Phelps And Lochte

The Ryan Lochte Express made an unscheduled station stop yesterday:

Riding high off his gold medal win over teammate and Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte had the lead going into the last lap of the 400-meter freestyle relay before the French team pulled away with the gold medal.

But don't blame Lochte! Blame the knucklehead who put him out there:

It's true that Ryan Lochte, the 400 IM champion and would-be Olympic hero, blew a sizable lead in the United States' loss to France at the Aquatic Center in London. This came after leadoff man Nathan Adrian touched the wall first, Michael Phelps swam faster than any of the 32 men in the race, with the exception of the one who chased down Lochte, and Cullen Jones went faster in 2012 than he went during the American's epic victory in 2008. Thus, it's not entirely unfair to pin the loss on Lochte. He dove into the pool with a lead of 0.55 seconds and emerged from it having lost by the same exact margin.

It was a bad swim at a bad time against a man, Yannick Agnel, who was primed for a comeback. All of that is undeniable. Still, don't blame Lochte for blowing the race in the anchor leg. Save the derision for the man who put him there.

Team USA coach Gregg Troy knows Lochte isn't a sprint freestyler. He knows that of Lochte's many swimming gifts, closing speed isn't near the top. He knows Lochte has competed in four races totaling 1,200 meters already in London, including a 200-meter freestyle semifinal an hour before the relay final. He knows Lochte doesn't fit the mold of a sprint anchor. And still he put him in that role. It was a gamble, perhaps made the from the high of Lochte's dominant victory in the 400 IM and his too-quick coronation as the king of swimming. It didn't make sense when it was announced and it didn't make sense after.

Phelps,after looking washed up on Saturday, looked like a champion again on Sunday. And Lochte just reminded us of how good (and lucky!) Phelps was in 2008.

Comments

[marlene]

Good morning! Thought I'd watch an Olympic event with coffee this morning. Why is NBC tape delaying live events? I'm not going to watch the Today show!

[GMAX]

PPP (D) out with an independent poll showing Ted Cruz up big with voters who have already voted. Tomorrow is election day, and we will stick a fork in Dewhurst and his stupid commercials. Can I get an amen to that?

[Melinda Romanoff]

marlene-

They tape delay as much as possible to pump the hype and fulfill their advertising "share" commitments.

[rse]

You mean all those P&G commercials thanking the moms? Who will dutifully then go buy Tide? Maybe in that new fragrance that makes it harder to find Unscented?

Actually I am annoyed with P&G. Almost as bad as Coke's 10 year long formal agreement with GreenPeace coupled with WWF.

When I tracked down what James Burke was currently up to before I finished the Axemakers Gift story it mentioned a P&G speaking engagement.

So sponsor Olympics, sponsor sustainability, keep your desired portion of economic pie, vacation together, and all agree on what the future will look like in a politically directed economy.

Between GE and Comcast, how much more could you be connected to govt policies influencing your revenue without being a defense contractor?

[marlene]

Yes Mel! Lots of hype.All those empty seats are causing embarrassment. I watched the legally blind South Korean archer yesterday.Amazing!

[marlene]

rse,you must like that commercial (Dow?) with the green plant person turning off the lights! Ha,Ha.

[jimmyk]

Was there a faster swimmer available on the US team? Otherwise, I don't know how much the order matters. The fact is, the US wasn't expected to win (in fact the prediction by the commentators was a bronze), yet they made it very close. Hardly "disastrous."

[pagar]

GMAX, Amen!
---------------
rse, thanks for your help. I'm learning more and more that it is worse than I thought, and I had already thought it was very, very bad.

[MarkO]

I was looking for this yesterday. Someone may have posted it and, if so, sorry for the repeat.

We heard some of this at the time and it certainly seems credible to me.

http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/29/obama-canceled-bin-laden-kill-raid-three-times-valerie-jarrett/

[sailor]

MarkO--dailycaller is blocked for me this morning. Something about malware and a virus--warning posted by google. I use Firefox.

[Danube of Thought]

Minus 17 at Raz today.

Trails Romney by 3.

[Melinda Romanoff]

sailor-

Looks like an ad there feels comfortable enough to load a Trojan.

[Danube of Thought]

"But don't blame Lochte! Blame the knucklehead who put him out there:"

I blame Bush.

[centralcal]

Looks like some folks had fun overnight. Weasel Zippers was hacked (his design template) and had to re-route to his old site temporarily. Daily Caller is being blocked with a big warning (I use Firefox) and I suspect it is a hack job as well. Seeing any others on conservative web sites this AM?

[MarkO]

Are the free-speech-hating progressives out to block this story about SuperPres.

[GMAX]

Lets not forgot, the coach did not build that. There was a road to Kennedy Airport that he used to get to London.

[NK]

The Economy-- last week the JOM guessers very accurately pegged 2Q GDP. This Friday is the July Jobs Report. Guesses on NFP? Mine I think was +25,000 based on temp hirings. I think RickB was around there, and MelR declined to guess. Any updated guesses or new guesses?

[daddy]

It's almost midnight here in Singapore but we have had Live Olympic coverage since whenever I woke up.

No fluffy NBC personal type stories at all on the sports channel's and very little advertising. Simply continuous live coverage of events that are of interest to the local audience.

Currently 3 main channels going, all Live :

1 is PingPong
1 is Synchronized Mens Diving
1 is Mens Archery

During dinner across the street I caught mixed couples Badminton, followed by Judo, then back to single women Badminton.

Not my favorite events, but fun to get into all the action Live without the fluff.

[Voldemort Delenda Est ! Sandy Daze]

I am not suggesting coordination, per se, but it is an interesting coincidence that the websites have been hacked, that at least eleven Walmarts have been "bomb-scared" and the CFA brouhaha has emerged.

By the way, what ever happened to Fast and Furious?

[Voldemort Delenda Est ! Sandy Daze]

Daddy,

Not following ping-pong.
WRT syncro men's diving, we don't have it yet on the CONUS East Coast.
WRT archery, is this individual as opposed to team, in which the US earned Silver to Italy's gold the other day?

[NK]

daddy-- the US TV Olympics fluff is getting worse, most of it is now cring worthy. Back here NBC does give you up to 5 cable channels for coverage, so there are most times choices to avoid the fluff crap.

[hit and run]

DoT:
I blame Bush.

I Blame Global Warming Anthony Watts

Oh, and of course...

I Question The Timing Stopwatch

[Melinda Romanoff]

Alan West is on with Santelli.

[matt]

daddy;

Badminton is huge in that part of the world. It's almost like Chinese wire fighting, except it's real. Those players move fast. I have always admired their skill.

[maryrose]

I love Santelli! He and Joe Kernan are the only ones worth listening to on CNBC. I saw Joe Scarborough today on "Morning Joe" . He looks awful. Is he having back trouble again? He looks older and worn out.
I am tired of NBC, The Obama channel repeatedly advertising Obama at commercial time. HE's on CNBC, MESSNBC and NBC... Give it a rest already...

[NK]

PRO v. PROG -- Turning on 'Bam-- more evidence. From WS, the NYT calling BS on 'Bam's WH about the Churchill bust. We'll see more of this as the NYT starts letting the faithful know that Bam will lose. They'll argue it's not Prog politics that's wrong, but that Bam was a bumbling and amateurish messenger. http://washingtonexaminer.com/nyt-obama-wh-is-bumbling-and-amateurish/article/2503486?custom_click=rss

[NK]

Prog v Prog...

[NK]

Walter Russell Mead-- I think he's right about this. London was a gaffe but it doesn't matter. Romney's support of Israel is a traditional American value as opposed to the leftwing poseur Bam-- so that is a contrast Romney has showed in his visit. Carney helped Romeny carry that off by refusing to name Israel's capital.http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/07/29/mitt-needs-to-make-israel-count/

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet]

When I swam in high school and college, the anchor leg relay swimmer was almost always the fastest closer on the team. While Lochte is one of the greatest middle distance swimmers ever, he is not a sprinter with great closing speed.

The 4x100 meter swim relay is the swimming equivalent of the 400 meter run relay. Putting Lochte in the anchor in the 4x100 was like putting our best 800 meter runner in the anchor leg of the 4X400 after he ran an 800 heat that morning.

I believe the coach blundered.

[pagar]

From the --that is really surprising --file.

Meme--has a piece up on the sidebar saying that Romney saying good things about Israel has upset the Palestinians. Not a word about how Obama saying good things about the Palestinians every day upsets Israel.

May God bless Romney!

[narciso]

To say that they have 'chosen poorly' with their choice of leadership from Haj Amin Husseini, to his nephew Arafat to the current
warlord Abu Mazen, who financed the Munich massacre, is an understatement.

[NK]

pagar-- agree. Romney politely points out Palestiaian corruption and hostility-- our Lefty friends say RACIST-- when 'Bam told lies about Israel-- what exactly did the Leftists say?

[Dave (in MA)]

__ (8>)< ____________________________
David Burge ‏@iowahawkblog
Next time the Olympics are in the USA, I hope they have a Broadway extravaganza with dancing DMV clerks. #envyoftheworld
_____________________________________

[Danube of Thought]

OK, every winter Olympics Al Trautweig shows up and tells us about the cross-country skiing. Every summer Olympics he shows up and tells us about the gymnastics.

What does he do the rest of the time?

[Clarice]

Isn't Iowahawk IT?

[Ignatz]

I don't pay much attention to swimming ordinarily so this was something I never knew about Phelp's 7th gold medal in Beijing;

However, in August 2009, Omega officials admitted that while Čavić "for sure" touched the wall first, "Phelps did it more forcefully," thus registering the time first.

[maryrose]

Phelps probably should have anchored the race but Ryan is not to blame here. The third swimmer slowed it down even though he swam his fastest and Ryan had a diminished lead when he hit the water.

[Voldemort Delenda Est ! Sandy Daze]

maryrose,

Jim Rhoads has it right. Lochte was mis-placed in the relay. All blame goes to the coach, imo.

Blaming the third leg, when the first three legs handed Lochte a half-second lead is just not right. He had/HAD a lead going into his final leg. What he did or did not do with that lead in no way reflects on the third leg.

Heck, with that rationale, with a suitable lead (>2 minutes), even I could have anchored the event ! ;~))

[Stephanie]

I think I may have found a spot for Phelps at the next Olympics.

LUN

[Ralph L]

The fact is, the US wasn't expected to win
We owned that event for many, many years.
I blame Bush.
I'll bet none of the swimmers have one, or body hair, period.