4.68 Seconds
Aug. 13th, 2008 07:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orange_smaug4.68 Seconds
That's how much the US Men's 4x200m Freestyle Relay Team beat the former world record by. 4.68 seconds, in a sport where at this level, records are usually broken by fractions of a second. Many swimming records are being broken at Beijing, and not to diminish what the participants (Phelps included) have done, but most of that has been attributed to new swimsuit technology, new lane dividers that reduce disturbances between lanes, new pool design, etc. But this? The jump from 7:03:24 to 6:58:56? This is good old-fashioned super-human athleticism. No cut, because this really has to be seen to be believed.
You see the dude at the left in Lane 4? That's the US anchor after finishing the race. You see that green line, the one everyone else is behind? That's the former World Record line. You see how almost no one else is even in the shot? Yeah.
Absolutely ridiculous.
[EDIT] Okay, I say that and the Australian Women's swim team go and beat the world record for the same event by 5.78 seconds, albeit not as comically far ahead of the rest of the pack as the US Men's. What are they putting in the water over there?
[EDIT2] And I know large gaps like this are seen more often in the longer distance events like these. But still.
Also, a note on China: I'll be staying out of this. Most of the US mainstream media is functionally retarded, I was surprised by how hard the BBC was being on China since it's supposed to be their day in the sun and things have definitely improved, and I know some of the flist has close ties to China (*waves at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
luciene and gothicauthor*). But China's made some questionable decisions in the run up to and during the Olympics so far, I don't care what party it is but single party rule is a disaster waiting to happen (long though the time scale on that might sometimes be), and freedom of the press (even the freedom to be functionally retarded) is something I feel very strongly about. Besides that most of my extended family lives in Taiwan and I definitely fall more on the independence side, so.
That said, age of the China women's gymnastic team aside, the way the US team choked at key moments they wouldn't have deserved the gold anyway.
[EDIT3] That said (>_>), even though I've also often been mistaken for being younger than my age I also think some of the younger girls really do seem suspicious, and the media has started digging up Chinese articles that corroborate this. Whining about it just makes the US look ungracious though, and if the team really wants to pursue this for reasons other than payback they should say something about acknowledging China's skill and accepting the silver medal no matter what comes up, but say that their ages should still be looked in to further and bringing up evidence if there is any.
Okay, evidently I had more I wanted to say on that than not >_>.
That's how much the US Men's 4x200m Freestyle Relay Team beat the former world record by. 4.68 seconds, in a sport where at this level, records are usually broken by fractions of a second. Many swimming records are being broken at Beijing, and not to diminish what the participants (Phelps included) have done, but most of that has been attributed to new swimsuit technology, new lane dividers that reduce disturbances between lanes, new pool design, etc. But this? The jump from 7:03:24 to 6:58:56? This is good old-fashioned super-human athleticism. No cut, because this really has to be seen to be believed.
You see the dude at the left in Lane 4? That's the US anchor after finishing the race. You see that green line, the one everyone else is behind? That's the former World Record line. You see how almost no one else is even in the shot? Yeah.
Absolutely ridiculous.
[EDIT] Okay, I say that and the Australian Women's swim team go and beat the world record for the same event by 5.78 seconds, albeit not as comically far ahead of the rest of the pack as the US Men's. What are they putting in the water over there?
[EDIT2] And I know large gaps like this are seen more often in the longer distance events like these. But still.
Also, a note on China: I'll be staying out of this. Most of the US mainstream media is functionally retarded, I was surprised by how hard the BBC was being on China since it's supposed to be their day in the sun and things have definitely improved, and I know some of the flist has close ties to China (*waves at
luciene and gothicauthor*). But China's made some questionable decisions in the run up to and during the Olympics so far, I don't care what party it is but single party rule is a disaster waiting to happen (long though the time scale on that might sometimes be), and freedom of the press (even the freedom to be functionally retarded) is something I feel very strongly about. Besides that most of my extended family lives in Taiwan and I definitely fall more on the independence side, so. That said, age of the China women's gymnastic team aside, the way the US team choked at key moments they wouldn't have deserved the gold anyway.
[EDIT3] That said (>_>), even though I've also often been mistaken for being younger than my age I also think some of the younger girls really do seem suspicious, and the media has started digging up Chinese articles that corroborate this. Whining about it just makes the US look ungracious though, and if the team really wants to pursue this for reasons other than payback they should say something about acknowledging China's skill and accepting the silver medal no matter what comes up, but say that their ages should still be looked in to further and bringing up evidence if there is any.
Okay, evidently I had more I wanted to say on that than not >_>.
