Davis Tarwater got the call late this morning inviting him to be part of Team USA at the 2012 Olympic Games on the 4×200 free relay. This comes after Michael Phelps’ scratched the individual 200 free this morning. Tarwater finished 7th in the 200 freestyle final with a 1:47.02, and his coach David Marsh cited some of Davis’s previous results (including a 48 second freestyle relay split last summer at nationals) as additional reasons to add him to the roster. This choice will make a lot of swim fans happy, as they’ve seen Davis finish one spot away from qualifying for the Olympic team twice (that 200 free final and the 2008 200 fly final) and two spots away in the 100 fly last night. Marsh now has 4 SwimMac swimmers on the US roster.
by Garrett McCaffrey 87
July 02nd, 2012
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To “meangene,” that suggestion is absolutely absurd. Which is made obvious by anyone who was at the coaches meeting when marsh was informed of the decision (sidenote: usaswimming actually sticking to their guns and following the rule book). Also, the reason Tarwater wasn’t at the intro ceremony was because he had already flown home. Not exactly the type of action one takes if you’re blackmailing someone. Anyway, think about your words before you carelessly throw them out in a slanderous manner. Regardless of his antics, DT is a great friend and hero to many in the swimming community and your unsubstantiated claims/accusations are farcical and unwanted.
How does Tarwater get on, when they already have 6 in front of him for the relay, AND Vanderkaay up their sleeve? Everyone expects Vanderkaay to get a heat swim don’t they??
I don’t think Vanderkaay will get a heat swim. However, if he makes a massive improvement and drops a big time in the 400 free he may enter their thought process. But it seems unlikely.
It is very very unlikely that PVK gets prelims swims.
Dwyer, Mclean, Houchin, and Tarwater should swim the prelims, and the fastest will join Phelps, Lochte, and Berens in the final.
Why should Berens get a pass directly to the final? Lochte and Phelps make sense. The other swimmers finished bunched together all on 1:56. What, because he finished .08 ahead of Dwyer, and a couple tenths ahead of the next two guys he’s the obvious choice? Hardly. If there are two guys (or more) swimming faster than Berens in a month, including him automatically means the coaches would be opting for a slower relay. Not smart. Ricky did not separate himself enough from the others. Jon Piersma actually won the 200 free at trials in 1996 but he didn’t swim in prelims or finals of the 4×200 in Atlanta because the coaches wanted to put together what they felt was… Read more »
I think they will now who is fastest among those 5 swimmers during the camp.
Possibly, but they’ve tended to use the morning prelims to decide the final four evening swimmers. Because swimming well in camp doesn’t necessarily translate to swimming as well when it’s time to step up at the big show.
Also consider this, those that are swimming their hearts out fighting for a place to swim the relay in finals … more often than not they go faster in the evening. Maybe it’s because of the atmosphere of the finals, maybe it’s because they were able to get a feel for the water and the race that morning. Who knows, but the notion that swimmers who go in the heats and don’t have busy schedules can’t back up at night is false, in fact the opposite is true.
Consider this scenario: what if we go with ASwimfan’s plan and decide to automatically put Berens in with Phelps/Lochte to swim the 4×200 free finals. What if Dwyer and McLean do times… Read more »
Keith,
If Berens, Dwyer, and Mclean all do 1:55 and 1:56 in the relay prelims like you wrote, USA will not progress to final.
True regarding Berens. What if he swims 1.47+ in the individual 200. Still automatic for the 4×200 final? Do you give him another shot in the relay heats, at the expense of Tarwater? This occured in Beijing with Australia’s 4×200 reay. Kenrock Monk swam 1.48 in the heats, missed the semis and got dropped from the heats and finals team of the 4×200, even though he finished 2nd at trials! Also last year James Roberts was not included in Australia’s 4×100 relay final, even though he finished 2nd at the trials
Quite true. Those 5s should be 4s.
Real, I didn’t realize that about Roberts and Monk. It just shows that the Australian coaches, will go with the best four at that time not what others may have done at an individual meet. Nothing is guaranteed. Though obviously with swimmers like Lochte/Phelps and Hackett/Thorpe/Klim their clear dominance meant they were always ensured a final swim.
Continuing what REAL said, Nicholas Sprenger (Christian’s cousin), also made it individually (as a result of Hackett scratching) and got dropped. So Australia’s bronze medal relay had neither of their individual 200 freestylers on it.
Roberts was a different case, however. He swam faster than Sullivan in the prelims, and still swam well in the individual, but the Australian coaches decided they wanted Sullivan’s experience on the relay.
What’s wrong with having 4 fresh swimmers on both?? The night time relay will be Phelps, Lochte, Berens, and whichever of the remaining 4 swims fastest (Dwyer, Mclean, Tarwater, Houchin) I think it works just fine
Phelps and Lochte should be the only guaranteed finalists in the evening relay. The other swimmers were bunched together at trials. Too close to call. You want the two fastest swimmers on current form in London to join Michael and Ryan. That could be any of them. It’s not guaranteed that Berens will be one of the two fastest at all. That’s why I see Tarwater there as a replacement in case of injury or illness.
Great for Davis and USA swimming. He’ll add to the team and give another option for relays. Nobody will see this as anything but a positive. Go get ’em DT!
This doesn’t make sense and neither does what Marsh said. You don’t add a swimmer because you need a another “well rounded” swimmer. And you don’t need 4 fresh guys in the morning and at night, look at the past and that is not how it works. Originally the prelim relay was place ,4,5,6 with either the first or second OT qualifier on the relay also having two swims. Then the fastest 4,5,6 swimmer has a shot to swim at night.I wonder how they are going to work the relay now because you have seven people, not six vying for 4 spots at night. Two are a given, so now there are 5 , not four going for those other… Read more »
Mel, the Phelps – Tarwater connection occurred to me as I remember them being training pals four years ago when Stovall snuck in there and I thought I caught Phelps giving a “wtf” look Tarwater’s way. But would he scratch *just* to get him on the team? Doubtful…right? I think it’s more that it takes three tough swims off his agenda in the core part of the meet.
And again, as I’ve said, the goal here is to optimize the success of Team USA – not to hold sacrosanct a set of self-imposed rules even in the infrequent instance they are at odds with that goal. Yes, the top-6 “rule” is *designed* to provide objectivity in team selection and in… Read more »
didn’t read the feed/comments. Very busy. Not sure if anyone brough this up: Do you think Phelps scratched to give Tarwater a spot on the Olympic Team? They trained together at U of M. Phelps respects Tarwater. What do you think?
I think it is a factor, and Tarwater missing last time really affected all the Club Wondering guys who loved Davis. I think the bigger point Mel is they SHOULD go to the 26 man maximum with relay adds. I say add Robison. Even if he does not swim, it adds a capable leg in case of health or other unexpecteds .
I think there’s a FINA limit to how many relay-only swimmers each country can take. For six relays (men and women) the limit is 12. So you can’t necessarily fill all remaining spots with relay-only swimmers. I haven’t done the math for the us team this year, so I don’t know how close the team is to this limit.
Dasher,
If I’m not mistaken, there are only 5 relay-only male swimmers (including Tarwater) in the team:
Matt Mclean, Charlie Houchin, Davis Tarwater, Jimmy Feigen, Jason Lezak.
Exactly what I was thinking – how much did Tarwater pay him off? Maybe he has some good ol college pics of Phelps hitting the bong. Not a big fan of Tarwater, he isn’t nice to everyone – so to his supporters, sure be happy for him. For the people that know the other side of him – hate all you want~
Phelps isn’t exactly nice to all his fans a lot of the time… I think its a little disrespectful to the work Davis has out in to say he paid him off. That’s just ridiculous
Mel Stewart,
I don’t think it’s a factor. AT ALL.
Don’t forget the connection Tarwater and Phelps have. They were both at Michigan at the same time and although I am sure it did not influence Michael’s decision to scratch the 200 free, I’m sure getting his old friend on the team was a consequence that he was probably pretty happy with.