Just wondering what happened to Phelps during the 200m Freestyle??? From what I heard he was supposed to be some swimming freak who was going to wipe the floor with everybody else - If my eyes didn’t deceive me he finished an off the pace 3rd behind an amazing Ian Thorpe. Granted he seems to have a greater range of events up his sleeve but I can’t see him ever beating the Thorpedo. That man is simply unbeatable!! Go Aussies!!..Interesting medal tally at the moment as well!!
[quote]stucross wrote:
Just wondering what happened to Phelps during the 200m Freestyle??? From what I heard he was supposed to be some swimming freak who was going to wipe the floor with everybody else - If my eyes didn’t deceive me he finished an off the pace 3rd behind an amazing Ian Thorpe. Granted he seems to have a greater range of events up his sleeve but I can’t see him ever beating the Thorpedo. That man is simply unbeatable!! Go Aussies!!..Interesting medal tally at the moment as well!![/quote]
i wonder if you would have that post of phelps was phelps but aussie and if thorpe was american…
anyways, phelps was not favored to win the 200 free, he was a heavy underdog, thorpedo is the current world record holder and van den hoogenband is the reigning olympic champ… phelps winning would have been a huge upset
2ndly, he has beaten thorpe, and badly… last year he CRUSHED thorpe by 3 seconds in the 400 IM, which thorpe for some reason has decided not to swim since, but everyone dismissed it, because the IM is phelps’s event, thorpe’s greatness be damned…
and finally, phelps knew he was an underdog, but he insisted on racing this event, not so much so he could pass spitz’s record, but he is a competitive bastard and wanted to race against the world’s best, he told his coach he was going to race this event, no questions asked…
so you can go ahead and berate him, because he is 19, the media hyped him up, and oh yeah he is an american, but remember this, you wont be all high and mighty come a few weeks when final medal totals come out, and as for thorpe being unbeatable, tell that to van den hooganband in 2000, when he beat thorpe for the gold
if your going to bash an amazing swimmer, do it because you researched the topic and actually have an idea of what the international swimming scene is like, not because he is american and has inadvertantly become a media darling, i have high respect for aussie swimmers, esp thorpe and hackett, but there is nothing that pisses me off more then shovinistic patriotism, american, aussie or otheriwse
OUCH! take that
Now im australian but bashing phelps is just being silly,sure he is not a ian thorpe just yet but he is a dam good swimmer,a great athlete and one cocky s.o.b .Concerning the final medal tally,the only reason why we are doin so well is because the track events havent started yet,thats where we fail,lucky to even make the finals 
.We will win a few more medals but the swimming was our pet event where the bulk of medals would be won for us aussie’s but after that we dont have much left
Peace
H
HHH points taken and agreed with actually, but I was really only having a bit of shit talking early in the piece because it’s about the only time we can gloat about anything…and it’s just so easy to bait the American’s because they are so patriotic…so I was just having a bit of fun no malice intended.
However, I wonder what the results will be like when rated per capita…because the more people you have to choose from the more likely it is you will dominate more events.
hoosierdaddy pretty much summed that one up. Ian Thorpe may be the greatest distance swimmer of all time, Phelps wasn’t gonna take that one. God, I wish I could make it that far in this sport. : (
[quote]Limo Driver wrote:
hoosierdaddy pretty much summed that one up. Ian Thorpe may be the greatest distance swimmer of all time, Phelps wasn’t gonna take that one. God, I wish I could make it that far in this sport. : ([/quote]
Grant Hackett is the greateswt distance swimmer of all time. Ian Thorpe is a mid-distance freestyler.
Dumbest bump of all time.
Phelps is the man, whether he wins or loses currently, his career is still incredibly young.
The Thorpedo is a beast fair enough, but is the equivalent of a one-trick pony when compared to Phelps.
And for good reference, the 200m freestyle is nowhere close to “DISTANCE”.
The 1000m & 1500m freestyle is more like “DISTANCE”. Shoot, even the 400m or 500y high school event is closer to distance.
Thorpe is far from a distance swimmer.
If you forget, Thorpe held the 800m freestyle record until he stopped swimming it and Hackett broke his record. I’d say that’s distance, but granted, he is more of a middle distance swimmer. Phelps really is the man though, being a competitor in the 200, the dominant force in butterfly, and the champion of the IM, the event that I like the most. To be the best IMer in the world, you have to be excellent at everything, and he is. I would never call someone like Gary Hall Jr. the best swimmer today, despite being the fastest swimmer.
Where the fuck did this happy horseshit come from?
Are we gonna start arguing about the 2003 World Series now?
haha no shit. HE WAS SAFE DAMNIT!!
olympic medals:
ian thorpe: 5 gold 3 silver 1 bronze in 2 olympics…9 total
michael phelps: 6 gold 2 bronze in 1 olympics…8 total
michael phelps outstaged the “thorpedo” in one olympics. There is no question who the better swimmer is.
Thorpe is a world class swimmer…but lets not pretend he is better than michael phelps…