Swimming Blogs - Chris DeSantis

Well another week in the swimming world and another opportunity for me to take a look at whatever is striking me at the moment. It was a fairly slow week in the world of swimming news, with two events-The Brazilian olympic qualification meet and the Open Water World Championships in Seville Spain- garnering most of the attention.

At the open water event, most of the media attention seemed to surround a picture of Grant Hackett's midsection, originally featured in an Australian newspaper. After the photo was released message boards were flittering with gossip about Hackett being fat and out of shape. If you're not familiar with the photo, you can find it here.

Quick explanations were offered by Hackett's coach Ian Pope, who claimed that it was the fault of an overly tight suit and was quoted in several media outlets. At last, by the end of the week we had the following video:


Hackett proves he's not fat

The video follows Hackett on his return from Spain and includes him posing for photos to prove that he is not in fact fat. Then why did he look bloated in his earlier pictures? Finally a clear and concise answer came from Steve Munatones on Swimming World

Phew. I guess we can all breathe now.

The Brazilian's Olympic meet was not the end all qualifying meet for their swimmers. In fact, it was stated in the media prior to the event that one of Brazil's most high profile swimmers, Cesar Cielo, had already qualified for Beijing. While a slew of records were set, Brazil remains in Olympic terms exactly where it was prior to the meet. Thiago Pereira, along with Cielo and Kaio Almeida remain threats to medal, but the rest of the team struggled to achieve the Olympic "A" standard. There was no word from any sources on whether or not Cielo vomited during the course of the meet.

My last part of this post has nothing to do with current news. If you've been reading you know by now that I often scour youtube for historical swimming videos. I found an absolute gem over the weekend. Allow me to preface it with a story. In 2004 when Klete Keller held off Ian Thorpe in the 4x200 relay, despite Thorpe making up a full body length on him in the first 50. I thought it was one of the greatest relay races I had ever watched. Still, old timers swore by Bruce Hayes' similar victory over then world record holder Michael Gross in the 4x200 in 1984. Well, although the footage is extremely grainy, its edited down and parts are without sound, I finally can watch that race:



I can't say for sure which race was better, but it's just as inspiring as I heard it described to watch Bruce Hayes come home that final lap.