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