The Swimmers Circle, one of my favorite blogs, had an entry earlier today called "Thoughts from the Indianapolis Grand Prix." It was written by Tom Willdridge, who also writes for a different blog I like called Speed Endurance Swimming Blog.
Here's what was said about Ryan:
• It is hard to imagine how Ryan Lochte felt about the weekend. His 100m Back time, 54.08, was superb and just 0.7 seconds off his best time. A future 52-second 100m Back effort looks to be a certainty rather than a possibility for Lochte. His other times were strong, although not spectacular. Swimming in (colourful) briefs he is clearly has his mind set on later in the year. However, in one weekend Phelps has essentially dismissed 2010 as a ‘nothing year’. If you took a straw poll of who the best swimmer in the world is right now, I doubt Lochte occupies the top spot any longer.
It must be grating for Lochte to have to answer all the old questions about Phelps’, rather than his own greatness. Interestingly he reverted to the age old media tactic of quoting his coach, ‘my coach says this is the best he’s seen me in the past four years’.
Read the full blog here: http://theswimmerscircle.com/blog/featured/thoughts-from-the-indianapolis-grand-prix/
Read the Speed Endurance blog here: http://speedendurance.blogspot.com/
I think what he is saying is Ryan had a good meet, especially given how hard Ryan trains in season. The 100m back time really is exciting. I can't wait to see if Ryan will get a shot at swimming back in the the medley relay at Worlds now that Aaron Peirsol has retired.
Ryan is going to have a really tough choice at Olympic Trials with the 100 back and 200 free on the same day. Does he give up the 200 free as an individual event and go for the 100 back like he did in 2008? Or does he give up the 100 back and go for the 200 free? Does he go for both? It's such a hard double, especially when he has another hard double later in the week with the 200 IM/200 back.
I'm sure he wants to avoid what happened at the 2008 Olympic Trials, which had to be heartbreaking. He decided to skip the 200 free final and concentrate on the 100 back. He finished 3rd. At the end of Trials, Ryan had the second fastest time in the 200 free, but because it was achieved in semi-finals and not the finals, it didn't count towards qualifying. Thus, he didn't qualify for either individual event.
Given how well Ryan swam the 200 free last summer, it has to be tempting to pick that event over the 100 back if he has to pick one. But qualifying in the 100 back gets him in the 400 medley relay. The U.S. has so many world class 100 backstrokers, so the risk factor of finishing 3rd or lower increases. But the retirement of Aaron Peirsol changes that a bit because he used to have one spot all tied up. The swimmers are now essentially competing for 2 open spots rather than just one.
It will be so interesting to see how it all unfolds
1 comment:
I am hoping he's training for the doubles. He's been quoted as saying he's "putting all his marbles in one basket" for London 2012. The "experts" seem to feel he's not far off from a 52 second 100 back. I have no idea what he will decide to do but my lactate levels are elevated just thinking about it! ;)
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