Below, a commercial for the 2009 FINA World Championships:
Phelps is THE STAR, and yes, Alain Bernard is a star in his own right, but the real showdown at the World Championships in Rome will be Phelps v Cavic.
Globally, non-swimming fans know Phelps, they know that there is a swimsuit controversy (though they don't understand it), and they know that a guy from Serbia almost halted Phelps historic 8 medal haul at the Olympics in Beijing.
The Serbian's name: Milorad Cavic.
The race: 100 meter Butterfly.
In Beijing it was Phelps' 7th of 8 races, his 7th Olympic gold medal, tying him with Mark Spitz's performance in 1972. Phelps won by a fingernail with a karate chop, half stroke at the wall. Many believed, and still do, that Cavic actually touched the wall first, but that Phelps hit the electronic touch-pad harder, netting him the win.
There will be many great match-ups in Rome. Most fans are eagerly awaiting the men's 4x100 free relay, anticipating a French payback after Jason Lezak's stunning defeat of Alain Bernard on the anchor leg of that Olympic race. But the teeth have been taken out of that fight. Lezak has opted-out of World Champs to compete at the Maccabiah Games in July.
The 100 meter fly is it, especially after Phelps' performance in Montreal less than 3 weeks ago, where he missed the 100 fly world record by less than 8 one-hundredths of a second.
For "suit wars" watchers:
Phelps should wear the Speedo LZR, despite rumors that Speedo will let him wear another of the new hi-tech brands.
Cavic should wear the Arena X-glide.
Here's Cavic in an interview I did with him right after Olympic 100 butterfly final:
And here's my latest GOLD MEDAL MINUTE with Peter Carlisle (managing director of Olympic and action sports at Octagon), Michael Phelps' sports agent:
Heading to US Nationals next week, aka the World Championship Select Meet. Look for my coverage, the inside stuff, on GMM.
I think that WR is going down
Posted by: topills review | December 01, 2010 at 05:18 PM
OK we lost a couple of points to Kirkham but we also cemented the runner-up placing with a big gap back to Plater, who’s still injured. I’m sure the fans loved watching the two Kawasaki’s battling it out in race two but I was genuinely surprised to see Simon cross the line in front of Howie!
Posted by: viagra online | October 06, 2010 at 12:01 PM
Is this the event where Paul Biedermann of Germany won the 200m freestyle and defeated MP?
Posted by: Buy Tramadol - Jasmine | August 26, 2009 at 12:34 AM
That is one interesting commercial! It's pretty cool sports journalism :)
Posted by: Home exchange | July 23, 2009 at 07:54 AM
Tiziana, I do think Rafael Munoz is a "contendah". I've had a lot of very knowledgeable friends comment that MP will have a tough time winning the 100 fly. I don't think so. If I was gonna bet, I'd bet on MP. He has magic fingers, knows how to touch the wall 1st. Still, I think it'll be a close race, and MP certainly does not have it locked up. Cavic is the real contendah in my book. I know he's on "lock-down", very focused on that one race....
Posted by: goldmedalmel | July 14, 2009 at 09:01 AM
"the commercial is for the french eurosport channel so they have used alain bernard but the other eurosport channels use an annonymous swimmer for their commercial "
that's interesting itself!
Posted by: Jewelry Casting | July 13, 2009 at 07:18 AM
As much as it pains me to say this, I think that WR is going down. And what about the Spanish swimmer, Rafael Munoz, do you think he's gonna be a contendah?
Oh, I'm starting the grieving process already...and I'm staying at stage one for the rest of the year.
Posted by: Tiziana | July 05, 2009 at 10:21 PM
thx for info, dublincat!
Posted by: goldmedalmel | July 05, 2009 at 09:18 PM
the commercial is for the french eurosport channel so they have used alain bernard but the other eurosport channels use an annonymous swimmer for their commercial
Posted by: dublincat | July 03, 2009 at 12:11 PM