Archive for Swimming
Phelps questioned by police for car prang
Michael Phelps of United States of America is rated as the best swimmer in the history of the sport but he was questioned by the local police for a car prang. Phelps had won an amazing eight gold medals at the last Olympics in Beijing. He was driving a Cadillac and that rammed into a Honda. This incident happened in the city of Baltimore and left the Lady driver of Honda car into a state of shock.
Phelps had two more passengers in the car along with him when the accident happened, but none was injured. According to the local police the accident happened in the downtown area of the city. Police also confirmed that the lady driver of the Honda car was in a state of shock and had to be taken to a nearby hospital for basic precautionary checkup.
Police also confirmed that Phelps was not driving the car under the influence of any drugs or alcohol. Phelps had been in news for wrong reasons after he returned from Olympics. He was banned in February from taking part in any competition for three months after photographs appeared in media showing him smoking cannabis.
Michael Phelps is a legend; he has won 16 Olympic medals of which 14 are gold medals.
Swimsuits thrashing records – are true swimmers vanishing
This is the first major loss by Michael Phelps in any swimming race since 2005. He lost to Paul Biedermann of Germany in the 200 meter freestyle event at the World Championships in Rome. Biedermann also broke the world record 0.0.9 second which Phelps had created in the Beijing Olympics. Biedermann clocked 1 minute and 42 seconds.
Many in the sports are questioning the controversial 100% polyurethane swimsuits used by majority of swimmers at the Championship where already 11 world records have been thrashed. Fina (Fédération Internationale de Natation) international governing body for the sport has made it clear that these suits would be banned in 2010. Phelps competes in a
Speedo LZR and is a 50% polyurethane and is a far lower performance enhancer as compared to the 100% polyurethane swimsuit.
It took 5 years for Phelps to go from 1 minute 42 second to 1 minute 42.9 second. But Biedermann did it in 11 months. Many are questioning this improvement in performance in such short time duration. Seven years old men’s 400 meters freestyle record was also thrashed by Biedermann on Monday.
Swimmers broke 25 world records at the Beijing Olympics, 23 used the magical suit. And by the end of the year 180 new world records had been created using the controversial swimsuits. There are only two pre-bodysuit records still to be unbeaten; they are for the 800m and 1500m freestyle discipline.
Michael Phelps finally gets 100-meter butterfly record to his name
Phelps is back with a large bang, some doubted after him being in news for all different reasons but he broke the world record in the men’s 100 meters butterfly event at the US Swimming Championships. Phelps has been a bit furious when it comes to the 100 meters butterfly as fellow countrymen Ian Crocker had beaten him by over a second in the same event where Ian created the world record in 2005.
Phelps has been an inspiration having won 14 career Olympic gold medals and also holds world record in five individual disciplines including the men’s 100 meters butterfly, the men’s 200 meters butterfly, the men’s 200 meters freestyle, the men’s 200 meters individual medley and the men’s 400 meters individual medley. He was also instrumental taking his teams to three world records in the relay events. No other swimmer in the world holds more then two records.
It seemed like Phelps had been looking for this record for a while, he touched the wall and turned towards the scoreboard anxiously whipping the water of his swimming goggles. He pulled of his twin swimming caps and defiantly stared at his time. He took almost 15 second before he smiled as he knew that he had finally grabbed the much awaited record.
The night was also amazing for another swimmer. Dara Torres at an age of 42 made it to the world championships team by winning the 50 meters freestyle even with a time of 24.43 seconds. Its good to see a swimmer qualify for world championships at the age of 42 but she also knows that the qualifying time is not good enough to win a medal at the world championships.
