Swimming Blogs - Jeff Grace

I have been thinking about how to attack this for a few days now. After the finish of the men’s 4 x 100 medley relay I didn’t know if it truly was something of incredible importance, but after listening and watching the reaction of the world towards Michael Phelps accomplishments at the Olympics I have come to realize that the subject matter is of great importance.

As most sociologists will tell you it is within human nature, especially in our day and age, for the masses to try to bring down those that have separated themselves from the norm, whether it be earned or not. We can see this in many areas of society and that has now demonstrated itself very powerfully in the case of the validity of Phelps accomplishments and where he should be in the hierarchy of the greatest athletes of all time.

In the past few days I have read many of the arguments basically saying yes what Phelps did was an accomplishment, but… I have also listened to many people in the public that don’t not only understand swimming, but high level sport, make arguments starting with, “I have read many articles that say…”

The problem is all these articles are opinions, most of them subjective (I had to put most because I have not read all of them, but if I have to go on the sample I have read the statement should be all). Now people are creating arguments and judgments in their minds based off of journalists who are stating their opinions.

In this piece I will write a rebuttal to the Chicago Tribune article written by Philip Hersh (http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-15-olympics-greatest-hersh-maug15,0,4491274.story?page=1), since this article has gotten a lot of attention.

Longevity – This may the only argument that I can give credit to Mr. Hersh for making sense on an objective level. Phelps has not yet shown the longevity that many of the Olympians that Hersh has mentioned.

Here comes my but – he does not have the longevity, but he has already caught up to all of the athletes in total gold medals and surpassed them (Lewis, Nurmi and Latynina – 9 golds each, Fischer-Schmidt – 8 golds and Redgrave – 5 golds).

The usual argument for longevity goes to the fact that the athlete has not accumulated as many of whatever the measurement of success is when being compared to another athlete.

Let’s take baseball, Hersh wrote an article on who the best left handed pitcher of all time was and compared Sandy Koufax and Warren Spahn the last statement in this piece Hersh wrote, “Spahn never would be anything more than what he was, a pitcher who won more than twice as many games as Koufax, a lefty whose legacy is 363 victories, the best lefty ever.”

Phelps still has to prove that he can keep going, but he has surpassed these other greats in total accomplishments, by a lot!

Ability to Recover – Hersh uses a quote from track star Marie-Jose Perec of France to prove his argument. Perec states, "You can't compare track and swimming. In swimming you can recover. You can do five races in a day and get world records in all of them. That's impossible in our sport."

It is interesting that Hersh used this quote as evidence for two reasons. First Phelps did not do five races in a day and get world records in all of them. The most world records he set in one day was two.

Secondly the date was May 25, 1935 in the span of 45 minutes the great Jesse Owens broke three world records (220-yard, broad jump, 220-yard low hurdles) and tied one (100-yard). If I am correct Owens accomplished this without the modern means of recovery through nutrition, physiologically monitored warm downs or massage/physiotherapy.

Track athletes may not dare to do it today, but it has been done.

Note: Owens accomplished this feat after injuring his back severely falling down a flight of stairs a week before the meet.

Swimming World Records are Meaningless - The pools are better, the suits are better, therefore swimming faster than anyone in history is meaningless – interesting. I am not going to attack this argument saying that technology has not made a difference.

Instead let’s look at Phelps before the suit – world records in the 200 free, 200 IM, 200 Fly and 400 IM – let’s look at Phelps after Beijing – world records in the 200 free, 200 IM, 200 fly and 400 IM.

So let’s say (which I don’t believe) that technology has made swimming world records meaningless, Phelps has shown that he is the best the world has ever seen in a LZR or not.

False Starts – Hersh makes an argument saying – “Swimming offers three relays with the risk of a false start minimal.”

Let’s examine that. Since most of his arguments at this point in the article compare swimming to track, in a track event from a flat start the first false start is charged to the field if any runner false starts on the second start they will be disqualified. Compared to swimming where if you false start you are gone – no second chances period.

The only reasons false starts are more likely in track is because they are allowed.

Now the rules in relays are the same in track and in swimming, (except for the lead off which is the same as a flat start) if one member false starts the team is disqualified. Correct me if I am wrong, but in both situations a false start is more likely since there are four athletes that could false start in one race.

Every Event May As Well Be The Same – I am only going to take Phelps as the example here – he raced in events that span from 47 seconds to 4 minutes and 3 seconds.

Let’s first look at the requirements of energy metabolism to be successful in all of the events he raced in Beijing. In the 100 a swimmer has to have a superior anaerobic energy system and to be successful in the 400 they have to have a superior aerobic energy system. Anyone who knows anything about training knows that to develop the physiological properties to be successful in that range of events is extremely, extremely difficult – that is why you do not see it happen except for Phelps.

When we look at the four strokes, to truly evaluate Phelps performances you need to look at the coordination (and unlike most think there is more to coordination than hand eye) that it takes to perform each stroke to a level where you can be considered the best at the world.

Yes there have been the Matt Biondis, the Michael Grosses, etc… of the world that have shown that they can be top level flyers and freestylers, but where are the other examples of those that can lay legitimate claim to being amongst the best in the world (if not the best in the world) in both the 100 and 200 meter distances in fly, back and free and then in the 200 and 400 IM? There aren’t any, except for Phelps!

Hersh you are full of it.