by Davis Wuolle 32
June 30th, 2012
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Day 6 Finals Recap Presented By Engine
Chris DeSantis joins the SwimSwam panel to recap all the night's events
Chris — Why should you or anyone else feel “conflicted” about Jessica Hardy’s surprise, but well-deserved, win in the 100 free? Her 2008 positive test was conclusively shown to be the result of a contaminated supplement (the unanimous arbitrators’ decision can easily be found on USADA’s web site). She nonetheless had to serve a one (rather than two) year suspension simply for having taken what unknowingly and unintendedly turned out to be a contaminated supplement. How many other swimmers, perhaps even some of your own, also take supplements? She did nothing different or more wrong than any of them, she just had the misfortune of taking a bad batch. Give Jessica her fair and well-earned due — not only did… Read more »
Yes it’s too bad that she can’t win an individual medal but successful teams in all sports always have another generation awaiting (look at any successful sport team: eg: San Francisco 49ers of the 1990’s – Montana and Young) and this is probably the best outcome for the United States women’s team.
Having Franklin, Neal, Bootsma, Larson, Donahue, Leverenz all surpass some of our veterans is actually great for our team. However, it’s still awesome to have Natalie, Soni, Beisel, Wier, Schmitt and hopefully Zeigler on the squad to provide BALANCE.
I think Terri and staff should be happy to have the squad that they have…A lot of new, and young Olympians with some proven veterans to compliment Team USA.
Last night was my first time ever seeing Anthony Ervin swim. I did not realize how amazing this technique is. His body essentially has no lateral movement! If only he was a bit bigger.
Why has he stopped his career so quickly? This guy has a fantastic natural talent on sprint. It’s incredible what he can do only a few months after his comeback. Does he swim only until the olympic games or does he continue after them?
It was related to lack of inspiration. he had accomplished so much within his short time in the sport. I really do hope he continues even past this year.
The trend I often see is that hard hitters in prelims and semis usually fall off the pace in the finals. I’m hoping that’s the case for Ervin. In the prelims, if he hadnt known he was 21.8 (interview w Adrian), it suggests to me he wasn’t fully exerted. Also he was 21.74 with a less than perfect finish, which suggests we will see more in the finals.
Still, he is by no means a favorite for a spot in London
Anthony Ervin remains the best “pure” sprinter I have ever seen. Who knows how fast he would have gone with a super suit on, probably 18.3 or so in yards and 20.9 in meters. Here’s hoping he makes the team!
that would put him on par with Cielo times..would be amazing times..
Liliana,
Natalie admitted that her performance was not what she wanted and there are probably many factors why. However, she is on the team and the US is lucky. Her presence will be appreciated by many of the current members both make and female because she is ‘beloved’ in certain respects. I see her role as more as an assistant to Coach McKeever and I’m sure the entire US staff will appreciate that we have a veteran like her on it.
If her failure is miserable as you point out – then yes, the torch has been past to a new generation but try to appreciate what she has done over the past 12 years rather than point… Read more »
Hey, Natalie is a class act, don’t get me wrong. I’m sure USA team will benefit from her presence, but we’ll agree we kinda expected much more, right? Maybe we expected too much? Look what happened to Hoff.
Nevertheless, nothing can take away from Caughlin’s stellar career…I’m just sad she won’t be able to finish it with another Olympic medal.
Natalie remains one of the class acts in swimming. I appreciate what she has done for the sport and have always loved watching her swim, her kickouts are legendary.
I agree that her performance at Trials have been disappointing but she was building towards a letdown for a while. She has long been an advocate of alternate methods of training (dryland, yoga, etc…) and it really showed her lack of pool time the last 15 meters of every race. There just isn’t a substitute for hard training in the pool (whether it be quantity or quality). She was in position for a first or second place finish in the fly, back, and free races and died in all of… Read more »
Natalie Coughlin failed these trials miserably. Let’s call it as it is.
She finished third in 100 back, and almost everyone predicted Franklin to take one spot, and many predicted that Coughlin would be challenged by Boostma.
No one predicted Coughlin to win an individual spot in 100 free.
I know, but no one predicted Coughlin wouldn’t be able to take a single individual spot either.
Bobo,
Mie is sort of a swimming celebrity child: she is the daughter of Denmarks last male Olympic medalist Benny Nielsen. She has a lot of size- but otherwise the Franklin comparisons are off, she lacks versatility at the moment internationally but she is only 15 so that could change
Thank you for the answer. 59.69 in the 100 back for a so young girl is very impressive. I think she’s the most dangerous swimmer for Missy in the future on backstroke.
Everyone wants to keep talking about how the performances are not up to what they thought they would be or maybe certain people are not rested, but the biggest factor may be a good group of the top level people swimming so many races and could just be getting tired.
It doesn’t explain the men 100 free though.
All the men 100 free finalists only swam 2 events (100-200 or 50-100), and for most, the 100 free was their first event.
You know, I’ve thought about this issue concerning the 100freestyle.
Back in March, I conducted a timeseries analysis of the top25 100free times in the last 20 years, and saw that the lzr suits are responsible for approximately just over 0.5 seconds in the 100m free. Using this number, you’ll notice that the top times swum at this meet are approximately (if not slightly faster) than what was swum here in 2008.
So to me, the times themselves are not a cause for concern. A bigger cause for concern is the fact that none of the swimmers were able to improve upon their performances at the Olympics, which I feel may be the biggest negative afflicting their repeat campaign.
And Some guys usually step up with the big meets.. Hayden and Cielo.. does not know about Roberts and Agnel yet..
Chris DeSantis, I know you have a little something from Denmark. Can you have a few words about Mie Nielsen? I don’t know her very well. I know she has a big talent, she’s young and she swims very fast in the 100 back. No many people speak about her but I think she could already surprise this summer. I noticed she’s an all-around swimmer. Is she the equal of Missy in Denmark? I’m a big fan of Missy so do you think this young danish swimmer is her best opponent in the future? I’ve noticed they almost swim the same races.