French Swimming Team Talks Smack

[Still Growing]

Did you see the 4X100 swimming race last night? Wow what a race. What made it even more exciting was before the race the French team was talking a little trash in the water "we are going to smash the American team, this is what we came here for."

When I was in Europe earlier this year a French (guy) friend of mine asked "Why do you Americans dislike French people so much?" I told him "Aww its so cute that the French care about what we're thinking.... I was beginning to think that you didn't care." He laughed his arse off and then gave a nervous "We don't."

I then said to him "Seriously though, I love France; you guys know how to live it up. Good food, Great wine, and beautiful women...... What's your girlfriend's name again?" He then told me " You've been hanging around guys like me too long, you're starting to develop a French humour."

I think Americans are too sensitive to the French style of redicule. They redicule themselves too. The French are, on average, are a little more verbally edgy and critical.

I think its perfectly fine the French team was talking smack. Whats the big deal?

[Doku]

I think the issue here is the masses of Americans that are on the Phelps bandwagon. (even though his time was the second slowest on the team)

I watched this event with my in-laws. It was quite interesting. The race immediately before this was the women's 400m freestyle. Coming down the last length of the pool, the American had more than a full body length lead. A British woman closed the distance, and took first. No comment from my in-laws other than "I can't believe she lost that." But when the men closed about a half - 3/4 body length in the last length, "Did you see that??!! That was amazing! He gained over a half a body length in a single run!"

I just don't get it. Why was that amazing, but the women's event immediately before it was not?

And about the 4x100... Sure, the American TEAM (note, team, not phelps... team) won the event, why not talk about the event in general?
There were 8 teams in the pool. Every single team beat the Olympic Record time. 6 of the 8 teams beat the world record time! Why is the only thing that you hear about is that "Phelps won the 4x100" ??

[Barcs]

I agree that Phelps is overhyped. No lie, they seem to mention his name every 15 minutes. That race was pretty amazing. Great atheletes all around. I didn't realize that 6 teams broke the world record. I thought it was just the top 3. Awesome race though. America came back and won at the very last second (well .08 of a second to be exact!). I enjoyed it and the smack talking definitely aided in that enjoyment. Sometimes you gotta talk smack. I don't see a big deal.

[Still Growing]

I don't know if I agree that Phelps is over-rated. He is currenlty tied with Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis in gold medals I believe.

I remember in previous olympics these two names getting played up so much...

Also, anytime you set a world record I think its a HUGE deal.

I'm sure you're both just tired of hearing about it. I think newspeople see the coverage of the Olympics like a story. Every good story needs a lead or hero to keep the reader /viewer tuned in.

I saw on the news this morning Phelps mom and sisters say that he's never even said his goal was to get 8 gold medals and its a media made story.

As for the smack talking, I agree its entertaining. Maybe they should even allow fighting like in hockey. I'd love to see those swimmers start sluggin it out in the water. Maybe even as they swim they could grab each others legs, throw some jabs, etc. LOL. Full contact swimmin..

[Doku]

I never said that he was over-rated. Since your last post, he now has the most gold medals ever. Until the Olympics Comittee adds more events, or some other young swimmer competes multiple years, I don't think that anyone will ever beat that record. Maybe if you have someone who can swim and dive? Because of him competing in so many events, I don't think that I would rank Phelps against Carl Lewis. The most events that Carl was ever in in a single Olympics is 4.

The fact that he is competing in so many events, and has taken gold in every one is pretty amazing in and of itself, however.

I would agree that setting a world record is a big deal... When you change the equipment used, however, I think that it is less of a big deal. Let's take a world record as an example: 3/3/05, Steve Fossett set a world record for solo non-stop flight around the world in 67 hours. If someone invented a plane that could make it around the world in 3 hours, and Steve Fossett III made the trip in 6.7 hours, would the new record seem that amazing?

Some of the equipment changes for these Olympic swimming events:
Pool depth increased from 6 to 9 feet. This cuts turbulence created off the bottom, and allows for a smoother/faster swim.
Pool width increased from 8 to 10 lanes, but still have 8 swimmers. This cuts down on turbulence created from the sides.
Lane dividers specially engineered to kill waves and cut turbulence.
And the biggest controversy: the suit.
LZR Racer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shaving off 2% of the time? when 1/10th of a second can be the difference between gold medal and no medal?

And I agree with the statements about Phelps being humble. He doesn't like all the hype himself, but he is paid very well to shut up and not complain too much. Living around Baltimore, I have talked with enough people who know him personally, and he does seem like a cool guy who really deserves to be in the record books.

Bracs, you are correct.. 6 teams did not break the record. I had not realized that the record was broken in the heats at this Olympics... I was using the world record from before this Olympics started.


And back to the origional reason for the thread. :P

Smack talk rocks! I wish they would have rugby in the summer games. MUCH more interesting than soccer.