NCAA Update - Florida Senior Champs - PR Failure

My prediction yesterday that Tyler Clary's time in the 200IM would be faster than Bradley Ally's was way wrong. Tyler swam a 1:43.23, which was good enough for a win and a new Big 10 record, but not better than Ally's time of 1:41.96. It will be an interesting race between those two at the NCAA's.

The Florida Senior Spring Championships started in Orlando today. I will update with Ryan's results once I can figure out where to find them.

Finally, Ryan's fabulous new PR firm PMK failed him last week. Ryan attended a store opening in NYC that was sponsored by a group called "Save Venice." While at the opening, a reporter asked Ryan to talk about his personal relationship with Venice. Ryan was caught off guard, and the following report was published.


I know nothing about public relations, but it seems like the goal is to protect your client and always make him look good. If you take your famous client to an event sponsored by a cause, and you know the press will be there, it seems logical to learn something about it in advance and supply your client with a short answer to give in case anyone asks.

The publicist could have told Ryan that Venice, being largely under water, experiences frequent flooding that endangers the priceless art located there. The goal of "Save Venice" is to prevent the art from being damaged by flooding. That's all he needed to know. His answer could have been: "I've never been to Venice, but I've heard a little about what 'Save Venice' is doing to prevent art from being destroyed by flooding. I'm actually here for Fashion Week, but this sounds like a good cause so I'm happy to be here to support it."

Ugh. It was a douche move to publish the article just to make Ryan look bad, but he's famous now and I guess that's what happens to famous people. Hopefully PMK will make sure this doesn't happen again.