Thorpe vs. Phelps
Comments: 12
Mark Sappenfield in The Christian Science Monitor calls it the great buzz match of these Games. Indeed, the men’s 200m freestyle final tonight is going to be quite intense.
Still … in the pool this summer, it comes down to Australia and America. And with no evil empire to overcome, the Aussies will just have to do.
I’m exhausted from staying up late to watch the swimming, but it’s been worth it. The pool seems a bit slow and it gets windy in there, but there’s some fantastic swimming to be seen. Laure Manaudou from France, women’s 400m freestyle gold medalist, is just astonishing in the water, prefect grace and poise. Her kick, a slow almost languid flick that ripples down from her hips, is one of the most beautiful acts of animal motion I think I’ve ever seen.
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Posted to General Rants • 2004.08.16 (Mon) • 11:54
Comments
Posted by Skooter 2004.08.16, 22:54
Hey, what about VanDenHoogenBanden? He’s up there with those guys too.
Posted by Zelnox 2004.08.16, 23:34
Yeah, I saw Manadou kick. It’s odd to see it. It seems slow and does not splash, but must be effective. She’s also very young if I remember. The commentator over here explained that the kick does not provide much propulsion for the energy expanded.
Posted by Adriaan Tijsseling 2004.08.16, 23:52
Let’s not forget Van den Hoogenband, indeed. After all, he took the gold 4 years ago.
Posted by Adriaan Tijsseling 2004.08.17, 01:52
As I said, it was more Thorpe vs Van den Hoogenband. Tight race it was. Phelps is overrated.
Posted by jh 2004.08.17, 01:57
You were right. Phelps may have set himself a bit of an ambitious program for these games. PvdH gave Thorpe an excellent run.
Posted by Meera 2004.08.17, 08:52
Manadou’s kick is more appropriate for the 800, I think, or if women swam the 1,500, that would be her event. For longer distances or open water the kick is reduced to keeping your body straight, and propulsion comes from the pull.
Posted by Eric 2004.08.18, 03:18
The thing about Phelps is that he’s incredible at three strokes, whereas PvdH and Thorpe pretty much just specialize in freestyle, even if they are a little better than Phelps at it.
Posted by Ruben 2004.08.18, 05:19
@Eric: I’m afraid the Olympics are about specialisms, not about all rounders.
I’m anxiously looking forward to tomorrow’s 100m freestyle. That’s the race that counts in the end, although the Americans among you will probably disagree.
Posted by Club 2004.08.18, 07:51
“I’m afraid the Olympics are about specialisms, not about all rounders.”
Well … except for the decathlon, pentathlon, biathlon, the individual medleys …
I’ll be looking forward to “the race that counts,” since it is the race that “the Olympics are about.”
Posted by Ruben 2004.08.19, 03:08
Thanks for pointing that out, you’re absolutely right in that aspect. But hey, my day is too good to be true anyway. Nothing can spoil that.
Posted by Charles M. Gerungan 2004.08.22, 00:19
Pieter van den Hoogenband is now untouchable, being in the same league as Johnny Weissmuller and Alexander Popov! (Yes, I’m Dutch. :-)
Posted by Brett 2004.08.22, 11:55
Manaudou’s kick looks nice, but I think it’s a flaw in her stroke that needs to be fixed. Distance swimmers tend to do 2-kick strokes to save energy, while sprinters do 6-kick strokes. But Manaudou is actually not even continuously kicking. Her stroke is a little weird, but it’s not unknown for distance swimmers to essentially do a crawl pull, only kicking to maintain balance and keep their legs up. This manifests itself in, for instance, right breathers only fluttering their left foot when they roll to breath, not moving their right foot at all. But in the end, if you kick (and your stroke is otherwise okay and your body is straight and streamlined) you go faster. If Manaudou could increase her strenght and endurance in kicking, she would lose her delicate stroke, but she would swim faster times.
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