Swimming Blogs - Chris DeSantis

As the Olympics wound down, I found myself getting anxious. Anxious about what was next and where we go from here. Everywhere I went, people that had no association with swimming wanted to talk some swimming. People knew that I was obsessed and wanted some insight. They wanted to talk about Phelps, of course, but they wanted to talk about Lezak too, or what happened to Brendan Hansen. Swimming exploded to the front page of major newspapers, magazines and websites that otherwise never mentioned its existence.

Don't get me wrong, I love all the attention swimming is getting. However, I still remember that eight years ago all of my high school classmates knew who Ian Thorpe was. When I mention the Thorpedo to a non-swimming audience today, I get mostly puzzled looks. As famous as Phelps is today, with a facebook page exceeding Will Smith among others, there is a serious chance that many people will forget about him soon after he retires.

I heard my first whisper of Phelps backlash today. If you've read my posts you know I am a fan of sports radio and podcasts. My favorite is the BS Report with Bill Simmons, who unfortunately is embroiled in writing a basketball book and hasn't recorded one for nearly three weeks. Turning to other sources, I have reluctantly started listening to one of Bill's friends, Dave Dameshek. Dameshek is a sports radio host in Los Angeles.

Now I know the point of sports radio hosts is often to enflame, so I remained calm while listening to Dave discuss Phelps. He put forth the argument that swimming was a "fringe" sport that very few people competed in. His guest concurred, even going so far as to say that athletes like Michael Jordan could have been one of the best at "15-20" sports, while Phelps could only succeed at one. While I'm sure we all know the appropriate counter arguments, this is just another piece of the Phelps backlash that we've read and then discussed on this site, including the Tribune article and some British guy named Brendan Gallagher.

For every one of these though, there has been the respect paid to Phelps by numerous others. I often joke with friends that one of my career goals is to be bashed mercilessly as a terrible swim coach on an anonymous forum. To spark such vitriol you often have to be very very good at what you do. Therefore perhaps we should be happy that so much effort is being put into bringing Michael Phelps down. If he wasn't so high up, no one would be trying.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm taking a vacation. I'll be back soon, and ready to unleash a post I've been writing in my head for months. Perhaps you've read the Slacker's Guide's to Training Trip and Taper survival? Get ready for the Slacker's Guide to College Coaching Survival: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Ruining Swimming for Kids 18-22.