Olympic swimming shouldn't deserve so many medals

[nimbus]

Exactly!

I bet most of the members on this board couldnt swim a lap without doggypaddleing the finish. Take in mind, they are swimming in a 50 METER pool, 99.9% pools in the gyms/ymcas you are all accustomed to are 25YARDS, less than half the distance. Try swimming in an olympic pool and then tell me they don't deserve these medals. swimmers are unbelievable athletes, same as track and field. it takes a diff training/genetics to run the 100 or the mile in track, same goes with swimming the 50m freestyle, or the 400 IM. people think bc they can float they can swim and thus its easy. so in that fashion, if i can stand i must be able to run the 40 dash in sub 4sec.

holy fucking irrelevant

 

[stosstruppe]

holy fucking irrelevant

Seriously. I can't play beach volleyball or water polo either so arguing against having these stupid events in the Olympics is pointless!!1

 

[LoneTree]

There should be more women's swimming and less men's swimming medals.
There should be medal for underwater synchronized jiggling.

 

[crew9]

Um, I think that the debate should not be over events, but over the equipment enhancements that they get to give them an advantage. Those new skinsuits are causing every world record to be broken. Personally I'm totally suspicious of all of it because I think Phelps is doing way more than just wearing a fancier suit.

Track athletes can't wear better clothes to make them faster (except shoes). Gymnasts can't do anything. Swimming is the only place where they get this advantage. So why do they allow it?

Well nobody gives a shit what you think about Phelps. The suit does help the back and freestyle strokes but not the butterfly or the breast. A lot of the records being broken in the finals were set in the preliminaries and the semis.....races in which the same suit was used.

 

[crew9]

I find it akward that in swimming there is a medal placing in so many different categories, lenths and strokes, yet it's all obviously going to be the best swimmer that wins about everytime.

There should only be one olympic medal for all the strokes and one medal for the diff lengths and just have it how gymnastics has it. You don't see gymnast teams getting medals for every high bar, parallel bars, rings etc. It's all accumulated points at the end

Same thing goes especially for all the different swimming relay categories, it's all basically the same swimming team just with a changed stroke! That's like giving Team USA basketball a medals for games they are only aloud to shoot left handed, only aloud to shoot right handed games, only aloud to layup games, only dunking games, only freethrow games, only 3pt shot games, etc. You think they won't still win all of those?

1. Phelps is an anomaly. A single swimmer does not usually dominate multiple strokes/distances.

2. Have you never seen the gymnastics individual events competition?

 

[perkele]

Female swimmers should swim nude. Males shouldn't swim at all.

 

[ponyfitness]

Well nobody gives a shit what you think about Phelps. The suit does help the back and freestyle strokes but not the butterfly or the breast. A lot of the records being broken in the finals were set in the preliminaries and the semis.....races in which the same suit was used.

Bullshit. Do you even know what the suit does? It makes the wearer more streamlined and able to cut through the water with less resistance. Tell me how that wouldn't help during any stroke.

And yeah, there are people breaking records in one semi, then it gets broken again in the next semi, and then again in the final. It's ridiculous.

Phelps is either genetically perfect or on something. Time will tell. People didn't think Lance Armstrong won 6 Tours without being on drugs either - he just hid it better than anyone else.

 

[jackangel]

phelps is part of some IOC program which involves his being tested much more than normal...twice per week. or so i saw on TV the other day.

 

[mwm5]

Bullshit. Do you even know what the suit does? It makes the wearer more streamlined and able to cut through the water with less resistance. Tell me how that wouldn't help during any stroke.

And yeah, there are people breaking records in one semi, then it gets broken again in the next semi, and then again in the final. It's ridiculous.

Phelps is either genetically perfect or on something. Time will tell. People didn't think Lance Armstrong won 6 Tours without being on drugs either - he just hid it better than anyone else.

they had suits the last olympics too didn't they?

 

[heatherrae]

lol...gymnastics DO have medals in specific skills. Your score in the team competition enters you into the all around and the individual events later on.

LOL. Wow.

ditto on what she said...lol.