The Olympics

Originally Posted by Douglas

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Pools are definitely getting faster, and I think the suits help too.

Who was it last night on NBC that said "John McEnroe didn't play with the same tennis racquet they use now either." Good point. Technology advances. Race a 1960 F1 versus today's. Do the road race on a bike from 1930.

b

Originally Posted by Omar1223

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this is just not true. 33 of the first 36 medals that have been awarded in these olympics have gone to atheletes wearing the Speedo LZR racer suit. i read an article today in the paper that said that.
Ok, it was an anecdotal observation, but off the top of my head at least Kitajima and Pellegrini don't wear it. It seems the bluetwenty (supposedly actually faster than Speedo's creation, whatever that means) and the TYR/arena suits are working out for a lot of people, and the ones wearing the LZR are swimmers who would've medalled anyway. Not that that proves anything.

I found it surprising that some male swimmers in the Olympics don't bother to wear a cap.

Originally Posted by rdawson808

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Who was it last night on NBC that said "John McEnroe didn't play with the same tennis racquet they use now either." Good point. Technology advances. Race a 1960 F1 versus today's. Do the road race on a bike from 1930.

b

Regarding tennis, I think it's a much more exciting sport when played with traditional tennis racquets. It's fine when it's accessible to everyone, but I don't think these speedo suits are. Of course, motorsport is different, in my opinion for most motorsports the technology is the star.

I'd just like to say, that I've just watched the Korea versus Australia women's basketball game on a rerun. They may not all be good lookers, but god bless the Australians for outfitting them in lycra. What's more, I've just finished downloading a *** swapping scene with Alektra Blue - does life get any better?

Originally Posted by JammieDodger

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What's more, I've just finished downloading a *** swapping scene with Alektra Blue - does life get any better?

sounds like a good future Olympic event....along with long distance ejaculation

Originally Posted by Get Smart

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sounds like a good future Olympic event....

I imagine it would be some kind of relay race.

I wish the anti-doping agencies weren't ten years behind the dopers. NO ONE looks like Bernard legally.

Originally Posted by seanchai

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I wish the anti-doping agencies weren't ten years behind the dopers. NO ONE looks like Bernard legally.

Seanchai, you seem to follow swimming. Which top swimmers are legal to you? Do you think phelps is doing it legally and were you surprised china went 1-2 in the women 200 fly?

Number one swimming fan here.

Many swimmers don't appear to be on any performance enhancers: Kitajima, for instance, only cheats in the pool. I think Phelps is wholly legal; although his facial features indicate a really high level of HGH, his rise wasn't meteoric the way that Bernard's or Sullivan's or any of the Chinese have been. The things that make him great aren't things you can really produce with drugs, like extra-flexible ankles or tremendous lactic acid recovery.

Dara Torres is an interesting case - she's always been in the grey area of legality in terms of supplements since 2000, when she was the oldest in the pool as well. But plenty of great athletes have only gotten better into their forties... Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Jose Canseco...

The Chinese took up the doping mantle from the East Germans, winning everything in the mid-90s until they were caught, then disappearing for awhile and coming back to break an already impressive 200 fly record by over a second. We'll see how long they can dominate like that before they get caught again.

Originally Posted by seanchai

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Number one swimming fan here. Many swimmers don't appear to be on any performance enhancers: Kitajima, for instance, only cheats in the pool. I think Phelps is wholly legal; although his facial features indicate a really high level of HGH, his rise wasn't meteoric the way that Bernard's or Sullivan's or any of the Chinese have been. The things that make him great aren't things you can really produce with drugs, like extra-flexible ankles or tremendous lactic acid recovery. Dara Torres is an interesting case - she's always been in the grey area of legality in terms of supplements since 2000, when she was the oldest in the pool as well. But plenty of great athletes have only gotten better into their forties... Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Jose Canseco...

The Chinese took up the doping mantle from the East Germans, winning everything in the mid-90s until they were caught, then disappearing for awhile and coming back to break an already impressive 200 fly record by over a second. We'll see how long they can dominate like that before they get caught again.
US women was never as dominantly as men, but I feel like except for couglin they are underperforming as they took the bronze behind AUS and CHN in the 4x200. Or is the world just catching up with some of the foreigners swimming in US college programs? I wonder when US is going to catch up in diving and events that they are weak at? Also, what do you mean by kitajima not on enhancers and only cheats in the pool? What sort of tricks do swimmers use at these competition? In the unlikely event that phelps somehow screws up and lochte is leading half a body with 25 to go, I hope he wins. Sick of all the fanatical focus on phelps though his performance speaks for itself. The focus of the epic race should have been on lezak, not as a subplot for the road to 10 gold medals or 8 golds in Beijing or whatever. lochte seems like a nice, but seriously competitive guy. Tanking a race for the glory of the country only happens to china, right? As a common man, I like the underdog.

Re: Kitajima cheating, here's a video of his illegal dolphin kick in Athens that won him the gold over Hansen:

It's a blatantly obvious DQ-worthy move, but the judges didn't call it. His stroke is much, much better this year than it was then, so his Beijing wins are legit.

The new Olympic champion in the 100m free!

Originally Posted by kwiteaboy

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Re: Kitajima cheating, here's a video of his illegal dolphin kick in Athens that won him the gold over Hansen:

It's a blatantly obvious DQ-worthy move, but the judges didn't call it. His stroke is much, much better this year than it was then, so his Beijing wins are legit.

Thanks. That just shows nobody is immune to cheating. I guess the threshold to cheating is proportional to one's talent.

China had a pretty breakout day of swimming today.

Oh you know, coming out of nowhere with lowbrow swimmers to finish 1,2 in front of Jessica Schipper of AUS, the reigning world champion.
(Yes we know the Olympics is the place where Cinderella stories are written, but a 1-2 finish? No way)
OR their Women's 4x200 free relay. An unknown group of swimmers comes out to swim the entire race BELOW the old world record to take the silver. Surely they would have been noticed before.

China has been caught before.
They are known to hide swimmers from the international scene, and pull swimmers from finals of other meets where drug testing is routine.

But of course, being the communist machine that it is, they were probably handpicked from the age of three and taken away from their parents for a lifetime of training. Or they did it the BALCO way. Your pick.