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?