“It is difficult for you to understand it but I am the same one that I was in Shanghai and in Beijing. Sport is like that, you need to accept your defeats. There is still the relay to concentrate on. I will not let my teammates down.”
No, this quote is not from Micheal Phelps but rather from Federica Pellegrini, the Italian WR holder in the 200 and 400 free who failed to medal in either event at London. In the world of competitive swimming, Phelps is far from the only swimmer to finish 4th in an event he/she holds the WR in. Or even to not make the American Olympic team, as Jessica Hardy is WR holder in 100 breast and did not make the team in that event (although she did make it in 50 and 100 free.)
In summary, everyone including Phelps has off-days, as in his 4th in the 400 IM, and/or gets out-touched at the wall as he did in the 200 fly. Sport is like that, we do our best but, if we come up short, we all have to accept our defeats. Phelps did that in the 200 fly and then came back to swim a 1:44.05 to anchor the 800 free relay.
Maybe the above is self-evident and goes without saying, but I thought Pellegrini’s comments were rather wise in the context of athletic competition.
This is a very articulate statement. I’m actually thrilled Phelps isn’t having another perfect games, because it really shows up how amazing 2008 was. So much had to go right, including amazing relay races with team mates, and truly lucky touches. Look at cycling–it’s so common to have surprises, but when there’s a hero we expect them to be invincible.
I kind of wish she’d been swimming better because she really does make a wonderful villain to cheer against. For all that she’s fearless in the pool, she’s got a ‘homewrecker’ reputation outside of it for chasing down men who are seriously seeing another women, and then dumping them when the thrill of the chase wears off.
She’s gone through about a quarter of the Italian men’s national team at this point, breaking up at least one engagement in the past year, and was ‘the other woman’ in the Laure Manaudou-Luca Marin love trouble, with the rumor mill long speculating that she was the one who leaked the naked Laure Manaudou pictures onto the internet.
I kind of wish she’d been swimming better because she really does make a wonderful villain to cheer against. For all that she’s fearless in the pool, she’s got a ‘homewrecker’ reputation outside of it for chasing down men who are seriously seeing another women, and then dumping them when the thrill of the chase wears off.
She’s gone through about a quarter of the Italian men’s national team at this point, breaking up at least one engagement in the past year, and was ‘the other woman’ in the Laure Manaudou-Luca Marin love trouble, with the rumor mill long speculating that she was the one who leaked the naked Laure Manaudou pictures onto the internet.
This is a very articulate statement. I’m actually thrilled Phelps isn’t having another perfect games, because it really shows up how amazing 2008 was. So much had to go right, including amazing relay races with team mates, and truly lucky touches. Look at cycling–it’s so common to have surprises, but when there’s a hero we expect them to be invincible.
Ya, Phelps had a lot of very good fortune in '08, with Lezak in the 400 relay and then winning the 100 fly by 0.01 sec. Regarding cycling, I’ve read that even Eddy Merckx only won something like 1/3 of the races he entered. Of course road cycling is a whole different animal than the closed environment of the pool.
I kind of wish she’d been swimming better because she really does make a wonderful villain to cheer against. For all that she’s fearless in the pool, she’s got a ‘homewrecker’ reputation outside of it for chasing down men who are seriously seeing another women, and then dumping them when the thrill of the chase wears off.
She’s gone through about a quarter of the Italian men’s national team at this point, breaking up at least one engagement in the past year, and was ‘the other woman’ in the Laure Manaudou-Luca Marin love trouble, with the rumor mill long speculating that she was the one who leaked the naked Laure Manaudou pictures onto the internet.
I kind of wish she’d been swimming better because she really does make a wonderful villain to cheer against. For all that she’s fearless in the pool, she’s got a ‘homewrecker’ reputation outside of it for chasing down men who are seriously seeing another women, and then dumping them when the thrill of the chase wears off.
She’s gone through about a quarter of the Italian men’s national team at this point, breaking up at least one engagement in the past year, and was ‘the other woman’ in the Laure Manaudou-Luca Marin love trouble, with the rumor mill long speculating that she was the one who leaked the naked Laure Manaudou pictures onto the internet.
Next up on ‘As The Flip Turns’…
She’s now become my all-time favorite swimmer. How can I meet her?
I kind of wish she’d been swimming better because she really does make a wonderful villain to cheer against. For all that she’s fearless in the pool, she’s got a ‘homewrecker’ reputation outside of it for chasing down men who are seriously seeing another women, and then dumping them when the thrill of the chase wears off.
She’s gone through about a quarter of the Italian men’s national team at this point, breaking up at least one engagement in the past year, and was ‘the other woman’ in the Laure Manaudou-Luca Marin love trouble, with the rumor mill long speculating that she was the one who leaked the naked Laure Manaudou pictures onto the internet.
Next up on ‘As The Flip Turns’…
Spicy. It does take 2 to tango though.
What did Austin Powers say about “that Italian bird” (trying to defend having “shagged her rotten”)? “She’s like the village bicycle. Everyone’s had a ride!”
And I can’t say I’m a fan of the neck tat… not exactly aging gracefully.
I kind of wish she’d been swimming better because she really does make a wonderful villain to cheer against. For all that she’s fearless in the pool, she’s got a ‘homewrecker’ reputation outside of it for chasing down men who are seriously seeing another women, and then dumping them when the thrill of the chase wears off.
She’s gone through about a quarter of the Italian men’s national team at this point, breaking up at least one engagement in the past year, and was ‘the other woman’ in the Laure Manaudou-Luca Marin love trouble, with the rumor mill long speculating that she was the one who leaked the naked Laure Manaudou pictures onto the internet.
Even without containing the spoiler warning that it needs.
Anyone who couldn’t understand that title was going to lead to a swimming spoiler is a bona fide idiot and deserves no sympathy if they stumbled into it and whined.
Sad to think that the adminstrators feel the need to cater for the lowest common denominator.
Time to start handing out Darwin awards in parallel to gold, silver and bronze.
I kind of wish she’d been swimming better because she really does make a wonderful villain to cheer against. For all that she’s fearless in the pool, she’s got a ‘homewrecker’ reputation outside of it for chasing down men who are seriously seeing another women, and then dumping them when the thrill of the chase wears off.
She’s gone through about a quarter of the Italian men’s national team at this point, breaking up at least one engagement in the past year, and was ‘the other woman’ in the Laure Manaudou-Luca Marin love trouble, with the rumor mill long speculating that she was the one who leaked the naked Laure Manaudou pictures onto the internet.
Next up on ‘As The Flip Turns’…
She’s now become my all-time favorite swimmer. How can I meet her?
Qualify to swim in the World Cup series (SCM) and you might run into her there next this fall. Read that she’s planning to swim 50 and 100m back events for the next year or so. The SCM series is where swimmers can make some serious money, at least by swimming standards.