Everyone Should Read Cap and Goggles by Casey Barrett

Casey Barrett has quickly become my favorite swimming writer.  He's an Olympic swimmer himself and every column he writes is so good, so insightful.

His columns can be found at capandgoggles.com.  If you read one column, you won't be able to stop until you've read them all.

Read his take on Ryan Lochte's 2012 Olympics, The Art of Mojo, here:

http://capandgoggles.com/2012/08/03/the-art-of-mojo/

My favorite excerpts:

The harsh swing from aqua god to relay goat clearly took its toll on Lochte. This is a champion who thrives on swagger, who’s always been having too much fun to be intimidated. But now the My Time script had changed and doubt descended.

*****

It’s a testament to Lochte’s awesome talent and ambitions that we watched these races with a sense of tragic disbelief. The guy was completing the second hardest Olympic program ever attempted. He won a bronze and a silver in his 12th and 13th swims of his Olympic campaign. These two medals brought him into a three way tie with Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi as America’s second most decorated male Olympic swimmers. Yes, Phelps has double the medals than the next guy, but Lochte has put himself in all-time company.

But he lost two races back to back that he was in shape to win. No disrespect to Tyler Clary, he swam an incredible fearless race and certainly put in the work to become a worthy Olympic champion. (Just ask him how much harder he worked than Phelps!) Yet, Lochte is the superior backstroker. He should not have lost that one.

When he marched out for the 200 IM 39 minutes later, you could see it in his face. Good ‘ol relaxed what-me-worry Ryan Lochte was not around. In his place was a shaken swimmer. The late money at the betting windows was pouring in on Phelps. This one was effectively over halfway through the backstroke leg. To beat Phelps, on any day, there can be no weakness.

*****

Twitter, in all its brainless mob mentality, is already jumping on the Lochte-was-overrated bandwagon. He wasn’t. He is every bit as good as advertised, and he leaves these Games with five medals, two of them gold, tied with past icons with the second greatest medal haul in U.S. Olympic history. But we all know the story is going to be: what went wrong?