BigDMcGee 3,355 Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 I haven't heard of Natalie Du Toit until you mentioned her. I looked her up and she definitely has a cool story. She didn't make it in any "pool" swimming events but she will be in the 10K open water swimming event. I hope the water isn't as polluted as the air.Good god. From the thing I saw about Bejing, the water is MORE polluted in the air, and is pretty much at crisis levels. Where on earth are they going to hold this event, so it doesnt' cause some sort of great scandal. It must be in some secluded and reasonable clean private lake. Link to post Share on other sites
fleung22 1 Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 With the summer olympics a week away it seems like a good time to build a thread.I for one would love to see China win the medals race. Link to post Share on other sites
savagerebel 0 Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 With the summer olympics a week away it seems like a good time to build a thread.I for one would love to see China win the medals race.You are un-American. Wait..... Link to post Share on other sites
king_tanner 84 Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 Good god. From the thing I saw about Bejing, the water is MORE polluted in the air, and is pretty much at crisis levels. Where on earth are they going to hold this event, so it doesnt' cause some sort of great scandal. It must be in some secluded and reasonable clean private lake.I'm sure they wouldn't hold the event if the water wasn't safe.... still sucks though lol. China is the last place I would want to swim at. Don't they have monster catfish? Link to post Share on other sites
savagerebel 0 Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 In 2000 there was a swimmer from some African country that went like 4 minutes in the 100 free... for all none swimmers... you could do that coming out of swim lessons. African Olympic Trials Link to post Share on other sites
hank213 1,823 Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 Apparently China is trying to stack the odds a bit more in its favor for the women's gymnastics events, events which China are hoping to dominate. The U.S. team, a big favorite for gold, has had the visas for its alternates denied. Apparently, alternates are not considered part of the team and must apply for tourist visas. The alternates will train in Japan instead of with the team in China. Link to post Share on other sites
Bizzle 0 Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 Lol oh Tanner. These predictions are so beyond awful. Breastroke: Both 100 and 200 should go to Kitajima from Japan. Brendan Hansen (USA) who was his main rival is a choker and could rival him in the 100, but choked so hard at trials he didn't even make the team in the 200.Except for the fact that Kitajima has never come anywhere near what Hansen has done in the 100 (still 3 tenths away from what Hansen has done) means that Hansen is still the prohibitive favorite in the event. Add into that the fact that his finals swim at Trials he majorly screwed up and still won handily, leads me to believe the 100 won't be close.Backstroke: Face off between Aaron Peirsol and Ryan Lochte (both USA) for gold and silver in both 100 and 200. Peirsol is the reigning champion in both and favorite, but Lochte has been beating him or finishing hundreths behind him lately.Except for the fact that Lochte didn't even make the team in the 100 back, this is dead on. The 100, there are a lot of people in the world (Meeuw being the main one, but also Tamcock, Rogan, and Vyatchanin) that have a shot at winning that event.The 100 would be a lot more interesting if the US could send 6 people instead of just 2-Lochte, Thoman, Bal and Phelps are all probably able to make finals in the 100 back.In the 200 it is totally remiss to not mention Rogan-the fact that he beat Lochte at Short Course worlds in the 2back (when it's fairly obvious that Lochte is the best short course swimmer ever) has to result in him being a contender in this event.Butterfly: 200 Phelps domination. 100 Phelps should win, but Ian Crocker (USA) has the world record. Crocker hasn't been able to swim that time in about 4 years though and he is a known choker as well.Pretty accurate. Crocker is one of two simmers I really hate.IM's: Phelps should win 200 and 400... although just like in the backstroke Ryan Lochte has been close behind this whole year. Could upset Phelps in either, but his best chance is in the 200.Decently accurate. Cseh and his 4:07 in the 400 is a threat, as is Luca Marin-it'll probably take in the 4:06/4:07 range to medal, which is ridiculous to think about when that would have been easily under the WR about 16 months ago.Freestyle: 50... I have no idea there is no favorite at all... some guy from France got the world record recently but anything can happen in this race.Except that the guy from France is nowhere near the world record anymore since Sullivan (Australia) knocked it down to 21.28. There are probably 10 guys that are capable of winning gold in the 50 (basically, capable of going 21.5 or under) and several of them won't be swimming it at the games (Bousquet is the one that immediately comes to mind). I would be fairly surprised if Sullivan lost, just based on how he looked in Australia, but once again, it's the 50, anyone can win.100... also hazy for me. Van Den Hoogenband (Netherlands) should win I THINKThis was the best race at World's last year-anyone could have won this event with 15 meters to go. Sullivan, Lezak, Weber-Gale, and Bernard all have put up times faster than Van Den Hoogenband has ever gone, once again, based on how he looked at Trials, I think that Sullivan will win, but that's just because I refuse to root for French people.200... Phelps should win fairly easily.In world record time. He went 1:44.10 at Trials making about 5 mistakes and still is a full second faster than anyone else in the world this year.400... Grant Hackett (Australia) should win.I wouldn't be surprised if Hackett wins this race, but I also wouldn't be surprised if any of another host of contenders win this race. Park, PVK, Jensen, and a few others all have a good shot. Thorpe could probably come down from the stands and win this race-in terms of history, this is the weakest event at the Olympics.1500.. Grant Hacket should win again. He is older though anything can happen. Larsen Jensen (USA) should do well in both 400 and 1500Too many contenders in this, same as the 400 basically-PVK, Jensen, Park, Davies, Priulkov, etc.I'll add in relays-best event is going to be the 400 Free relay the second night of swimming. France, South Africa, and the US will all be significantly under the world record-I expect it to take a 3:10 or so to win, while 3:12.mid is the current record. I think the US will win because it will get a ridiculous lead-off from Phelps (I still will not be surprised if he leaves that night with the world record in the 100) and their 4th guy is significantly stronger than anyone else in the world.US should win the other two relays handily, although with how Kwamamoto just swam the 100 fly at US Opens, the Japanese will hang in there through 300 in the medley relay.Thanks for that analysis. Most of the guys you mentioned I remember from Athens and a little from Melbourne (WC?). Kitajima is a class act, so is Peirsol. Can't believe Hackett is still around though, surely he has to feel he has done everything possible? His WR over 1500m won't be touched, ever.What about Natalie Du Toit? Does she have a hope for a medal? I know she has beaten "able-bodied" swimmers but I don't know what the class of the field was.Kitajima is the exact opposite of a class act.Du Toit has a shot at a medal but I doubt a shot at gold. Open water is really unpredictable though, any one of the field basically always has a shot.I'll do girls after I take a shower. Link to post Share on other sites
LJB723 0 Posted August 2, 2008 Author Share Posted August 2, 2008 Kitajima is the exact opposite of a class act.Tanner pointed this out too. All I meant was in terms of talent, not as an individual. I don't know anything about any swimmer's personal lives so I'm not going to judge them on their personalities, just their performance in the pool and the last I saw him he looked pretty damn good.Quality insight though Bizzle. Looking forward to the girls. Glad you gave the Euro's a mention too. I like Cseh ftr, no particular reason why but I think he's a genuine medal contender in the IM. Link to post Share on other sites
Bizzle 0 Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 Alright, womens' events. For the most part, there isn't a huge favorite in any woman's event, so it's not like the Men's events where you can focus on a race between a couple of people-there are only a few events where there aren't at least 4+ people with a chance to win. So this preview will be a little bit different.For the freestyle, in the 50 there are a host of women who have a legitimate shot-Trickett is the only one under 24., but the Euros (Veldhuis, Alshamaar, Steffen, and a few others) will all be there, as will Campbell and Torres.In the 100, once again, Trickett is better than anyone else, but the same contenders in the 50 all have a shot. Additionally, Coughlin should be significantly better than she was at Trials-I'd expect her to be first or second at the 65 meter mark in this.In the 200, Manaudou, Pelligrini, Hoff, Isakovic and Schmitt have all been under 1:56-it'd be surprising if the gold wasn't someone from this group. I've liked how Pelligrini has looked in a few Euro meets-I like her chances in this.In the 400, Manaudou, Pelligrini, Hoff, Adlington and Ziegler are the contenders. Pelligrini has the world record, and once again has looked fantastic this spring and summer, whereas no one knows where Manadou is right now mentally. She could go 4:10, she could go 3:59 and it wouldn't surprise me. But I really like Hoff's chances in this-she went the 4th or 5th fastest time ever at US Trials with a totally retarded race plan-if she fixes said plan and gets out with the field, she is better from the 250 to the 350 mark than anyone else in the world.In the 800, Adlington, Hoff, Fillipi, Manaudou, and Ziegler are the best in the world, and no one else has been under 8:20. Once again, I like Hoff in this if she swims like she did in the spring rather than how she swam at Olympic trials. Ziegler confuses me in this event-she swam it incredibly well at World's last year and swam it terrible at trials. She's such a headcase that she's probably capable of a wider range of times than anyone else in this event, including Manaudou.In the backstrokes, Coughlin is the class of the world in the 100. Hoelzer, Coventry, Zueva, Manaudou, and Seebholm all will be fighting for the silver medal. In the 200, there are a lot of conenders-Hoelzer, Coventry, Manaudou, and Beisel have all been under 2:07-the gold medalist will come out of this group. I like Hoelzer and Coventry in this because they seem to work the best through prelims/semis/finals (especially Hoelzer) and will leave themselves the most primed to fire away at finals.In the breaststrokes, Liesl Jones should win both handily, but we thought the same at the last Olympics and she won neither. I think she will win the 100 easily but get pushed to a surprising degree in the 200 by Rebecca Soni, who based on short course times and how her 100 has progressed is due for a breakthrough in the 200 to a low 2:21/high 2:20.In the flys, Trickett is the best in the 100 and I really really hope she gets the world record. Schipper should give her a run at the end but Trickett gets out too quick for Schipper to beat her. In the 200, there have bee n10 girls this year 2:07.1 or faster, and no one has broken 2:06.3. I couldn't tell you which girls will make finals in this, nevertheless who will win.The 200 IM will be the best race of the women's side. Between Hoff, Coughlin, Coventry, and Rice, you are probably looking at 4 of the top 8 swimmers at the meet swimming the same event. It will probably take a world record, and it might take a world record to medal. I like how Coughlin's schedule lines up for this-her and Rice will be the most rested for this event. This is going to be awesome to watch. In the 400, Rice and Hoff should do battle-Rice's backstroke seems like it might be a little too much for Katie to handle in that event. The fact that it is the first event of the meet probably gives Hoff an advantage though-she won't be as tired as if it was later and Rice was fully rested. This should be an entertaining race, and it will be decided by how well Hoff can stay in contact in the front half.As for relays, Australia and Netherlands should fight for the 400 free relay, US will probably hang in there for a while but have neither the guns nor the depth to win. In the 800, the US should win, and Great Britain should take second (they have 3 strong swimmers but not 4), but this is dependent on Trickett either not swimming for Australia in this relay or swimming poorly. If she puts up a 200 like she is capable of (I still think she has a shot at the World Record in this based on her SCM 200) the Aussies immediately become a contender. In the medley relay, the Australians should win-Jones has a tendency to put it together on relays and with Trickett doing fly, the Aussies will be significantly better than anyone else in the world in the middle half. The US will probably take second in this by a wide margin over the third place team. Link to post Share on other sites
Bizzle 0 Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 Looking forward to the girls. Glad you gave the Euro's a mention too. I like Cseh ftr, no particular reason why but I think he's a genuine medal contender in the IM.Lotsa Euros on the women's side.Cseh confuses me because he consistently puts up the big times in sub-par meets but has been hurt directly before the last two major competitions (2004 Olympics and 2007 worlds) to the point where I am unclear as to whether he is a bad big meet swimmer or just unlucky. He is kind of due for some swims that put him in one of these races, but I don't think he has the speed in the 200 to get anything other than the bronze. I do like his chances though in the 400, but his main problem is the fact that Phelps and Lochte have gotten to the point where if he uncorks a massive split on any given leg both of them are easily able to match it. Link to post Share on other sites
Ron_Mexico 4,219 Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 My boy is wicked smarht about swimming, and HR Milfs.No recap of the shower? Glistened? Air dry? Link to post Share on other sites
king_tanner 84 Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 Lol oh Tanner. These predictions are so beyond awful.So I made 1 mistake with the 100 back and my predictions are awful? I still think Kitajima is still going to win the 100. LBJ asked for my predictions and I gave them, maybe next time I will do some research and write an essay for you. Link to post Share on other sites
Bizzle 0 Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 So I made 1 mistake with the 100 back and my predictions are awful? I still think Kitajima is still going to win the 100. LBJ asked for my predictions and I gave them, maybe next time I will do some research and write an essay for you.Other than your prediction of Van Den Hoogenband as the prohibitive favorite in the 100, along with Bernard as the prohibitive favorite in the 50, your predictions weren't terrible.Well, maybe they were.I have several bets going with friends in regards to the results of the Olympics-if you want to join in on this and let me extend myself further, let me know and we can do any bet you can dream up. My other 3 pools all involve picking the medalists for each event, but I'm down with modifying it any way you want. Link to post Share on other sites
king_tanner 84 Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 Other than your prediction of Van Den Hoogenband as the prohibitive favorite in the 100, along with Bernard as the prohibitive favorite in the 50, your predictions weren't terrible.prohibitive my cooch.who says I THINK or I have no idea= I KNOW. Look at my post again. Since when does prohibitive favorite = I think or i have no idea?I got $20 on Kitajima in the 100 breast by the way donk.Also **** USA (SWE) beach volleyball FTW look up pi\cs urself. They got blond hair and nice asses Link to post Share on other sites
Bizzle 0 Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 I got $20 on Kitajima in the 100 breast by the way donk.Booked. Link to post Share on other sites
king_tanner 84 Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 Booked.wait wait are you taking Hansen or the field?ill bet on Kitajima if you take Hansen.... but I dont want to bet against the field. Link to post Share on other sites
Ron_Mexico 4,219 Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 wait wait are you taking Hansen or the field?ill bet on Kitajima if you take Hansen.... but I dont want to bet against the field.:chicken noise: Link to post Share on other sites
king_tanner 84 Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 :chicken noise:lawl.... i guess I'm skeptical of asians Link to post Share on other sites
Bizzle 0 Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 :chicken noise:Snicker.Yeah, not like it matters anyways. They're both a half second faster than anyone else in the world. I'll take Hansen. Link to post Share on other sites
savagerebel 0 Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 wait wait are you taking Hansen or the field?ill bet on Kitajima if you take Hansen.... but I dont want to bet against the field.I wouldn't want the field either. No way this is going to take place on land. The pool is where the money is at. Link to post Share on other sites
Ron_Mexico 4,219 Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=joyce/080804I thought that this was an interesting article, not so much about the steriods angle, but because of the graph comparing the 1976 olympic gold times vs current world records. Interesting, imo Link to post Share on other sites
LJB723 0 Posted August 8, 2008 Author Share Posted August 8, 2008 Ooooooh. AaaaaahThe opening ceremony is pretty. Link to post Share on other sites
SlapStick 0 Posted August 8, 2008 Share Posted August 8, 2008 The poor old English Olympic Committee have 4 years to get ready to completely emabarrass themselves trying to compete with that.And you know it will just be David Beckham kicking a flaming football to light the torch Link to post Share on other sites
Kaveros 0 Posted August 8, 2008 Share Posted August 8, 2008 wow that really was a very beautiful opening ceremony Link to post Share on other sites
timwakefield 68 Posted August 9, 2008 Share Posted August 9, 2008 China has the gold locked up in the Freestyle Monk-Beating. Link to post Share on other sites
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