Tuesday was not a good day for Michael Phelps. The 2008 U.S. Olympic champion lost a major race for the first time in four years, but he and his coach, Bob Bowman, think they know why: his competitor’s suit.
Germany’s relatively unknown Paul Biedermann bested Phelps in the 200-meter freestyle, setting a world record of one minute, 42 seconds, that was almost a full second faster than the record Phelps set at last year’s Beijing Olympics. Yet, Biedermann’s victory has caused a wave of controversy across the swimming world because he was wearing a high-tech, polyurethane, rubber-coated bodysuit called the Arena X-Glide. Phelps, on the other hand, was wearing a Speedo LZR Racer.
Biedermann was quick to acknowledge that his suit played a significant role in his win. “The suits make a difference,” he said. “I hope there will be a time when I can beat Michael Phelps without these suits. I hope next year. I hope it’s really soon.”
But Bowman was irate that FINA, the international body that oversees the sport, allows swimmers to wear a suit that gives them such an unfair advantage over other athletes. Bowman is now considering having Phelps boycott all international races until 2010, when FINA has said the Arena X-Glide and polyurethane suits like it, will be banned. “Probably expect Michael not to swim until they are implemented,” Bowman said. “I’m done with this. It has to be implemented immediately. The sport is in shambles right now and they better do something or they’re going to lose their guy who fills these seats.”
That Bowman and Phelps would react so strongly to a racer using an innovative suit to improve his time is somewhat ironic considering that the full-body Speedo Phelps wears has been said by swimming experts to give swimmers an unfair competitive edge. Swimming records were broken at an unprecedented rate in Beijing and there seems to be a strong correlation between the rapid advances in swimsuit design and faster times.
Swimmers say that suits like the X-Glide and the LZR Racer help an athlete’s buoyancy in the water, keeping them higher as they stroke. But a debate about whether new swimsuit technology is ruining competitive swimming has been swirling for over 40 years.
Early Olympic swimmers wore tank-top outfits that resemble today’s full-body suits but were not nearly as sleek and aerodynamic. Male swimmers then began to go shirtless when they discovered that shaved skin allowed them to encounter less resistance in the water.
As records began to fall, swimsuit design continued to progress. At the 1996 Olympics Games in Atlanta, Ga., Speedo put out its “Aquablade” suit, which reduced resistance while covering more of both male and female swimmers’ bodies. Seventy-seven percent of the medal winners in Atlanta wore the Aquablade.
Speedo then bettered itself by introducing the Fastskin, which covered even more of a swimmer’s body. In 2000, USA Swimming approved the use of full-body suits in races. In 1999 and 2000, Speedo’s full-body, sharkskin-like suits caused a stir in the pool as leading coaches warned that it was making it too easy for swimmers to shatter world records. And as evidenced by the X-Glide and LZR Racer, since 2000 suits have only gotten more sleek.
Clearly, the days of Mark Spitz swimming in a simple Speedo without so much as a cap over his hair are long gone.
South Korea's figure skater and Olympic champion Kim Yu-na during the presentation of the Pyeongchang bid , in front of the 123rd International Olympic Committee (IOC) session that will decide the host city for the 2018 Olympics Winter Game, in Durban, South Africa, Wednesday July 6, 2011. The International Olympic Committee will announce the host city for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Durban, Wednesday, choosing between three candidates Annecy, France; Munich Germany; and Pyeongchang, South Korea for the 2018 host. (AP Photo/Rogan Ward, Pool) (Credit: AP)
The South Korean city of Pyeongchang was awarded the 2018 Winter Olympics on Wednesday after failing in two previous attempts.
Pyeongchang defeated rivals Munich and Annecy, France, in the first round of a secret ballot of the International Olympic Committee.
Needing 48 votes for victory, Pyeongchang received 63 of the 95 votes cast. Munich received 25 and Annecy seven.
The Koreans had lost narrowly in previous bids for the 2010 and 2014 Olympics.
Pyeongchang will be the first city in Asia outside Japan to host the Winter Games. Japan held the games in Sapporo in 1972 and Nagano in 1998.
Korean delegates erupted in cheers in the conference hall after IOC President Jacques Rogge opened a sealed envelope and read the words: “The International Olympic Committee has the honor of announcing that the 23rd Olympic Winter Games in 2018 are awarded to the city of Pyeongchang.”
The vote totals weren’t immediately released.
A majority was required for victory, meaning Pyeongchang received at least 48 votes among the eligible 95 voters.
It was the first time an Olympic bid race with more than two finalists was decided in the first round since 1995, when Salt Lake City defeated three others to win the 2002 Winter Games.
Had no majority been reached in the opening round, the city with the fewest votes would have been eliminated and the two remaining cities gone to a second and final ballot.
Pyeongchang had been determined to win in the first round after its previous two defeats. The Koreans had led in each of the first rounds in the votes for the 2010 and 2014 Games but then lost in the final ballots to Vancouver and Sochi.
Pyeongchang, whose slogan is “New Horizons,” campaigned on the theme that it deserved to win on a third try and will spread the Olympics to a lucrative new market in Asia and become a hub for winter sports in the region.
The Korean victory followed the IOC’s trend in recent votes, having taken the Winter Games to Russia (Sochi) for the first time in 2014 and giving South America its first Olympics with the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Olympic gold-medalist Lindsey Vonn has recreated that scene from “Basic Instinct” on the cover of ESPN magazine. And by “that scene” I do mean the one in which Sharon Stone infamously flashed her naughty bits to the world. It’s the magazine’s movie issue — why ESPN has a movie issue, I do not know — and it boasts a bunch of athletes reproducing classic film scenes. The headline accompanying the saucy cover photo is, wait for it, “Back to Basics.” Funny, I thought the magazine’s Body Issue — which came out just a few months ago and features exquisitely athletic naked bodies — was a return to “basics.” But it doesn’t get any more basic, or base, than paying homage to the most famous crotch shot in cinematic history.
London Olympic organizers say a record 5,000 doping tests will be carried out at the 2012 Games.
The local organizing committee has signed a memorandum of understanding with Britain’s anti-doping body and will implement the testing program under the authority of the International Olympic Committee.
London 2012 director of sport Debbie Jevans says the size of the testing program will give a “strong message that drug cheats are not welcome at the London Games.”
UK Anti-Doping will train anti-doping officials and assist them during the event to carry out a 10 percent increase on the 4,500 tests conducted at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Canada Haley Irwin, left, and Tessa Bonhomme, right, celebrate after Canada beat USA 2-0 to win the women's gold medal ice hockey game at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara) (Credit: AP)
Canada’s women’s hockey team has scored quite the controversy by daring to celebrate their win against the U.S. on Thursday by sipping beer, guzzling champagne and smoking cigars on the ice. After the fans filtered out of the stadium, the ladies returned to the rink still in uniform with gold medals draped around their necks. They laid on the ice, poured champagne in each other’s mouths and soaked up the Olympic glory. Their revelry hardly would have garnered any attention, except for one minor detail: there was an Associated Press photographer on hand to capture it all on film.
Now, the International Olympic Committee has reportedly written a letter to the Canadian National Olympic Committee “to find out a few more details,” and the team has issued a public apology. What’s the big deal, you might ask? For one, 18-year-old team member Marie-Philip Poulin was snapped holding a beer, and she’s just under the legal drinking age in British Columbia. OK, so that’s inappropriate, I guess — only, in her home of Quebec, the drinking age is 18. Are people really that scandalized that someone just weeks away from her 19th birthday was caught imbibing in Vancouver after winning an Olympic gold medal?
I suspect not. Judging by the online chatter over the “incident,” the age issue is but one more complaint shoveled onto the pile. Primarily at issue is that some perceive it as a display of poor sportsmanship, which I find kind of hilarious for two reasons: 1.) Ice hockey is one of the most impolite professional sports around (within five minutes of the first men’s hockey game I attended, two players had already resorted to fisticuffs on the ice), and 2.) Have these people never witnessed the hooting, hollering, fist-pumping, champagne-popping, and exclamations of “I’m goin’ to Disneyland!” at, like, any major sporting event?
I hate to be predictable, but I gotta say it: I suspect there’s also a definite undercurrent of sexism here. For example, one blogger wrote:
My question is: Why ‘ladies’ play men’s sports and look so awkward (unlady like) in the process? Being a woman is all about being a woman (grace, softness…). Figure skating is by all standards a women’s sport, as we witnessed yesterday in Kim Yu-Na’s performance. Simply brilliant.
So ladies, make an attempt to look like females, stay away from men’s sports, don’t try to be like men, you know, that’s what the men are for.
Aw, I think he’s scared of the big bad lady athletes. Poor dude — we just aren’t used to seeing women engaged in such stereotypically manly celebration. Not only are they drinking beer, they’re also chugging champagne and smoking cigars. Looking through the photographs, you can almost hear their self-satisfied guttural belches — and, you know what? It makes me swoon in full-blown girl-crush mode. I mean, my cheeks actually ache because every time I catch a glimpse of those snapshots, I grin uncontrollably. Now these are some women I’d like to grab a beer with.
Why don’t all the haters take a note from these Canadian ladies: Grab a Molson’s and chill out, eh?
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