my last swimming post

It's not my fault that I become obsessed with hot and other-worldly talented men. Christian Bale, the young and talented actor, has temporarily taken a backseat to Aaron Peirsol, the not so young and talented backstroker. It's a bit ironic that Christian Bale happens to be 34 while Aaron Peirsol is 25. Still, I think the former has at least twenty years left in his career and the latter has approximately zero and four if he seriously stretches it to the max. Not everyone can be Jason Lezak.

Still, it's amazing that Peirsol along with Phelps, Crocker, and Hansen are all in their third Olympics. It's even more amazing that Peirsol hasn't lost an international race from 2001-2007. Having actually swum before, what they all do is absolutely amazing. For one, I know that there's no way I'll have a backstroke start like that in my life (even though I thought it was crappy a few posts ago). In sports, age is defined by how long you've been in it and how much potential you have left. I was watching an Al-Jazeera interview featuring Aaron Peirsol (the weirdest thing ever) and all of the technological advancements in sports. The swimmers get tested to death after every race. Peirsol was saying how his body just collapsed after the 4 by 100 medley relay and he got sick. That would explain his absence at the Speedo party (Or the fact that he's endorsed by Nike). I'm pretty sure that Phelps conked out as well later. The levels that athletes push themselves to is insane.

In some way, being a top athlete is almost the complete opposite of being an actor. Obviously, both require natural ability and the right body shape. Once you're on the starting blocks and the buzzer goes off, instinct just takes over. You can think while you're racing, but it's not really recommended. All of that practice goes into a minute or two of forcing your muscles to work harder than they've ever worked. Acting is also instinctual, but the actual process is long and all about development. Also, acting is all about forcing yourself to adopt a different persona. Sports is about reaching down and developing your inherent ability. After all, we can't change our bodies.

Back to Aaron Peirsol, he along with everyone else on the US team genuinely seem like nice guys. I've read several articles complaining about the lack of trash-talk in swimming today and a wish to be back in the Gary Hall Jr. days. Personally, I think it's great how Phelps gives his teammates credit, Peirsol gives Lochte credit, etc. In his interviews, Peirsol sounds semi-intelligent, super chill, and like a nice guy. He sounds much older than 25, is involved in non-profit organizations, and seems like a loyal friend (to Brendan Hansen, at least). I enjoyed watching clips of the ENCORE fundraiser meet that UT put on a few years back. It's hilarious, especially the two 'funny' events, the 100IM and 50 breast-back.



What's really sad is that Ian Crocker, who got last in this race with a time of 1:35, beats my best 100IM time. And he did it by jumping into the water, swimming butterfly with one arm, crashing into the lane line repeatedly in backstroke, and not doing a pullout in breaststroke. I guess the only consolation I have is that I can match Peirsol's absurdly slow winning time of 1:17 in the 100 free. At the Olympics, it's not clear that the swimmers are going that fast since they're in a 50M pool. In this short-course 25M pool, breastrokers and butterfliers take about 5 strokes to go from end to end (when they're deathly serious and not going for laughs). Backstrokers and freestylers take about 10. It's mind-boggling how fast these human dolphins are.



To understand this video, David Cromwell swims backstroke and actually beat Peirsol in the 100 back earlier in this meet, and he's challenging Brendan Hansen to some made-up event. Cromwell's coach is Eric Shanteau, one of the inspiring stories of Beijing, and Hansen's coach is Peirsol. We have the cross-over back-breast going on here. There's some good natured ribbing and 'trash-talk'. I believe that the ear-slap that Peirsol gave Shanteau at the end relates to the 2004 Athens Kitajima dolphin kick incident, which Cromwell replicated in this event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKy5TlU8xS8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mIuE7IC0Ok&feature=related

Now that the swimming portion of the Olympics are over, I'm going to very quickly stop caring about all of this. It's inevitable, since no one actually watches the World Championships in swimming and the Olympics only come around once in a very long time. I'll eventually work my way back to Christian Bale movies, because those keep coming.