by Beisel and hoping Hoff to take out Leverenz for the second spot.
I though that was the new Speedo Faststach… TYR came out with one, so I though speedo was going to follow.
If no one has said yet, I think Leverenz can beat Beisel at trials. Both will qualify and Beisel will win gold in London.
I have reservations about Leverenz’ ability in the 400IM. I think something we have seen in the past year or so is that weak strokes get exposed a lot more in the 400IM than the 200IM. It’s simple, if you have a weak stroke, the weakness is going to be more exposed in the longer distance since the weakness is not only going to slow you down, its going to weigh down your endurance, whereas, the endurance effect is not going to be as significant in the 200.
We saw this with Ye Shiwen in 2011. She had a marvelous 200IM, but the fact of the matter is that her come from behind approach did not work in the 400. a) she isn’t a world class freestyler, so it’s not in her arsenal. b) her weakness on the front half is drawn out more, and weighs on her endurance for the latter half.
The same I believe is true for Leverenz, although I feel that her blind spots are not as apparent as Ye’s (and therefore, I believe that she is probably a better 400IMer than Ye, who is a 4:33 swimmer), until she is a more well rounded swimmer (a la back stroke), she is unlikely to be as good in the 400 than she is in the 200.
Hence, I believe she is vulnerable to a more well rounded swimmer in Beisel, and as I had previously believed, Hoff.
True, but Leverenz’s back and free have improved and her breast is so much better than Hoff’s. I think Hoff’s recent 4:40 was a test run that she failed by a bit; I wasn’t even sure she could beat DiRado for 3rd.
I tend to agree with you, and I have Maya DiRado as my darkhorse for 2nd place behind Beisel.
Bowman is going to be crapping his pants tomorrow night.. I hope they show a close up shot of him before they step up onto the blocks. I am reminded of Beijing before Michael’s 400 IM, his face was bright red and he was shaking like crazy. This race will be just as intense…
lol yup! and Debbie Phelps will have to sit down to avoid a coronary regardless of the outcome… it’s gonna be a barnburner!
i’m thinking that Tyler Clary will claim the second place spot in this 400im, Lochte will claim first. Don’t get me wrong, Phelps is an amazing IMer however, Clary has just been putting in monstrous amounts of work focusing on this event for the past 4 years. This hasn’t really been a main focus for Phelps. Clary’s the US’s most underrated swimmer and he’s proven himself time and again against a top level field. This race could go either way and will definitely be one to watch,if not THE one to watch.
If it weren’t for Clary’s weakness on the breast, I’d agree with you….
Well on the downside, I’m gonna miss the porn cop stache, now it’s back to Gilligan…. on the plus side…. YAHOO– BARNBURNER!!!
Ok, I would have prefered to not see Michael Phelps in the 400 IM but it’s his choice and I respect it. I wish him good luck but I wouldn’t surprised if he would finish third. I know he’s a genius but all the training he hasn’t made in 2010 is a big lack. Yes he can swim a big 400 IM but can he swim 2 big 400 IM in the same day? I’m not sure. Perhaps I’m totally wrong. I hope I’m wrong. And his coach is confident so we’ll see.
You discounted the fact that Phelps is the most competitive person, and I cannot understand why people scoffed and ridiculed me when months ago I said Phelps would definitely want to swim the 400 IM because it would make him the first man to win an individual event in three consecutive olympics. It is as if I’d said something that was insulting to Phelps or something.
Here’s what he said himself:
“I’ve always said I want to be the first to do something,” Phelps said earlier.
I don’t care who touches first, as long as clary touches third
I wish they could all 3 make it,But am truly hoping Ryan touches first.Let Phelps and Clary fight for 2nd.What would happen if there were a three-way tie or even a two way tie for second place?Has it ever happened?What if everyone is so focused on these 3 and there is a surprise from lane 8 or lane 0?
What is killing us at home is not knowing what is happening in the pool now because we have to Wait for NBC>>>>>>>>>>>>>>CRAZY!