See Phelps’ Entire 200 IM Gold… From the Underwater Cam

2016 RIO OLYMPIC GAMES

• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Swimming: August 6-13
• Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Barra Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro
• Prelims – 9:00 a.m/12:00 p.m PST/EST (1:00 p.m local), Finals – 6:00 p.m/9:00 p.m PST/EST (10:00 p.m local)
• SwimSwam previews 
• Day 7 Schedule & Results
• Live Stream (NBC)

It’s not every meet that we get to actually watch from home. It seems there are never enough live streams out there for local (or even national) meets, and even if there are, the quality level usually leaves something to be desired.

Luckily for all of us, while we still will gripe and moan over the focus on ‘primetime’ television and cutting away for commercials, NBC has posted video of Michael Phelps‘ 200 IM– entirely shot from the underwater camera.

Now, Phelps’ famously outrageous underwater kick-outs are not quite what they once were. That said, we get to see how the G.O.A.T. swims from a new angle. NBC typically cuts to an underwater shot a couple times during a race of 200 or longer, but we see most of the race from above the water. We actually almost exclusively watch races from above the water at home, too, so this is really something different than the norm.

You can watch Phelps, who posted a 1:54.66 to blow the competition out of the water and win gold in this event, swim one of the fastest 200 IM’s of his entire career by following this link. Note, especially, the extension that he gets on his breaststroke– he really pulled away from the field on that leg of his race.