Swimming thread

[Guest]

A few minutes ago, Andrew Bree set a new Irish record in the 100m backstroke and came in second in his heat behind a Canadian. The RTE co-commentator said: "I think Andrew will be disappointed with that."

Why do so many of the swimmers have bug eyes and rictus grins? There was a Dutch girl earlier who looked like a more well-built version of Dirk Kuyt.

[Guest]

Swimming thread

As it turns out, Andrew has failed to make the semi-finals despite his new PB (albeit his specialist event is 200m, not 100m), so the RTE guy ended up being right, if for the wrong reasons.

Michael Phelps set an Olympic record in the 400m medley earlier on. I had to edit a very long profile of him yesterday. He does not sound like the most interesting guy in the world.

[Brandenburger Toro]

Swimming thread

I've just seen the clip of that about thirty seconds ago. I think you're being way harsh on Gary O'Toole, (for it was he). He began by saying that you couldn't really ask for any more of an athlete than a personal best, particualrly in a context like that. Nevertheless, he explained in some detail why he thought Andrew Bree himself was expecting/hoping to do better, and thus "will be a little bit disappointed". I don't think it was a diss of the performance at all, quite the contrary.

[Guest]

Swimming thread

Gary O'Toole is in the RTE studio in Dublin. I'm talking about Nick O'Hare who was doing the live commentary in Beijing this afternoon.

[Brandenburger Toro]

Swimming thread

It was the second. The first was "Well, you can't ask more of an athlete than that, than a personal best, in that stadium, that cauldron of an Olympic Games, it's really as much as you can ask, but..."

That's as near as verbatim as I can get it.

[Guest]

Swimming thread

Again, I'm not talking about what Gary O'Toole said this evening as an analyst. I'm talking about the live commentary earlier.

[Brandenburger Toro]

Swimming thread

Fair enough. on the other hand, when I started answering, your response said "It was the very first thing he said."

[Guest]

Swimming thread

Yes, I then realised you were talking about the boys in the studio rather than the actual race.

Immediately reacting to a swimmer turning in a personal best with a comment like that is just churlish. Most Irish swimmers at the Olympics over the years have done so badly that by the time they embark on their final length, the janitor is walking along the bank of the pool glancing at his watch and waiting to lock up for the night.

Good for Bree, I hope he can make at least the last 16 in his specialist distance.

[Brandenburger Toro]

Swimming thread

Gotcha, yeah, I was just qualifying what would otherwise have looked like a bafflingly obtuse post by me.

yeah, i know, open goal...

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Swimming thread

up ... and down... and up ... and down ... and up ... and down ... and up ...

FOR FUCK'S SAKE RELEASE THE SHARKS!

Swimming is about as interesting to the spectator as reading.

[kugelrund]

Swimming thread

Why do so many of the swimmers have bug eyes and rictus grins?

Same reason they all have jaws you could use on the front of a JCB and brows that enter the room five seconds before the rest of their face.

[Guest]

Swimming thread

No, I didn't mean it in the drugs sense -- it just seems to be a look that's particular to a vast number of swimmers at all levels, for whatever reason.

I noticed it as a child when I was swimming for the local club. A lot of the kids in my squad had big round fish-like eyes and their faces seemed to be slightly stretched. Maybe all the breathing-related exertion was affecting their facial muscles or something. I don't really know where I'm going with this, it's just something I've noticed about a lot of swimmers, top-level and otherwise, over the years.

[David Agnew]

Swimming thread

Hieronymus of Hesselink wrote:

Michael Phelps set an Olympic record in the 400m medley earlier on.

And he's broken not just the Olympic, but the World record in the final, by almost one and a half seconds.

[Duncan Gardner]

Swimming thread

I'm pleased Hiero acknowledges Bree (who's from Bangor, Co Down- only one of the South's swimmers is actually from the country) as Irish. His record-breaking feat didn't make the BBC NI site, obviously less important than interminable GAA results.

Maybe if he'd broken the British record?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Swimming thread

This pool must favour fast times for some reason. Wider lanes? The US relay team have just beaten the world record in the heats, and apparently they're the "B" team (none of the 4 who've just done the record are expected to be in the squad for the final).

[the cantering captain]

Swimming thread

The pool is 3 metres deep all the way along, which apparently helps with speed, something to do with turbulence possibly ?

[Guest]

Swimming thread

Bill O'Herlihy: "Gary, the Netherlands [winning the relay] -- a surprise?"

Gary O'Toole: "No, the Netherlands would have been red-hot favourites for that one."

Good man Bill . . .

[loose cannon]

Swimming thread

HoH - try and strap on a pair of tight goggles and plough up and down a pool as fast as you can and then look in the mirror to admire your beetrooty face, not to mention your buggy eyes.

[Incandenza]

Swimming thread

You know, when the American swimmers won gold in the 4 x 100 freestyle, I'd normally be embarrassed by my countrymen flexing their muscles and shouting while right next to the favored French swimmers, who looked like they were going to win.



But after the trash talk from the French? Fuck 'em. U-S-A! U-S-A!

[Guest]

Swimming thread

loose cannon wrote:

HoH - try and strap on a pair of tight goggles and plough up and down a pool as fast as you can and then look in the mirror to admire your beetrooty face, not to mention your buggy eyes.

I swam a hell of a lot when I was younger, and each time, I managed to get out of the pool not looking like Marty Feldman's son.

[matt j]

Swimming thread

That 4x100 relay was amazing. That's as good an anchor leg as of any relay you'll ever see.

[Guest]

Swimming thread

Christ, I've just seen the climax of the women's 400m final on BBC News. What was the American swimmer thinking in the final few metres? She just drifted towards the bank with her hand outstretched and ended up losing by 0.07 seconds.

Fair play to the British girl for plugging away even when she was miles behind. I think she was 5th going into the final turn.

[Ant van Oviedo]

Swimming thread

I've really enjoyed the swimming this time round - I got into it at the Athens games, too. I don't agree that it makes for boring watching, either. The fact that we've had such great performances this time helps, too.

I was awake to watch the women's 400m freestyle, and it was one of the greatest sporting moments of the year for me. I see I'll be the first to say it amongst you miserable lot, but Becky Adlington was absolutely fucking brilliant, as was Joanne Jackson.

I wonder if that pool is a few metres short? Would we ever know if it was?

[ursus arctos]

Swimming thread

Hoff appeared to hit the wall with about 25 metres left.

Ant, I'm sure that the French have measured the pool after all of their whingeing this week. The interesting question is whether the times are down to the architecture of the pool, the improvements in suits, better training and competition, the crowds or something else.

The answer is obviously some combination of all of those (and no doubt others), but it would be interesting to hear what the experts think the single most significant factor is.

[matt j]

Swimming thread

The suits are a huge deal, particularly since this is the first competition where a lot of these swimmers are fully tapered and using them. (Phelps in particular.)

I'd be curious to know if any world record has been broken in this pool without the new suit.

I was thinking about this yesterday, and FINA has always seemed to be surprisingly open to innovations in their sport. It was too long ago that flipturns on the backstroke weren't used, but FINA went with it once swimmers started doing it. Long starts & turns underwater were innovative when I was swimming competitively, and now they are pretty much the norm. The 'one dolphin underwater kick' that that Japanese breaststroker does was considered somewhat illegal as of the last olympics, but is now acceptable. And now these suits.

Janet Evans world records look all the more impressive, considering.