Obsidian Wings

The Amazing Michael Phelps: Open Thread

by hilzoy

Check out this photo, from this morning/last night's 100 meter butterfly finals:

That's Michael Phelps on the left, a split second before he and Cavic reached the wall. Look where his hands are. Look where Cavic's hands are.

And he won.

I am in awe.

Open thread.

***

UPDATE: This, via Gary, is a wonderful video, in which a penguin, already a Colonel-in-Chief of the Norwegian Army, is knighted. Really. The proclamation is wonderful:

"We being well satisfied with loyalty, courage, and good endowments of our trusty and well-beloved Nils Olav, and reposing entire trust and confidence in you, as a penguin, in every way qualified to receive the honor and dignity of knighthood, and the office aforesaid."

Nils Olav looks somewhat bemused by the whole affair, though he does an admirable job of walking in a straight line past the rows of guards standing at attention, and only very occasionally decides that some of them seem to require closer inspection.

Well done, Nils Olav. And well done, Harald V of Norway.

Does Cheating Actually Help?

by publius shawn johnson

As I get mentally prepared for the gymnastics competition tonight, I had a question for those of you who actually know something about gymnastics.

As I'm sure you've heard, one of the big Olympic controversies is that the Chinese gymnasts appear to be 6 years old. So here's the question -- is being too young actually a net benefit? Does it really provide a competitive advantage?

In my expert opinion, it seems like a mixed bag. While I'm sure I could do better on the balance beam if I weighed 67 pounds, I suspect being that small would hurt in other events. For instance, being tiny seems to be a disadvantage on the uneven bars. And I imagine you need more strength to do better at the vault.

That said, I suppose having underage gymnasts helps in the team competition (where you can pick and choose who does what), but provides less of an advantage in the individual all-around.

But to say I'm ignorant about this stuff is too generous to me. Does anyone know? (On an aside, I love how everyone becomes a self-appointed gymnastics expert for about one week every four years).

Induction Falsified Again!

by hilzoy

I had no great hopes for tonight's Red Sox game. I know the Red Sox. I grew up in Boston. I used to love the Red Sox, until I decided that they were not a baseball team, but an instrument of torture in the hands of a sadistic God. My prediction for the game was essentially the same as the one I made three years ago, except for the Pedro Martinez part:

"They will be ahead 843-0 in the 9th, with two outs, when Pedro Martinez, who has pitched a no-hitter so far, walks three people in succession. He is replaced, and replaced again, but the walks keep coming, until the entire Red Sox pitching staff has done its best and our opponents, they who shall not be named, have scored 294 runs without a single hit. At this point the Red Sox stop walking people and start committing horrible errors: dropped pitches, lazy pop flies that miraculously drop through the gloves of outfielders, and so on and so forth. Still, we will think, it's 843-502; surely they won't be able to get another 341 runs before we manage one out. But they will. And then, having tied the game... I leave the rest to your imaginations."

I can't believe they won. I just can't believe it. I'm still expecting to wake up and discover that I fell asleep on the couch and missed the disastrous ninth inning in which they blew it all.

But they won.

The Red Sox actually won.

YAAAAAY!!!!!

CATS!

by publius

I also trust everyone is fully aware of the pure awesomeness that was the UK-LSU game. I'm tempted to get a virtual Blue-White cheer going. Farley maybe? -- you're an adopted Kentuckian (not the real thing like me, but close enough, assuming you can now pronounce Louisville with two syllables).

Doomed To Disappointment

by hilzoy

I was looking at the BBC News home page a few days ago, and glanced at some of the World Cup coverage. I think it's wonderful that the US made it, and I hope they do well, but what really captivated me was the discovery that tiny Togo had qualified. I am a sucker for underdogs, and so naturally I began rooting for Togo to win. I mean: Togo is a very poor country (per capita income $310 in 2005; it has about 6 million people, nearly half of whom are below 15; since (presumably) around half of those over 15 are women, who are ( I assume) not eligible for the team, Togo has to find its players among a mere 1.5 million men over 15. And yet, somehow, it has qualified for the World Cup! Yay for Togo!

(It's the same streak in me that led me to get a license plate holder that says: 'The starry skies above; the moral law within': I thought: if anyone sees this and knows where it comes from, they will get such a kick out of it! Very unlikely, but such a big payoff. Likewise, if Togo wins the World Cup, it will presumably mean a lot more to the Togolese than, say, Italy's victory would mean to the Italians.)

Alas, they were defeated 2-1 by South Korea yesterday. The BBC account makes it sound as though they could have won, but no. They play Switzerland on Monday, and then France on the following Friday, after which the matches depend on who wins in the various groups. I hope Togo will sweep to victory, leaving Argentina, Brazil and even David Beckham in the dust. But somehow I doubt it.

***

OMG! In doing the research for this, I just noticed that Angola has qualified! Now my loyalties are well and truly divided: tiny scrappy Togo versus war-ravaged Angola. If either of them win, I will be a very happy person. Alas, Angola has not only lost; it lost to Portugal, its former colonial ruler. That has to hurt.

Coda

by Slartibartfast

As sore as the orbs are tonight, I felt this couldn't go without note: to add an exclamation point to an otherwise highly punctuated season, Ryan Lochte has...well, listen:

SHANGHAI, China, April 9. WHEN the week started, Ryan Lochte had never established a world record. Now, he has three to his credit. Completing a stellar week at the World Short Course Championships, the University of Florida sensation set a pair of global standards on Sunday. Having claimed the world record in the 200 individual medley earlier in the week, Lochte added the 100 and 200 backstroke marks to his resume.

In the 200 backstroke, Lochte obliterated Austrian Markus Rogan’s record from last December by swimming an eye-popping time of 1:49.05, well under Rogan’s 1:50.43. Lochte split 53.74 at the 100-meter mark, was at 1:21.54 at the 150-meter point and cruised to the wall in impressive fashion. Rogan was second with a time of 1:50.97 and Australian Matt Welsh took bronze in 1:53.10.

For a finale, Lochte led off the American 400 medley relay with the first sub-50 100 backstroke in history. Lochte stroked to a clocking of 49.99 to better the world record of 50.32, set in 2004 by Peter Marshall.

Ok, now this pretty much defines peak performance.  What makes it all the more jaw-dropping is that he did it just two weeks after the NCAA Championships.  Two weeks after the taper.

Maybe things are different now; maybe the taper isn't such a fine thing as it was.  I swam YMCA State about two weeks after high school state, and although I won the 100 breaststroke and was 2nd or third (have to go look) in the 200 breaststroke (an event I'd never swam competetively until then) with fairly respectable times, I was at least a half second off in the 100.

The Aussies were, as a group, just incredible as well.  If you're an Aussie and interested, go read; it's all on the front page over at Swiminfo.com.

And that is all for this evening.  Swimfans, enjoy; the rest a yez, move along.

GO GATORS!

I just finished watching the Florida Gators completely dominate UCLA to win the NCAA men's basketball national title.  It was by far the best basketball game I've ever watched.  It wasn't so much that it was a flawless game, or that there was any particular standout player, or notable pyrotechnics, so much as it was an extraordinary team effort from a bunch of guys who have skills that fit well together.  Taurean Green handles the ball like few others, Corey Brewer is everywhere and always on the ball, Joachim Noah is the CHAMPEEN shot-blocker (7 blocks tonight, a championship record)...outstanding efforts also came from Al Horford and Lee Humphrey.

I know next to nothing about basketball, despite having grown up Hoosier, but the Gators were a great team tonight.  I remember well watching games at my high school and college and witnessing the team crumble and re-form as possession of the game changed hands; this was nothing like that.  It's not that it was a flawless game, it's more that when mistakes were made, they were acknowledged and then they proceeded to attack the game again with the confidence of victors.

Congratulations, Gators.  And thanks; I doubt I'll ever see a better game of basketball.  Looks as if ESPN agrees; UCLA was way overmatched.

Season wrapup

Having been busy tearing up carpet and padding, etc, and preparing the house and dinner for a birthday feast (my wife's birthday), I hadn't much time to pay attention to the last bits of the swimming season.

My only prediction for the day was the kind that doesn't count: the kind that no one else hears you make.  I predicted (to myself) that Ryan Lochte would break his own 200 yard backstroke record, and of course that he did.  The new record is 1:37.68, which is about six-tenths of a second faster than his old record.  Call it about three and a half feet improvement at the touch.  Lochte also had the second-fastest leadoff leg in the 4x100 free relay, which is an amazing stat given that he's not really considered to be a world-class sprint freestyle swimmer.  Overall Lochte had an outstanding meet, setting four NCAA records, winning three individual events and contributing greatly to Florida's place in the team standings.  If Lochte doesn't get the MVP award (can't recall offhand what it's called exactly) then there is no justice.

Other outstanding swimming today had Michigan senior Davis Tarwater scare Melvin Stewart's fourteen-year-old 200 butterfly record; missed it by 0.06 seconds.  Georgia sophomore Sebastien Rouault also put the scare on Chris Thompson's record in the 1650 with a 14:29.43.  He's got 2.8 seconds to go, but he's also got a couple of years in which to bring the time down.

Purdue (my alma mater) had an unusually high scoring day, with breaststroker Giordan Pogioli grabbing fifth place in the 200 breaststroke finals, and diver Steven LoBue earning third place in the platform diving.  LoBue also took sixth on the 3m board and seventh on the 1m board.

I don't have access to all of the final team scores, but Auburn took first, Arizona second, Stanford third, Texas fourth and Florida fifth.  Purdue placed sixteenth overall with 59 total points.

And Another One Gone...

by Slartibartfast

UPDATE:  I predict that Tom Dolan's NCAA, American and US Open record in the 400 IM will fall tonight (3/24) to Ryan Lochte.  He's just qualified 2nd for the finals.

Not much time to post details, but NCAA men's swimming began today and the records, they are a fallin'.  Peter Vanderkaay of Michigan wiped Tom Dolan's eleven-year-old American Record in the 500 freestyle off  the board, clocking in at 4:08.60.

Next, if you'll recall one of my few recent posts, I predicted that Ryan Lochte would bring it in the NCAA championship meets.  Here's the headliner:

Men's NCAA Div I. Championships, Finals: Ryan Lochte Destroys Phelps' American Record in the 200 Individual Medley -- March 23, 2006

More on the Apolitical Front

Not that this is news, but it hasn't been exactly front-page, so while we're posting odd bits about gorilla/sand flea crossbreeds and the like, we can certainly make a diversion into the realm of sports.

One of the older (American and US Open)* Records on the books is (was, actually) Janet Evans' 1990 time of 4:34.39 in the 500 yard freestyle.  Seventeen-year-old Kate Ziegler has wiped that record off the books, by taking over one second from the old mark.  Way back in December, Kate erased another of Janet's records from the board, knocking the old 1000 yard freestyle standard down by six-tenths of a second.  We're looking at SCY because at present most swimming at the High School level is done in 25-yard pools, and Kate Ziegler is still in High School.  Last month Kate whacked over a second and a half from Sippy Woodhead's quarter-century-old 800m (short course) freestyle American and US Open record.  To understate, this is a name to look for in upcoming competition.  Also noteworthy is young (16 years old) Katie Hoff, who surpassed Evans' 500 free record just a week too late.  Katie has wiped a couple of American & US Open records from the books; this performance in the 500 free shows a deepening of talent.