Splashdown 2009 replay

The entire event was recorded and can be replayed here:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1449250

It was cool. I'm not going to spoil it by saying who won.  No way is Charlie Lydecker 45 years old!

Update on the time of the Splashdown 2009 swim

According to the Daily Reezy twitter, the 200 IM showdown between Ryan and Charlie Lydecker will take place at 8:30 p.m. EDT. I'll be watching the live stream here:

http://media.www.dscinmotion.com/media/storage/paper1037/news/2009/04/01/Sports/Splashdown.2009-3729428.shtml

French Nationals - results in 100/200m back, 200/400m IM and 100/200m free

The French nationals were held last week in Montpellier. World records were set in the 50m and 100m free (more on that below). The times and improvements were sick. Here are the top 2 times for each event, except for the 400m IM and 200m free, in which only one swimmer achieved a top-25 time for 2009:

100m back
Jeremy Stravius - 53.16
Benjamin Stasiulis - 53.27

Jeremy Stravius' personal best time prior to this meet was 55.68 in May 2008. He did not qualify for the Beijing Olympics. Now he has the third best time in the world in 2009. Benjamin Stasiulis swam this event in the Olympics but his time was 55.08, good enough for a 25th place finish. His time improved by nearly 2 seconds and is the 4th best time in the world in 2009.

200m back
Pierre Roger - 1:56.64
Benjamin Stasiulis - 1:57.90

Pierre Roger's best time prior to this meet was 1:58.42 in April 2008. Roger's time in this event at Beijing was 1:59.01, which did not qualify him for the semi-finals. His time in this meet showed an improvement of more than 2 seconds since the Olympics. Stasiulis' best time prior to this meet was 1:58.81 in 2007. He did not qualify for the Olympics in 200m back. Roger and Stasiulis have the 10th and 13th best times in this event in 2009.

200m IM
Darian Townsend - 1:57.03 and 1:58.85
Fabien Horth - 1:59.58

Darian Townsend (South Africa) swam this event in Beijing, recording a personal best time of 1:59.22 and making it to the semi-finals and finishing 11th. He has improved his personal best by 2 seconds since then.

Fabien Horth's best time prior to this meet was 2:02.69 in April 2008. He did not qualify for the Olympics in this event but dropped more than 2 seconds in the past year.

400m IM
Anthony Pannier - 4:16.97

Pannier's best time in this event prior to this meet was 4:23.33 in March 2009. He did not qualify for the Olympics. He improved by more than 6 seconds in one month. That's what I would call a good taper.

100m free
Alain Bernard - 46.94 (WR)
Fred Bousquet - 47.15

There isn't anything I can say about this event that has not been said by many others before. Both of these guys are Olympians and are amazing swimmers who obviously work very hard. Whether or not their results were enhanced by suits is beyond my knowledge of the sport. All I know is they are fast.

Here is a video of the finals, won by Fred Bousquet in a personal best time of 47.15.




Here is the video of the semi-finals where Alain Bernard set the world record of 46.94:



200m free
Ahmed Mathlouthi - 1:47.65

Mathlouthi's (Tunisia) best time prior to this meet was a 1:48.53 in March 2009. He improved by nearly 1 second in this meet.

Splashdown 2009 - Thursday, April 30 - Watch Ryan compete in the 200 IM

http://www.daytonastate.edu/marketing/pr/splash_down.html

Splashdown 2009 will take place tomorrow (Thursday, April 30) at Daytona State College. In this event, Ryan will race Charlie Lydecker in the 200 IM. The purpose is to raise money for the college, where Ryan's father coaches the swim team.

The good news for those of us who live far, far away from Florida, is the event will be streamed live at this web site: http://media.www.dscinmotion.com/media/storage/paper1037/news/2009/04/01/Sports/Splashdown.2009-3729428.shtml

Tune in from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. EDT tomorrow.

Charlie Lydecker is 45 years old and crazy a very brave man. Hope they raise a lot of money.

Ryan forgot to tie his suit in Beijing in the finals of the 200m back

After the 200m back in Beijing, Ryan told the Today Show that the tie on his suit came loose when he jumped in the water before the race.



In a recent interview with Universal Sports, Ryan admitted he forgot to tie it. That's kind of a big oops. It's amazing that he won under the circumstances. Ryan said he could have gone 1 second faster if the suit had been tied.
http://www.universalsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&ATCLID=3728980

Ryan also talked in the interview about how prior to the start of the Olympics, he got sick from drinking tap water in Beijing. It's in the past now, but I can't help but feel bad that this easily preventable illness hurt Ryan's performance in the 400m IM and kept him out of the 4 x 100m free relay prelims. I suspect he'll never make a mistake like that again when competing overseas.

In the interview Ryan says he is in hard training now, swimming 80,000 meters per week (12,000 - 16,000 meters a day for doubles and 6,000 - 7,000 meters a day for singles). He is also doing weight lifting and core exercises multiple times a week.

Ryan is planning to swim in both the Charlotte Ultraswim (May 14-17) and Santa Clara Grand Prix (June 11-14). Ryan said in the interview that Michael Phelps is going to start swimming the backstroke events. Phelps told ESPN last week that he plans to swim four events at the Ultraswim, including the 100/200 free and the 100 fly. Phelps did not reveal his final event, and there is speculation that it will either be the 100 back or 50 free. I do not think he will compete in the 200 back because it is just before the 100 free on the last day of the meet. Still, you never know.
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/swimming/news/story?id=4089582

It's hard to wait for the U.S. nationals when most countries have already had their Rome qualifying event. It will be interesting to see what happens at the GP events in May and June.

Rome 2009 Preview - Lots of fast times in 100/200m back, 100/200m free and 200/400m IM

(thanks so much to somexseptember at Daily Reezy for the photo of Ryan, which was captured from the Speedo behind the scenes video found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PsfypVO7GY)

http://www.swimnews.com/rank
A review of the swimnews.com 2009 rankings for the 100/200m back, 100/200m free and 200/400m IM reveals some very fast times in March and April. Many of the performances I've already noted here, but others warrant attention as well.

100m Back
Junya Koga swam a 52.87 at the Japanese nationals last week, only .33 off of Aaron Peirsol's world record and the 3rd best time ever in this event. (Only Peirsol and Randall Bal have had faster times.) Ryosuke Irie came in second with a 53.19, the 3rd best time in the world in 2009. By comparison, Ryan's 53.92 is now the 10th fastest time in the world in 2009.

200m Back
I've already written about Irie's 1:54.02 last weekend at the Japanese nationals and his 1:54.74 in January 2009. I haven't mentioned that Takashi Nakano swam a 1:56.77 in the Japanese nationals and Damiano Lestingi swam a 1:56.91 in the Italian nationals in March. By comparison, Ryan's 1:57.73 is the 8th fastest time in the world in 2009.

Notably in the 100m/200m back, there haven't been any times put up by Aaron Peirsol or Michael Phelps in 2009. Peirsol swam only the prelims at the Austin Grand Prix in March and the prelims were in yards.

100m Free
It would be great for Ryan do well in this event in order to qualify for the 4 x 100m free relay in Rome. He's not really a sprinter (especially if he continues to swim the 400m IM) so I don't think he would qualify in the 100m free as an individual event. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that the best time in the world thus far in 2009 was a 48.11 at the Spain nationals by Filippo Magnini. Magnini also swam a 48.28 at the Italian nationals in March. The other two best times this year came from Eamon Sullivan in the Australian nationals - 48.24 and 48.34. There are no U.S. swimmers in the top 23 times this year. Ryan's best time in this event was 48.65 at the 2008 Olympic trials; his best time in 2009 was 50.58 at the Missouri GP.

200m Free
I've already written about Lin Zhang's 1:45.83 at the Chinese nationals and Marco Belotti's 1:46.33 at the Italian nationals. The best time this year by a U.S. swimmer was 1:46.57 by Peter Vanderkaay at the Austin GP. Ryan's best time this year was 1:48.17 at the Speedo South Sectionals in March.

200m IM
Five Japanese swimmers had times in the top 11 for 2009 at the Japanese nationals last week. Ken Takakuwa swam the best time in the world in 2009 with a time of 1:57.24. Takuro Fujii swam a 1:59.09, the 5th best time in the world this year. Yuma Kosaka had the 7th best time with a 1:59.59 and Hidemasa Sano had the 8th best time with a 1:59.62. Takayuki Ono had the 11th best time with a 1:59.86. That's unbelievable. Also last week, Duarian Townsend swam a 1:58.33 twice at the African nationals for the 3rd best time in the world this year. The fastest time by an American this year was Eric Shanteau's time of 1:59.31 at the Austin GP. Ryan's best time in 2009 was a 1:59.96 at the Speedo South Sectionals.

400m IM
The Japanese swimmers performed extremely well in this event as well last week. Ken Takakuwa had the 2nd and 3rd fastest times in the world in 2009 with a 4:12.41 and 4:12.56 at the Japanese nationals. Yuka Horihata swam a 4:13.69 and a 4:14.79 which were 5th and 8th in the world respectively this year. Hidemasa Sano and Yosuke Mori had the 11th and 12th best times with a 4:15.89 and 4:16.04 respectively.

I've already written about the best time in the world this year, a 4:12.39 by Thomas Haffield at the British nationals. I've also written about Luca Marin's 4:13.10 at the Italian nationals, the 4:14.06 by Lewis Smith at the British nationalss and the 4:14.16 by Hungary's David Verraszto at the Spanish Nationals. Ryan's best time in this event in 2009 was 4:19.49 at the Missouri GP.

Tyler Clary Article - events he plans to enter at U.S. nationals

According to an article in the Riverside (CA) Press-Enterprise, Tyler Clary plans to enter the following events at U.S. Nationals:

200- and 400-meter IM, the 200 and 400 free, the 100 backstroke and the 200 butterfly.

At first I was surprised the 200 back was not included, but then assumed Tyler wants to avoid the dreaded "Lochte double" of 200IM/200back. Can't blame him for that.

I'm wondering if Tyler will change his mind about swimming the 200m IM over the 200m back. He came in 3rd in the 200m back at the 2008 U.S. Olympic trials behind Ryan and Aaron Peirsol. Nobody really knows the kind of shape Peirsol is in, although it should become clear before July. Tyler may have a good shot at the #2 spot in that event behind Ryan.

Michael Phelps may swim the 200m IM along with Ryan and Eric Shanteau. All three of those swimmers would likely finish ahead of Tyler.

I wonder how Ryan feels about swimming both the 200 back and 200 IM in 2009. He did such a great job at the Olympic trials and the Olympics. It was one of the most impressive feats in all of swimming in 2008.

The fact that 200 back and 200 IM will be on the same day at the 2009 World Championships will present Tyler (and Ryan) with some difficult decisions. Interestingly, Tyler has indicated he will swim 100m back and 200m free, which are also set for the same day. Whether to swim both of those event or focus on one will present a difficult decision for Ryan as well.

A link to the article is posted below.

http://www.pe.com/sports/breakout/stories/PE_Sports_Local_S_clary_21.35d6a90.html

Video of Ryosuke Irie's 1:54.02 swim in the 200m back

I can't get the video to embed, but here is the youtube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2JNqv4aB5U

His turns are nothing special, but man is he fast.

Major League Swimming? Professional Swimming Association? Whatever it's called, we need one

One significant way USA Swimming could have capitalized on the popularity of swimming after the Beijing Olympics would have been to create a professional swimming league. Yes, they were hamstrung by Michael Phelps' decision to take 5 months off after the Olympics. Phelps' fame and talent would without a doubt be the #1 key to the success of a professional swimming league. Could he have been enticed to return to swimming earlier if plans for a professional swimming league were in place? We'll never know. Maybe bong gate could have been avoided.

In any event, USA Swimming needs to consider starting a professional swimming league soon. A good time to start would be the fall of 2009 after NBC televises the U.S. Nationals and World championships in Rome. Public interest in swimming will be on the rise again and the window of opportunity would for a moment be wide open. They definitely need to do it before 2012, when Michael Phelps retires for good and he is lost to the sport forever.

Imagine Phelps and Lochte and Peirsol racing each other once a month in different events. A professional swimming league would give swimmers like Jason Lezak, Peter Vanderkaay, Garrett Weber-Gale and Eric Shanteau a high level competition on a regular basis and a way to earn a living through swimming.

We've read articles about Jason Lezak's struggles to find sponsors so he can continue to train as a full-time job. If an Olympian as famous as Lezak is having trouble finding sponsors, what about non-Olympian National Team members like Nick Thoman and Ben Hesen? Professional swimming would give these guys a way to continue competing and training.

What are guys like Michael Kleuh, Alex Righi and Rex Tullius going to do after college? If a professional swimming league existed, then like athletes in other sports, they would have an organized outlet for earning a living and competing. If a professional swimming league existed, it is possible that college graduates like Doug Van Wie and David Cromwell would not need to be training in Europe (although that is awesome).

The USA Grand Prix events are the closest thing the U.S. has to a professional swimming league. However, the Grand Prix events in their current format are lame. The only financial prize is $20,000 for the overall winner. Mary Descenza had the 2009 prize wrapped up after the first Grand Prix meet in Minnesota. Moreover, $20,000 is hardly enough of a prize to entice anyone to train hard and compete. Professional swimmers are competing in the Grand Prix events for the chance to race, because that is the only opportunity they have in the U.S. Nevertheless, the competition is generally mediocre. In many Grand Prix events the professional swimmers easily win their events. A professional swimming league would ensure a high level of competition and fiancial reward for all swimmers who participate.

How would this work financially? A professional swimming league could be modeled after Major League Soccer. Swimming is similar to soccer in that many children participate in the sport and continue on into adulthood. Nevertheless, like soccer, swimming has not taken off as a mainstream popular sport like golf or tennis in terms of fans who don't participate but enjoy watching and following it.

In the MLS, all teams are owned by the league. Player contracts are negotiated by the league and the contracts are between the league and the players and not the players and the individual teams. Revenues are shared equally among all teams. All of this works to keep costs down and to help ensure that the league survives. All of the corporate sponsors of USA Swimming and individual swimmers could be called upon to redirect sponsorship funds into the professional swimming league.

If a professional swimming league became financially successful, then it could gradually move away from this financial model and operate more like other professional sports. But in the first instance the financial goal would need to be the survival of the league over and above anything else, including compensation of swimmers. In other words, the survival of the league would be paramount even if it meant all swimmers were paid the same salary to participate. Michael Phelps and others who could earn additional money through endorsements would still be able to do so.

Would swimmers need to move to new cities and possibly be leave their long-time coaches? Maybe. I'm sure Michael Phelps loves living in Baltimore and Ryan Lochte loves living in Gainesville. But if they had to move to a new city and leave their coaches for the good of the sport wouldn't they do it? I doubt it was Brett Favre's first choice to live in Green Bay for 16 years. But he did it because that was the professional football team he played for and that's how professional sports work. Yes, sacrifices will need to be made and people will have to accommodate change. Nothing great ever happens without change and sacrifice.

In order for this to work, media support through television and the internet would be critical.
Swimnetwork.com apparently has a monopoly on the media coverage of the Grand Prix events. The job they do is sporadic at best. For some meets they have a live web cam for prelims but it's hard to figure out what is going on. For some meets videos of the finals are posted, but the participants are not always identified and little to no insight into race strategy or history is provided. Other meets have no coverage at all and other media outlets are precluded from covering them because of swimnetwork's exclusive rights. Does this make any sense at all? Swimnetwork has only a few interviews with the swimmers and without Gold Medal Mel (who is great), there would be nothing.

USA Swimming needs to allow outlets like floswimming.com become a more active participant in meet coverage. If there's competition in this area, the best will rise to the top. Failing that, let the guys at floswimming work with swimnetwork.com to report on these events. Isn't it better for fans and swimming to use the best swimming reporters? Every time I watch a floswimming interview or race video I learn something new. This should be the goal of USA Swimming. Combine the best of swimnetwork.com (Gold Medal Mel) and with floswimming.com and internet coverage of meets would be great.

Finally, television coverage of swimming events must improve. Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines are fine but they could be so much better. I cringe every time I rewatch the men's 4 x 200 meter free relay from the Olympics. The entire time Dan Hicks thought it was the 4 x 100 meter relay. He sounded surprised when the swimmers kept going after 100 meters and new swimmers didn't dive in. What better way to get improved television coverage than to have more events on tv? More events means more announcers, more chances for the announcers to get to know the swimmers, more chances for the announcers to learn about the different events and more chances for viewers to learn about and fall in love with watching swimming.

Television coverage of the NCAA meets is a complete joke. I watched not only the 90-minute NCAA championship coverage on ESPN2 but also the television coverage of the SEC and Big 10 Championships. The television coverage was done after the meets were held and the results were known. This is anti-climactic to say the least. The announcers made comments only about the top 1 or 2 swimmers in each event, foreclosing the possibility of the viewers learning about up and coming swimmers. Even so, little information was provided about the top swimmers. Many of the events were not shown in their entirety, but were abbreviated. The telecasts were boring and not informative. The feeling of anticipation and competition and the thrill of the race so prevelent in the Olympics was overwhelmingly absent.

I acknowledge that many of my observations may be viewed as superficial because I know very little about the financial side of professional swimming. For instance, I have no idea how professional swimmers pay their coaches, many of whom are also employed by universities. It may be unrealistic for an MLS model to work in swimming, but it would be interesting to hear the reasons and to see if some alternative solutions could be reached.

It saddens me that so many U.S. world-class swimmers have such a difficult time continuing their training after college because they cannot find the financial support they need. It also saddens me that the general public is so completely interested in swimming every 4 years during the Olympics but then promptly forgets that the sport exists because of the lack of media coverage. A professional swimming league would be fantastic, but needs to be started while stars like Michael Phelps, Aaron Peirsol and Ryan Lochte are still swimming.

This post is about why a professional swimming league is needed. I will write more about how I think it could work.

Ryosuke Irie swims 1:54.02 in 200m back - only .08 slower than Ryan Lochte's WR

http://www.swimnews.com/News/view/6799

I was really afraid Ryosuke Irie would break Ryan's 200m back WR at the Japanese nationals. He didn't break it, but he came incredibly close - .08 seconds.

Here's what Irie said about the race as quoted in the swimnews.com article:

"I was very disappointed because I targeted to break the world record," Irie told local reporters. "I want to put this disappointment behind me at the world Championships in July. You cannot make it unless you try to do it from the very beginning. I felt so good at the 50m and 100m points. I'll do my best to live up to the expectations of the people."

Also from the swimnews.com article is a comparison of Ryan's and Irie's split times:

"The 200m backstroke splits compared:

Lochte: 27.24; 55.77; 1:25.06; 1:53.94
Irie: 27.08; 56.22; 1:25.34; 1:54.02

Irie's first and last laps faster, then, than Lochte's."

This isn't entirely accurate. Actually, Irie swam faster than Ryan for the 1st, 3rd and 4th laps, but much slower for the 2nd lap. The breakdowns for each 50 were as follows:

Lochte: 27.24; 28.53; 29.29; 28.88
Irie: 27.08; 29.14; 29.12; 28.68

Irie lost the WR on his 2nd lap, not on the back half of the race. Still, an extremely impressive swim.

Ryosuke Irie - 200m Back

Ryosuke Irie of Japan has the best time in the world so far this year for the 200m back - 1:54.74. This is more than a second faster than the 2nd best time, which was 1:55.82 by Ashley Delaney at the Australian Nationals. It is also 3 seconds faster than Ryan's best time this year, which was 1:57.73 at the Missouri Grand Prix.

Irie is shown in the photo next to Ryan in lane 6 after the 200m back in Beijing. Irie finished 5th in the Olympics with a time of 1:55.72. He knocked another second off his time by January 2009 when he swam the 1:54.74. He's the only Olympic finalist who has shown improvement in this event since the Olympics.

Irie is a small guy compared to most swimmers. ESPN lists his height and weight at the Olympics at 5' 9" and 134 lbs. By comparison, Ryan is 6' 2" and 184 lbs. Irie is also really young. His date of birth is January 24, 1990, which means he just turned 19. He could still be growing. He's definitely someone to watch for in Rome.

2009 Spanish Open results + miscellaneous babbling

I can't find any news on Ryan's training and he has not entered in any meets lately so there's not much to write about. I have started forming opinions on a number of swimming topics, but am not ready to write about them without doing some more thinking. For instance, I believe Nick D'Arcy was screwed and I'm starting to think USA Swimming has squandered the opportunity to grow the sport after the Olympics. I could be really off base on these topics, though, and need to think about them some more and accumulate some evidence before articulating the basis for these opinions.

I did not write about the 2009 Spanish Open, which took place earlier this month. This was a mistake because there were some good results at that meet in events Ryan typically swims (100 & 200 back, 100 & 200 free, 200 & 400 IM).

Doug Van Wie, an American training in Europe, had some very impressive times: 1:47.88 in the 200m free and 54.94 in the 100m back. How exciting to be a young professional swimmer training in Europe. That is so cool. Smart move Doug Van Wie, I hope you are having the time of your life.

Aschwin Wildeboer of Spain swam the fastest time in the world in 2009 in the 100m back - 52.93. That is huge. Another 100m back swim under 53 seconds. Ryan has his work cut out for him in this event.

In the 400m IM a Hungarian named David Verraszto swam a 4:14.16, the 4th best time in the world this year. In the 200m IM a Portugese swimmer named Diogo Carvalho swam a 1:59.96, which is tied with Ryan for the 5th best time in the world this year.

In addition, Luca Marin, who came in 4th in the 400IM at the Olympics, swam a 4:13.10 at the Italian championships in March. He is deceptively fast in this event because fly is his weakest stroke so he always starts out behind but then catches up in the end.

The next meet that Ryan is expected to enter is the Charlotte Ultraswim on May 14-17. Tickets are super expensive, most likely because it will be Michael Phelps' first meet since the Olympics. The prices are $100 for all events for festival seating and $450 for assigned seating. That's very expensive for a swim meet and the ladies at Daily Reezy were saying it is almost twice as much as an all event ticket for the U.S. nationals.

It's been so long since Michael Phelps has competed, that I almost forgot how hugely famous he is compared to all of the other swimmers. It's amazing that his presence alone would drive prices that high, but it makes sense given that he's the only swimmer who is a household name. All eyes will be on him and I personally cannot wait to see what events he swims. An MP expert at Daily Reezy said MP is retooling his strokes. Nobody knows exactly what that means, but one theory is that he's changing to a straight-arm freestyle like Eamon Sullivan. If true, could this mean that Michael Phelps is going to be a pure sprinter from now on?

USA Swimming article refers to Tyler Clary as "the next Ryan Lochte or Michael Phelps"

http://www.usaswimming.org/usasweb/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?TabId=1267&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en&ItemId=2417&mid=4153

I am a big fan of Tyler Clary. This article shows he has worked very hard, particularly in the past year, and he has begun to realize his potential. I hope Tyler qualifies for Rome and I look forward to watching him swim for years to come.

Nevertheless, I don't think the real Ryan Lochte is anywhere near finished with his career, and I think he also will continue to improve and achieve great things. Ryan has shown no signs of slowing down after the Olympics, particularly in the IMs and the 200m back, and he is the guy to beat in the U.S., especially if Michael Phelps does not swim those events.

I'd love to see both Tyler and Ryan compete in the 400m IM in Rome. There's a chance they could also both make the U.S. team in the 200m back, but there are several other very stong contenders in that event, including not only Michael Phelps but also Aaron Peirsol.

Tyler's emergence as a great swimmer in all of Ryan's events is a huge benefit to Ryan for the same reason Ryan's emergence was good for Michael Phelps. These guys thrive on competition and racing. The U.S. Trials in July are going to be amazing for swimming fans and Tyler and Ryan will be a huge part of that. I hope they push each other to great times in the 400m IM and 200m back.

Zhang Lin wins 200m Free at Chinese nationals - 1:45.83

http://www.swimnews.com/News/view/6778

Zhang Lin of China, who won silver at the 2008 Olympics in the 400m free, just posted a personal best time of 1:45.83 in the 200m free at the Chinese nationals. Credit swimnews.com (article link above) for the information.

Zhang's time is the fastest time in the world in 2009, but is nevertheless nearly 3 seconds slower than the world record of 1:42.96 held by Michael Phelps. Park Taehwan of South Korea, the Olympic silver medalist in this event and Peter Vanderkaay, the bronze medalist, also have faster times of 1:44.85 and 1:45.14 respectively.

Zhang's time is also slower than Ryan Lochte's best time in the 200m free, which was 1:45.61 at the 2008 Olympic trials. In addition, Ryan swam a 1:44.28 in his leg of the 4 x 200m free relay in Beijing. The fastest time Ryan has posted in this event in 2009 was 1:48.17 at the Speedo South Spring Sectionals in March, good enough for a tie for 21st in the world.

I'd still like to see Ryan swim the 200m free as an individual event for the U.S. nationals (and hopefully Rome). I think he has the capability of swimming as fast in an individual race as he did in the relay - 1:44 or better. It will be interesting to see if Ryan swims this event at the Charlotte Ultraswim in May.

Laci Cseh - Hungarian nationals

http://www.swimnews.com/News/view/6759

Laci Cseh won 5 gold medals at the Hungarian nationals last week. Here are his results:

200m free - 1:48.69

5om back - 25.51

100m free - 50.67

50m fly - 24.38

100m back - 54.21

He apparently didn't swim the 200 or 400 IM or 200 fly. I'm not sure if this meet served as a qualifier for Rome.