GOLD MEDAL MEL

Phelps & Lochte, Fan Fantasy & Fiction

I keep tabs on swimming. Like an over-caring doctor, I continually take its pulse. The purity of the sport keeps me attentive; the endorphin-high after a hard practice, my daughter shaving seconds off her best time, the family-feeling I get being among my own aquatic kind.  We are a family. Age-groupers, masters, and Olympians are all essentially the same in my mind.

Sometimes, however, I wonder, Where do the fringe fit in? I'm talking about the new phenomenon of fanatical swim-fans, the millions we've gotten globally since the universe blessed us with the man, Michael Phelps...

Their appreciation, at times, can be extreme. I've seen it first hand--witnessed throngs of women clamoring for him, climbing over couches, or on the floor on their hands and knees, all to get one glimpse or a brief brush against Mr. Swimming.   

Their appreciation has spilled over onto other swimmers too, though none as much as Ryan Lochte.  Lochte, a Ford Model, has more Facebook fans than fan pages dedicated to successful reality TV shows. Lochte's Facebook fans even outnumber the classic hit, American Chopper! It's unbelievable, and even more so when you consider that Lochte does nothing on his Facebook fan page. It's frozen, inert, with only one photo. Still, fans join, and sing his praises, or confess their unabashed love.     

Here's Lochte's one photo on his Facebook fan page:

What I'm building to is the "fan-fantasy" I've seen on the web since 2008, the fictional blogs about Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps.  It goes beyond anything the Olympic P.R. folks would dream up, and it's not something NBC or Universal Sports will dabble in. It's pure soup opera prose about swimmers in the throes of passionate love, an affair between two swimming men.   

I wouldn't write about this if it were only an isolated incident, but it has been ongoing, and has multiplied, like a creative virus on the web. 

Here's a sample of the latest, a post I found on LiveJournal:

Ryan’s not exactly what you’d call ‘the marrying kind.’   Michael knows this. They both know this. It’s kind of just been a drawn out booty call between them. That’s why it’s such a shock when the Floridian starts talking left hand rings and church bells. At first Michael thinks Ryan’s trying to freak him out enough so he’ll break up with him. After a few weeks of awkward conversations and Michael thinking they’re about to call it quits, Ryan falls apart and tells Michael everything. 

For once in his life Ryan’s completely serious. His blue eyes are the color of a dark, fifty-foot tidal wave rumbling in at eighty miles an hour and gaining. His face is pale and his whispered words are deafening.... 

I have to cut the sample off there. It's goes beyond PG-13, a range my readers wouldn't appreciate. If you'd like to finish this author's work of fiction, here's a link. I'd like to add that it appears the author is woman, and that her fictional love affair between Phelps and Lochte veers into the realm of science fiction. The drama's built around a male pregnancy...

What to make of this? I don't really know. I certainly strive not to judge anyone's creative expression. I've spent more than a third of my life on the west coast. I think I'm more open-minded than most. 

In the end, I think fan appreciation is a positive thing. Honestly, I'm just thankful anyone cares about swimming, particularly during the down time when swimmers aren't racing.    

(IN SERIOUS NEWS, as I mentioned yesterday, I have an Olympic profile coming up, one I've been honored to do...)

    

Peeing in the Pool (with Video)

I got a lot of email responses regarding my last post, URINE AND CHLORINE CAN KILL YOU. No one seemed to care about the health implications I shared--the toxic chemical cocktail created from a mixture of chlorine and organic material. Every email was some peeing in the pool confession, or funny story, or observation about our urinating-history:

Mel, think about it, we've only had operational toilets for the last .05% of our time on earth. The other 99.5% of the time we went in rivers, lakes and seas...   

While I appreciate the intimacy I have with so many friends through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, it's no real revelation that anyone pees in the pool. 

Competitive swimmers have been letting out the yellow cloud as long as I can remember. It was a given, a fact of our two to six hour a day aquatic life. Your hair would surely be chlorine-burnt, your skin permanently itchy, and you knew the hydrating fluids you sucked down would ultimately recirculate through the body of liquid in which you swam. 

I have my own peeing stories and history. I rarely left the pool to pee. My first coach said, "True champions never stop training. They keep their heart-rates high and urinate while they're swimming." 

I never mastered the ability to actually pee while in motion, pulling and kicking. I always had to cling to the wall and use the aid of a heated jet-stream.  

I remember one swimmer, a girl back in boarding school (The Mercersburg Academy), who used to urinate on deck into a tiny drain right before racing. She said, "I just sit on the drain (which was in front of the starting blocks) and tee tee. That way I'm lighter, the lightest I can possibly be before I compete." 

"Right out in the open?" I asked her in disbelief. 

"No one can see," she added causally. "I'm sitting criss-cross applesauce directly above the drain's metal grill when I tee tee." 

I believe it's commonly held that competitive swimmers are a funny bunch, a truly weird tribe of water-logged people. I, for one, love how free we are about our bodies, even when it comes to peeing.

For the recreational version of peeing in the pool, this video pretty well explains things:

For the URBAN LEGEND about the urine-detecting chemical that creates a red dye when you pee in the pool, this video is comprehensive:  

FOR MORE SERIOUS NEWS, in a few days I'll be profiling one of my Olympic heroes, focusing on his work with Olympians, high-powered business executives, and celebrities. He was and still is "the man" in my book, one of the toughest swimmers in history.

Chlorine and Urine can Kill

After years and years of competitive swimming, and training, and peeing in pools all over the planet, I learned the toxic truth regarding my actions: it can kill.

I've read this before, but I never really paid attention. Now it seems the news is everywhere, or maybe I'm just getting older and more susceptible to worrying.

Apparently, organic material such as hair, skin, dried sweat and urine, reacts with chlorine, creating disinfection byproducts (DBPs) that are 10,000 times more toxic than just chlorine. 

Common DBPs formed from this swimming pool cocktail are trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids. Trihalomethanes, Cancer Group B carcinogens, cause cancer in lab rats. They've also been implicated in other disturbing problems; spontaneous abortion, stillbirths, congenital malformations. 

The bad news doesn't end there. DBPs weaken your immune system, screw with your nervous system, and deteriorate your cardiovascular system. 

I learned this "web-found wisdom" on December 26th, that wonderfully lazy day after Christmas. Traditionally, our family mounts a movie-marathon effort, and this year was no different. (We sat through Avatar, Alvin and The Chipmucks' Squeak-quel, Nine, and Sherlock Holmes.) I love this movie-indulgent day, even look forward to it more than JC's birthday. 

I didn't enjoy our theater romp as much this time around. I wondered if I was dying, or on a health-related decline which would leave me shriveled and decaying in my golden years--a period I've always looked forward to, romantically imagining myself pouchy and gray, still wearing my banana-hammock proudly.

Can swimming kill me? Really? I wondered in semi-disbelief. Then David Berkoff floated into my thoughts, an old Olympic teammate (and gold medalist), the first man to wow the world with his incredibly fast underwater dolphin kick. I remember David, a Harvard graduate, saying, "Chlorine causes cancer. You don't think so, but studies will prove it some day." 

Sitting in the dark theater, while a newly-envisioned Sherlock Holmes kicked butt, my mind wound through all the years of swimming indoors, in dungeon pools, suffering from coughing fits. If you're from that era of swimming, you know what I mean. We called those chemically burning afflictions "chlorine lung". (Does anyone out there call it by any other name?) 

I've had two days now to digest this health-related information, though I was hoping someone might step up and refute it, in the interim. I don't think it's concern for swimmers swimming in well ventilated pools today, but I'd like to hear a strong counter to the information I read on the day after Christmas day.

In the meantime, I'm off to the pool. Christmas training so many Christmases in row is a habit I haven't been able to shake. 

If you don't know or remember Olympic gold medalist, David Berkoff, here's some old footage I found of him captured right before the '88 Olympic Trials:  

Olympic Swimmer Ricky Berens in Playboy?

I thought the news today, December 25th, might be different, but hey! Merry Christmas anyway! 

I'm getting reports that Ricky Berens is appearing in the February issue of Playboy Magazine.

It all goes back to his suit rip during the World Championships in Rome last August, which revealed his butt globally. It was a fast story, interesting and odd, that dominated the news cycle for 48 hours. Apparently, Ricky's getting a little more ink from Playboy... 

Hear what Ricky, an Olympic gold medalist and world champion, had to say about the suit rip and his incredible performance at World Championships on GOLD MEDAL MINUTE (as seen on SWIMNETWORK: 

Exclusive DUEL in the POOL "RACE VIDEOS"

Here are a few of the best races from DUEL IN THE POOL. 

Men's 400 Medley, where NICK THOMAN breaks the 100m back WORLD RECORD on the leadoff:

  

Julia Smit's 200 IM world record:

Michael Phelps' loss to the The Limey, Michael Rock (who wore a full bodysuit):

In the Men's 100m free, Nathan Adrian continues his march toward historic studdom: 

100m back, Nick Thoman breaks the world record, but gets Dairy Queen-ed: 

50 FREE, a Nathan Adrian / Matt Grevers 20-second ripper! These guys are Team USA's new and true sprint kings, our future team leaders. Both guys couldn't be nicer or brighter. Grevers is a North Western grad, and Adrian will be a Cal grad. (I think they'll be our go-to speakers and emcees for future corporate events and Olympic parties):

WOMEN'S 100 BREAST, Rebecca Soni takes down the world mark:

Remember, NBC will air their full coverage of DUEL IN THE POOL, December 27th, 2-4pm EST.

For a complete list of the races, go to SWIMNETWORK, USA Swimming's home for all things aquatic. 

Happy Holidays to all my friends and swimmer-friends from around the world. Expect more inside news next year, right here on GMM...

New DUEL in the POOL video, Women's 100 FLY
Here's another video clip from Duel, the women's 100 fly, won by Francesca Halsall with a 55.71. (Thanks again Otterswim!) 

If someone, anyone, has any more video clips, please send them my way. Remember, DUEL IN THE POOL airs Dec 27th, 2-4pm EST on NBC.

If you're a swimophile who can't get enough "insider" info, follow my goldmedalmel swimmer list on twitter. It's oddly entertaining what and how swimmers tweet through their days....

More DUEL IN THE POOL VIDEO: Michael Phelps & Michael Rock

Duel in the Pool video has been hard to come by. Here's the latest from Mirror.co.uk, and it's gem.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/video/sport/2009/12/20/team-usa-wins-duel-in-the-pool-115875-21910999/

Interesting how the Mirror didn't mention that MICHAEL ROCK was sleeved in the about to be banned hi-tech rubberized suits, while Michael Phelps, aka MR. SWIMMING, wasn't.  Still, beating Phelps in the 200 fly is a fantastic feat by any standards.  The British swimmer--who will surely be christened the ROCK--has a lot to prove once he's swimming in what I think of as "biker shorts". (I hate jammers, but they're all we've got. I wish we'd just go old school, back to the banana boats.) 

Michael Phelps never fails to impress me as a sportsman, a true gentleman athlete. Once again he didn't cite the hi-tech suits as the reason for why he lost. As he did regarding his 200 free loss to Paul Biedermann back at the World Championships in Rome, Phelps simply said he wasn't prepared to win, that he wasn't conditioned enough to bring home the victory. I think Phelps is more heroic in quiet moments like these. He's so damn gracious he almost transcends the idea of the humility.

Here's Phelps in the 200 free WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP press conference, right after his loss: 

A PREDICTION:  Michael Phelps first world record in the new (old) age of the jammer will be the 200 butterfly. He'll swim faster than his 2007 World Championship time at the 2010 Pan Pacs. In 2011, he'll break his rubberized 1:51 (wearing the jammer), but only by a fingernail. In 2012...look out. Prepare to be wowed... Or maybe not...considering we're talking about Phelps...

Michael Phelps Duel in the Pool Domination?

Phelps didn't exactly dominant in his jammer, but we didn't expect him to. I'm glad he's not catching heat for what was clearly a competition through which he raced admirably.

Phelps is so focused on his training cycle (his slow ramp up to Pan Pacs), he simply uses meets like DUEL IN THE POOL--in the aquatically awkward month of December--to sharpen his sword.

Bloggers and columnists are blasting out their criticisms of DUEL in the wake of the U.S. slaughter over the E-stars. It all feels (and reads) like "swimming theatre" to me, an expected wrap-up episode to our sport's episodic blip on the global stage.

Here's what some swimming "Monday Morning Quarterbacks" say: the competition needs to be more competitive, needs to be televised live, needs to be shot like a gladiatorial event...

I'm guilty of making the same criticisms. I do it all the time, and I'm sick of playing the game.

THE TRUTH: Swimming, as a global community, is fractured with a multitude of competing egos and ideas. Until we have one plan and one voice (and one truly pro league), bloggers and columnists will always quibble over our twice a year truly international swim meets.

Forces (true players in swimming) have come together to try and hammer out a business plan for a pro league. While they haven't thus far, take solace in that they have at least taken the time meet.

Duel in the Pool, 100 Fly

First clip in (thanks to Melissa, my new best friend).

Michael Phelps comes from behind in the 100 fly.

Phelps is just racing through the meet, finding his legs. He's about Pan Pacs next August in Irvine, California.

Duel in the Pool or Slaughter in the Water

The title comes from Eric Shanteau's tweet, and it hits the nail on the head.

I was pumped to see the US v E-star showdown. After seeing the official results, however, the match-up doesn't mean much. I'm excited to see the races (on NBC next week), but only because I'm swim-geek.

And why is it "Speedo" has the only teaser video (posted above)? Could someone please send me a cool clip......

Duel in the Pool, TEASER VIDEO

Records are falling fast, but the coverage won't be airing in the U.S. on NBC until Dec 27th. The biggest news, in my opinion, is Nathan Adrian's win in the 100m short course free. He's continuing his march toward sprint stud-dom, and perhaps the only man on earth who will be able to challenge Cesar Cielo (who just broke the 50m free world record w/a 20.91 in Brazil). Nick Thoman's world record in the 100 back leadoff (on the 400 medley) deserves our attention. Nick's had disappointments since '08 struggling to become the world's best, but he's hung in there, and now I believe he has truly proved himself! Under coach David Marsh (SwimMAC) you can count on Thoman to continue his hard charge ahead...

On Swimnetwork in 2010, I will have the honor of rubbing shoulders with the men above (and all of the great US swimmers). Duel in the Pool, for many, is just a chance to tune up and find their race legs. I expect a lot more drama in the pool over the spring and into the summer at PAN PAC CHAMPIONSHIPS.

Also in 2010, I will have the honor of working for the USA Swimming Foundation, continuing our drive to raise money for MAKE A SPLASH, our nationwide "learn to swim" program. Look for Chris (aka Labi) and I "on the road" all year, meeting champions from the past and present, as we discuss this important cause--- TO TEACH EVERY CHILD IN AMERICAN TO SWIM.

Best,
GMM

Cesar Cielo breaks the 50 FREE WORLD RECORD

Cesar kicks ass, going a 20.91, and somehow manages not to cry afterward...though we all love it when he does. The guy lives and swims with pure emotion, a quality we should all aspire to!

César Cielo recebe medalha de ouro pela conquista dos 50m livre - 18/12/09

Cesar continues to kickass!