Swimming Blogs - Chris DeSantis

Hey, remember that time I picked Helge Meeuw to win silver in the 100 backstroke? I was feeling pretty good about it. After all, Helge was the second seed in the meet. He was a German guy with a name Dan Hicks was sure to struggle with.

Fast forward to today. On the first day I had purposely shielded myself from prelim results. When i had to wait until 4:30 pm eastern to watch them, I decided I would just satisfy my curiousity from then on in the morning. I was giddily scanning through results after breakfast to find the 400 free relay splits when I glazed over the 100 backstroke. Everything looked fine. Piersol steady as always, Grevers leading early, Tancock looking good. Wait. where's Meeuw? He missed the semi-final? I have threw up my peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but then quickly recovered. The guy had gone to the Olympics and had a bad swim. He didn't know he was on my picks team.

Little did I know that hours later I would be watching those prelims casually and stumble on Helge's race. Something just didn't look right about him behind the blocks. Finally, as Dan Hicks informed me, it clicked in. He didn't shave.

Seriously Helge? No shave for the Olympics? I heard its a pretty big meet so you might want to shave buddy. I know that Rowdy and Dan also said that Piersol had not shaved but frankly his chest looked silky smooth to me and he wasn't toting a mountain man beard behind the blocks. Now I'm just pissed. Pissed at Meeuw for not shaving and pissed at myself for counting on a German high seed and completely ignoring the Van Almsick Principle.

Day 6 Picks:

200 Breaststroke Women:

1. Leisel Jones

2. Rebecca Soni

3. Mirna Jukic

Rationale: Totally cheated and watched the 100 breast prelims. Leisel looked fantastic cruising a 1:05. I can definitely see an improvement in her stroke over previous years. She just looks like there are a lot less dead spots in her stroke, and she had some surprising flaws for a world record holder. Rebecca Soni also looked strong and is working any Olympic jitters out in her 100 breastroke. Jukic I am picking because I thought Dinko swam pretty well in the 400 IM heats and they're brother and sister.

200 Backstroke Men:

1. Aaron Piersol

2. Ryosuke Irie

3. Ryan Lochte

Rationale: Piersol looked much better cruising through his 100 back this time around although he does face off against a significantly weaker field here in Beijing than he did in Omaha. I think he has a 1:53 in him and without seeing Irie race yet I am betting we are just a little bit away from him taking over in this event. Lochte looked somewhat dazed in the 400 IM when Cseh took it to him. I think he expected to be able to pass Cseh and Phelps and go into the freestyle with a comfortable lead. Then he failed to move past Phelps and Cseh was right up his butt. Lochte is a great racer, but his slight vulnerability leads me to pick Irie for silver here.

200 IM Men

1. Michael Phelps

2. Laszlo Cseh

3. Ryan Lochte

Rationale: It was only a few days ago when I believed Cseh had no chance at Lochte in the 400 iM. Lochte had consistently thrashed him and I felt like he had a clear advantage on Cseh in every stroke, with fly possibly being a toss up. Well Cseh has evidently made huge strides in breaststroke and raced with a lot more heart than we've seen from him in the past. I believe he's ready to go 1:55 in this event, and Lochte will be completing a double. I'd love for Lochte to come through and prove both these picks wrong.

100 Free Women

1. Libby Trickett

2. Britta Steffen

3. Marleen Veldhuis

Rationale: There's really no reason not to pick Trickett after she had the fastest relay split in history and the women who was hot on her heels isn't competing in the event. Steffen would be disqualified by the Van Almsick principle except for the fact that she swam a 53.3 leading off Germany's relay. Veldhuis was also impressive from a relay start but is always disproportionately better from a rolling start than a flat.