Patterico's Pontifications

8/16/2008

Olympian Phelps Goes 8-for-8

Filed under: Sports — DRJ @ 8:47 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Michael Phelps went 8-for-8 as he won his 8th gold medal in the men’s 400 meter medley relay:

“Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Phelps and Jason Lezak won in a world-record of 3 minutes, 29.34 seconds, lowering the old mark of 3:30.68 set four years ago in Athens.”

NBC is worried its ratings will drop now that Phelps’ quest for gold is over, although it “averaged 30 million prime-time viewers over its first eight nights” of Olympic coverage. NBC should be very grateful for Michael Phelps. Maybe it should send him to Disney World.

— DRJ

19 Responses to “Olympian Phelps Goes 8-for-8”

  1. He’s set a record for gold medals, but I thought he had two more events to go where he had a chance to win.

    Steven Den Beste (99cfa1)

  2. No, he had 8 events, in which he set 7 WR, tying Mark Spitz for most WR set in a games. He also has 14 Golds, a silver and a bronze. He’d have 15 Golds but gave a chance at one away in ’04 at the Athens Games in the final relay.

    reff (b68a4f)

  3. 8 for 8!

    WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Cause for celebration. Even Spitz has to be impressed with this man.

    Reff, I’ll bet you he gets his 15th in about 4 years or so. Followed by a couple more.

    Juan (4cdfb7)

  4. Please let Patterico know that some jerk named Phillip Hersch has written an editorial in the Dog Trainer telling us all to “stop hyperventilating” over Michael Phelps. He assures us is no better than the sixth-greatest Olympian of all time. This guy is really an ass–in other words another typical LA Dog Trainer writer.

    Fresh Air (4dfc70)

  5. Unfortunately I haven’t been following Phelps that much. Please tell me he wasn’t paid 50,000 for saying “Now I’m going to Disney World!” 🙁

    Oiram (6ff3d9)

  6. Unfortunately for NBC, it looks like the track and field finals are being held in the evening, meaning that word will have leaked out long before the events air, even on the East Coast. If NBC is smart, they’ll promote the heck out of Usain Bolt in the 200 meters–he just vaporized the 100 meter record without even really trying hard, and he says he’s better in the 200. If the is, Michael Johnson’s record of 19.32 in the 200–a record which I thought might not be broken in my lifetime–suddenly would be very, very vulnerable. Bolt looks like an improved version of Bob Hayes–I don’t pity the US 4 x 100 relay team anchor having to hold off Bolt in the finals.

    M. Scott Eiland (a16843)

  7. Hey reff (comment #2), you are not quite correct. It is true that Michael Phelps did give his spot in the 400 meter Medley Relay to Ian Crocker in the finals of the 2004 games, but Phelps had swum the butterfly leg in the preliminary heats of the event so he ended up winning a gold medal anyway (ever since 1988 the swimmers who serve as alternates for the relays win medals as long as they participate in the prelims). Phelps is now at 14 career golds — 6 in Athens and 8 in Peking.

    DRJ, how come you haven’t posted anything about Dara Torres winning a silver medal at age 41 and swimming two of the best 100 freestyle splits in history? Tonight she swam a 24.07 in the 50 meter freestyle final. It’s a new American record, but she also qualifies as the fastest ever Master’s time in the 40-44 age group by 2.81 seconds. That is over 10% faster than the previous record. It may be a half century before another woman in that age group matches that time. Truly unbelievable.

    And let’s not overlook Jason Lezak’s two excellent relay splits, swum at age 32.

    JVW (3cdc42)

  8. Don’t know if NBC would send anyone to DisneyWorld, especially since the Mouse owns ABC.
    Though, they could send him to UniversalCity.

    Another Drew (688ffe)

  9. I remember watching Mark Spitz win his seven gold medals in Munich – and now to see Phelps win eight is just awesome. Both him and Kobe Bryant’s interview about being proud to be an American are the highlights of the Games so far….and why we should not lose hope about the young men and women in our country.

    USA!
    USA!
    USA!

    fmfnavydoc (28bce2)

  10. Maybe NBC wouldn’t have to worry so much about their ratings if they exercised a little more judgment in their broadcasts. Did anyone see their coverage of the woman’s marathon last night (in PRIME TIME)? They covered it extensively, I mean extensively, showed practically the first hour with no other cut-ins and most of the next hour and a half. Is there anything more boring than the first two and 1/4 hours of a marathon??? and NO, I didn’t watch it, I DVRd, & kept switching back to it, hoping they would come to their senses and show something ELSE). They really pissed me off with that one & I imagine lost plenty of viewers, too…

    Susan (4a69de)

  11. Sure Mike got eight gold medals. But he only go SEVEN world records.

    This utter failure to accomplish what should have been done is nothing short of a completely lost individual who should probably have not competed for our wonderful country.

    At lease the Chinese WOMENS gymnastics team won what they set out to do.

    With all their competetors being at least 12 years old, and since China is the host country, I don’t see why they should not be cut some slack.

    The Chinese flag ‘blowing’ on the flagpole when absolutely not even a breeze was felt is another ‘non event’ in the games where Mike was not able to accomplish anything of real note.

    The ‘footprints’ in the sky were actually there because we all know that television never lies.

    Heck, I think the young singer viewed on the screen will turn out to be China’s version of Britney Spears, or so we all hope.

    I was so happy to view all the filled seats at the venues shown on television, too. I didn’t know mandated seat-fillers earned enough money to buy tickets, but it appears they do.

    It is certainly great that we are watching all the prime time events “Live” as it states on the screen.

    I would hate to be victimized again with that darn 3-hour tape delay that networks use for the west coast.

    Now I don’t want any of you to click onto ‘Google’ and learn the results just about the same time they really occur.

    That might spoil watching the event ‘Live’ on NBC.

    Back to Mike, perhaps he will be able to come back in London in 2012 and attempt to accomplish what he should have accomplished at this, his failed Olympics.

    Tonguefirmly Incheek (edfd6e)

  12. Tongue…
    Had his tongue so firmly in his cheek that it got in the way of his eye-tooth, and he couldn’t see what he was typing.

    Another Drew (688ffe)

  13. I stand corrected…thanks…

    reff (b68a4f)

  14. JVW,

    I intended to post on Torres because she’s a marvel and a great inspiration. But, frankly, I was tired last night and decided to watch the Saddleback forum instead. Fortunately NK picked up the slack with his link above.

    DRJ (a5243f)

  15. Dara Torres. SILD. A swimmer I’d like to date.

    God bless the Olympics…

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  16. The list of olympians who are hot was epic this year… From the Brazillian twins to basicly every single female the US fielded*, I really, really need to work for the 2012 summer games…

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  17. NK #8 and Scott #16:

    At the risk of sounding like an old fuddy-duddy, I kind of hope that Dara eschews the almost-obligatory layout in Playboy. No need for her to go the Katarina Witt/Amanda Beard/Amy Acuff route. I had a crush on her back when she swam at the 1984 Olympics at age 16, and I would prefer to leave some things to the imagination.

    JVW (836de9)

  18. Better yet, let’s get their anchors and others to stop using negatives when speaking about Phelps and our country. You need to listen closely, but for those that understand the English lexicon, it’s easy.

    Sue (4d3ef7)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0885 secs.