PoolTalk

4 golds, 3 world records, 1 Phelps

From The Guardian: "Michael Phelps got his fourth gold medal and third world record at the World Championships in Melbourne yesterday when he took the 200m individual medley title. If it was marginally less impressive than his performance in the 200m butterfly 24 hours earlier, then credit must go to his team-mate Ryan Lochte who was fractions slower than Phelps over the butterfly and breaststroke legs and faster on the backstroke.

But on the start of the final freestyle leg a trademark turn by Phelps settled the issue and the only uncertainty was by how much the record would be broken. A time of 1min 54.98sec took 0.86sec off the time he set last summer. Lochte became the second-fastest man in the event with his time of 1.56.19. "I'm only halfway done," said Phelps, who has the 100m butterfly, the 400m medley and two relays to go."

Family troubles: Coach, daughter in dispute

The Sydney Morning Herald has this story:

An ugly scuffle between a Ukrainian swim coach and his daughter captured on camera was over a "personal and delicate" family matter and had nothing to do with coaching, Melbourne Magistrates Court has heard.

Mikhaylo Zubkov, 38, was filmed pushing and shoving his swimmer daughter Kateryna Zubkova, 18, during an altercation in a marshalling area at Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday night.

Mr Zubkov promised there would be no repeat of the physical confrontation caught on television between himself and his swimmer daughter.

Police yesterday obtained an intervention order against Mikhaylo Zubkov, 38, after he was filmed pushing and shoving daughter Kateryna Zubkova, 18, during an altercation in a marshalling area at Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday night.

Two world records for Phelps

Update: Phelps has grabbed another world record.

Here's the top of the Wednesday news, from The Washington Post:

MELBOURNE, Australia, March 28--Michael Phelps set his second world record in two days on Wednesday at the 12th FINA World Championships. In all, three new world records were set during Wednesday night's events.

Phelps won the 200-meter butterfly in 1 minute, 52.09 seconds to claim his third gold medal here, lowering his own world mark by more than 1.5 seconds. It was his third world record in two months.

"I feel like a 12-year-old, being able to drop more than a second off of my best time," said Phelps, a 2003 graduate of Towson High School.

Aiming at the world record

Holland Swimming analyzes the Phelps-Hoogenband match: "Swimming superstars Peter Van den Hoogenband and Michael Phelps have set up a showdown in the men's 200m freestyle at the FINA World Championships in Melbourne after qualifying first and second respectively for Tuesday's final.Van den Hoogenband, without a world championship gold in his career, set a cracking pace in the second semi-final, and was 0.29 under Ian Thorpe's world record 100m split at the halfway mark. He took it much easier through his second 200m, but still recorded the fastest time, one minute 46.33 seconds.

Phelps looked relaxed in the first semi-final, taking the first 100m 1.32 seconds slower than the Dutchman's cracking 51.16 split. He eased to victory in 1:46.75, 0.70 quicker than

Australia

's Kendrick Monk."I wanted to get into the final. I felt smooth and comfortable," Phelps said afterwards. "I felt how I wanted to feel. I didn't push it too much underwater in the second half. But that's what I have to do tomorrow (Tuesday). The work underwater is going to be the key." "

Ian Thorpe: "I was lethal with my new stroke"

Last year, Thorpe spent three months training in Los Angeles with American performance enhancer Milt Nelms and became totally converted.

Sydney Morning Herald catches up with Ian Thorpe: " "I transformed the way I swim, and trained. I loved both. I felt extraordinarily alive, and knew I was lethal with my new stroke," Thorpe said.

Mystery also surrounds Nelms, sometimes called swimming's horse whisperer, because even Nelms finds it difficult to verbalise succinctly what he does, and is reluctant to say too much anyway.

But Nelms explains it is about the swimmer's posture, brain, instincts, and guiding the swimmer to be aware of how every muscle and bone should feel, when they are making the most efficient natural fast stroke for their body shape.

Nelms did not want to reveal too much of his method as it is "intellectual property", but he did say we should be going back to the days before all the science came into the sport, and "look at what people do when they are performing in the water in a way that their body wants to rather than the way it's told to".

Thorpe said: "It's a way of swimming we should all learn as kids because it is so hard to pick it up as an adult, when you've been drilled full of science-based technique.

"It took me ages to get it, and I only know a fraction of what Milt knows. But it's such an enjoyable way to swim. I love the stroke. I believe if swimming is to move forwards, the Milt Nelms holistic approach is the only way to go." "

What is "Pride"?

The Philadelphia Inquirer has some questions about the new swim-team movie:

"A generic against-the-odds underdog sports drama, Pride stars Terrence Howard as Ellis, depicted here as a careerless young man who stumbles into a job for the city's Recreation Department. Basically, he's been hired to clean up and close down the Marcus Foster facility, a dilapidated heap. As a pretty councilwoman (Kimberly Elise) tells him, Marcus Foster has become "a nesting ground for drugs, thugs, and the lowest common denominator." Demolition is the solution.

But then Ellis spies its old, empty pool, and a bunch of kids outside shooting hoops in the sweltering summer heat. What if he filled the pool and let them swim around?

And what if they started splashing around and showed real talent?

And what if they formed a swim team, and a training regimen, and could compete at local meets?

And what if they overcame the squalid facilities, the nagging self-doubts, the lure of the street, and the racism represented by an all-white, all-snooty Main Line team (coached by Tom Arnold) to achieve a modicum of glory?"

From backyard pool to Olympics

The Age profiles the Dumais family of Ventura, southern California: Justin, Troy, Brice, Leanne and Dwight. Five children, all current or former divers in junior or senior US national teams. So far, two Olympians.

"The dynasty was created almost by accident. When Troy was about five, the three oldest boys were taken for swimming lessons in the backyard pool of a local doctor and family friend when fate intervened.

"There was one of those little, tiny diving boards that actually has a spring," Justin has recalled. "We got bored with swimming and started doing stuff off of that. Troy did a back flip and hit his head on the deck. Dad stuck us in some diving lessons because he wanted us to make it at least to 18." "

Hackett lowers expectations

Grant Hackett, quoted in The Star:

The most decorated swimmer in world meet history with 17 medals will get an early assessment of his prospects in the 400m heats, where his main rivals are expected to be Russian Yuri Prilukov, American Peter Vanderkaay and Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli.

“After going through the process of the taper (easing workload) and with the background that I have, I've still trained very well in my broken parts of this preparation and I've seen myself lift during the taper,” Hackett said at a press conference yesterday.

“It's not my best but I'll definitely be able to put on a decent show and a decent performance and be competitive amongst these guys.”

Thorpe Center tour

Pyrmont Progress gives an update on the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Ceter: "The Centre is the last project designed by architect Harry Seidler. Perhaps the main feature is the wave of the roof structure which soars without obstruction by internal beams or columns  above  a vast open space. The building which includes a main pool, program pool, hydrotherapy facilities and a gymnasium also features low energy usage with natural light and ventilation, and storage and reuse of rain water captured off the roof." 

I just love swimming fast

"I just love swimming fast," from the Video of a 1 minute, 11 second interview with Eamon Sullivan (From The Age).