Olympics 2.0

Faster. Higher. Stronger. Just hope it doesn't also all end up in ER.

I love the Olympics. For 3 weeks my dear Mum can watch something moderately healthy that isn't News 24.

I really can't get too excited on a personal level about the 'sport' for a few reasons, from an aversion to narrow nationalism to a loathing of media hype. And frankly my idea of an athlete was Alf Tupper in the Victor, and he didn't really exist either.

Let me just post this quote from Ch4:

GREETINGS FROM BEIJING
It is the day of the Baltimore Bullet. Michael Phelps somehow almost owns competitive swimming right now. He has won 11 Olympic gold medals in his lifetime, four of them in this year’s games, and he could win three more in Beijing.

Phelps has surpassed every other athlete in the modern Olympics. He routinely smashes world records etc by, er, Michael Phelps.

So fair play to him, good going for a lad diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) in his formative years.

He is someone who appears to shun the limelight and work hard and give something back to his local swimming club in Baltimore and young people there. He has no plans to move to Malibu.

But out here in Beijing there is a growing debate about what swimming has been turned into by the LZR suits, on the one hand, and the special fast swimming pool here. Yes, it seems pools can be faster or slower, as I will explain tonight to people who do not know. Put the two elements together and records are being ripped up like confetti. But does that mean they are now winning swimming medals or swimming technology medals? Is all the techy stuff in a traditionally low-tech sport, messing with the essence of it?

Put it another way, what would happen if Phelps took the Spitz Test just wearing Speedos, in the Munich pool and swam the distances Mark Spitz swam to win his golds back in '72? There are three possible outcomes -

1. Phelps swims slower than Spitz (unlikely)
2. Phelps swims faster, but not as fast as he does in Beijing (almost certain)
3. Phelps swims as fast as he does in Beijing (almost impossible)

Well, how would the Beijing gold haul look then?

Not a chance of course. The last thing sponsors are likely to do is expose the young man they are making seriously rich to this particular challenge.

Indy - NEW - So is Michael Phelps really the greatest athlete in Olympic history? - Or, and here's a funky notion, is trying to compare anything on any basis when you are talking such different skillsets, rules, etc simply plain silly? Or just a good way to sell stuff?