Swimming Blogs - Garrett McCaffrey

So much for World Records being a rarity in Olympic finals. The previous World marks weren't just broken in the 400 IMs they were shattered and I believe that was the fastest heat of 400 freestyles in history.

In the first Olympic swimming final of these Beijing games, Michael Phelps answered that taper question he dodged in Palo Alto at the Olympic Training Trip. He and his coach Bob Bowman obviously took a lot away from the 2004 run and proved it at the World Championships last spring in Melbourne. Granted it has only been one event, but I just don't see Michael Phelps losing in the next 7 days.

3:41.86. Not too shabby for an 18 year-old. Add an American record from Larsen Jensen (3:42.78) and an amazing last 50 (26.15) for Zhang Lin in front of his home crowd securing a silver and I'd say it was the best heat of 400 Freestyles I've ever seen.

Stephanie Rice broke the women's 400 IM WR in the butterfly leg. Out almost 2.5 seconds under the WR line and my first thought was that she'd fade. But I knew she finished as well as anyone in the free so when she turned at the 300 still more than 2 seconds ahead of WR pace I knew it would be a pretty legendary feat to catch her. Kirsty Coventry almost did just that, but I would have never guessed we'd see 2 girls under 4:30.

How about the emotion? Has anyone ever seen Michael Phelps near tears before? And after the wink during the introduction I loved seeing the Netherlands team in tears after they won Gold. They didn't even go a best time, but this is arguably the one swimming event where PRs take a second seat to gold medals.

I'll keep working on getting some interviews, but there are a lot of barriers here...

zai jian