Will He Be Back?

Considering the comeback chances of Michael Phelps...  I think he'll be back. So does Rowdy Gaines. So do many others... Is this a selfish instinct? A refusal to admit that swimming's meal ticket has really left the table? Probably. It's hard to imagine an Olympics without Phelps in the pool. It hasn't happened this century.

No one in swimming wants to consider this. There's an undercurrent of panic swirling around Phelps's departure. The guy achieved his ultimate goal: he changed the sport. In remarkable ways that couldn't be conceived a generation ago, swimming is appreciated by a much wider world. And it is practiced in ways that were inconceivable back when Phelps burst on the scene in 2000.

Just take a look at the guy who beat Phelps in the 200 fly, Chad Le Clos. The South African is a direct descendent of the Phelps gene pool. He swam the same events as Phelps in London because he was imitating his hero. Ryan Lochte would never have attempted that brutal program if Phelps hadn't done it first. Same goes for Missy Franklin and her seven-event London campaign.

NBC airs swimming beyond the Olympics now, at the World Championships, the Pan Pacs, the U.S. Nationals, the Dual in the Pool, because of one guy. Like it or not, that's why they're there. Question is, will they stay now that he's gone? Fortunately, they probably will, thanks to the folks he inspired - with Lochte and Franklin at the top of that list.

The sport will be just fine. Phelps has left it in great hands. However, make no mistake, he has not left for good.

Here's why:

In the immediate aftermath of Phelps's last race, Michael Jordan was the first person he thought of. Teared up, he couldn't quite get Jordan's name out, but he alluded to His Airness in his on deck interview with NBC's Andrea Kremer. A little while later Phelps expanded on that sentiment in his studio interview with Bob Costas. Seems Michael always wanted to Be Like Mike. And he was. They're both the greatest ever. (Note: They have more in common than that. Take a look at this piece posted last January: The Two Mikes)

As we know, the first Mike came back. He couldn't stay away because he couldn't get enough. Nothing else compared. The first thing Phelps mentioned when asked what he was going to do with his time was golf. He spoke of the game in that way of superstars who are baffled on the links, who are determined to prove that it can't be that hard. Hell, have you seen how out of shape some of those guys on the Tour are? Yeah, Jordan thought the same thing. Thought the same thing about cards too. These competitive vices fill the hole, sure. But when you're only mediocre at the games, it's hard to get the same buzz. No matter how much you wager.

Phelps will realize this. It will take about two years. About that time, the 2014 Winter Olympics will be getting started. The Olympic theme will suddenly be ubiquitous again; Phelps will be bombarded with a million media requests. He'll probably head over to Sochi, Russia to watch some of the action in person. (His agent, Peter Carlisle, got his start in winter sports and Octagon represents a load of Team USA's greatest Winter Olympians, guys Phelps is friendly with...) This will get the comeback juices flowing.

Back in early 2006, I got to know and work with Erik Vendt, while he was a few years into a first retirement of his own. He hung up the goggles after a second 400 IM silver in Athens and moved to New York. Joined us teaching at Imagine Swimming. At least until he heard that Olympic theme playing on NBC as the Torino Winter Games began in February, 2006. He was back in the water at Michigan by spring. His training partner, the guy who convinced him to come back? That would be Phelps.

Don't underestimate that siren's song. John Williams's score, the one that NBC plays eight million times every day in and out of commercials, it does something to these guys. It's like your coach's whistle from the deck. When you hear it, you respond to it. It's involuntary and as irresistible as your kid calling your name.

Over the years, Phelps has gone out of his way to state that he's never wanted to be swimming at age 30. Never wanted to be one of those old guys out there... This is a funny little hang up of late 20s American men, global Olympic icons or not. There's something about turning 30 that twists guys up, makes them think they're supposed to be doing something else, something grown up and moved on by that point. When Phelps mentions that turning 30 line of demarcation, he's expressing the same am-I-no-longer-young? fear that everyone else feels at his age.

But here's the thing. That feeling vanishes about 30 seconds after you turn 30. You stop giving a shit about your age, about entering some new decade, and you get on with it. If Phelps can stay away through 2014 and the call from the Winter Games, he will be back in the water sometime in the late summer of 2015. He'll be 30, he'll be getting a little bored, and he'll know that he still has it. He will.

In Rio, Phelps won't swim a Phelpsian scorecard of seven or eight events. He'll stick to the ones that come back fastest: the sprints. Here's my prediction: Phelps will be back and he'll swim the 100 fly and the 100 free at U.S. Trials. That's it. He'll be top two in the 100 fly, and be a threat to win again in Rio. In the 100 free, he'll be top four at Trials and join another U.S. relay. A relay with unfinished business. A relay that he will badly want to steal back from France. He won't worry about any revenge in the 200 fly; he'll leave that to his protégé Le Clos. But he's gonna want that relay back.

He'll go to Rio with three races, two relays and one individual, where he'll happen to have a chance to make more absurd history - win an event at four straight Games. Right now he's the only guy to win three straight, but two women did that before him - Australia's Dawn Fraser in the 100 free and Hungary's Krisztina Egerszegi in the 200 back. Phelps isn't real big on tying, in case you haven't noticed. Just one more carrot for Coach Bob, one he's surely already considered...

Of course, all this speculation is pure selfishness. Putting it out there because I want it to happen. It's not like he needs one more never-been-done accomplishment to add to that unprecedented resumé.

Or maybe he does.

Raising Flags

The medals for top swimming nations: Gold - USA / Silver - China / Bronze - France... Others in the mix: South Africa impresses, Aussies underachieve...  The Games ended in the pool as they always do - with Team USA taking the men's medley relay. How could they not? The Olympic champions in the 100 fly, back, and free are all Americans. Their weak link only won bronze in the 100 breast. Doesn't get much more overwhelming than that. Team USA's women were almost equally loaded: Gold medalists in the 100 fly and back, silver in 100 breast, and Olympic champ in the 200 free on the end.

It was quite a showing for the Americans. Always is, but this one stuck out for the sheer diversity on the medal stand. Five different women won individual events, in all four strokes. Five different men won individual gold too; the guys missed the top of the podium only in breaststroke. Needless to say, the preeminent swimming nation remains Team USA.

But despite the continued dominance, the rest of the world continues to close in. No one can be surprised that China is down breathing now the Yanks' throats. They have the greatest medley swimmer on earth in Ye Shiwen and the greatest distance freestyler ever, in Sun Yang. (Disagree with the ever? Hard to argue after that 14.31.0 (?!), but maybe he needs to sweep the 400 and 1500 again in Rio first...) Their women's butterfly corps aren't looking too bad either, with the Olympic champ in the 200 fly and the silver medalist in the 100.

Then there's France, the most overachieving nation in London. They must have surprised even themselves. With apologies to Nathan Adrian and the absent Aussies, France must now be considered the top sprint nation on earth. They took the 50, with a shocker from Laurent Manaudou. Yannick Agnel owned the 200. And of course they snatched the men's 4 x 100 free in that table-turner from Beijing. They also have the Olympic champ in the women's 400 free. Camille Muffat can scratch it out in a steel cage cat fight with Allison Schmitt for the title of best middle distance freestyler in the world.

Much as I loathe the nationalistic medal counting, these numbers are hard to get around. Team USA won 30 medals in London, triple the total of China. France was 5th in the national medal counts, however, their gold medal totals easily elevate them to the bronze spot on the country podium. Japan was actually second in the swimming medal count, with 11. However, none of those were gold and eight were bronze. No disrespect to a great showing by the Japanese, but reaching the top of the podium has to be worth three or four of the "minor" medals.

Tied for third with China with ten overall medal were the Aussies. A decent haul, but let's be honest - they didn't show up in London. They won exactly zero individual gold medals. The last time that happened was at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, when the Americans won all but one of the men's events and the doped East Germans won all but won of the women's races. That's some dubious history for the Aussies, who entered London with a loaded crew of contenders.

The Aussies did take the women's 4 x 100 free really on day one, and they had an excellent showing from Alicia Coutts who swam away with five medals, including two of the individual variety - a bronze in the 100 fly and a silver in the 200 IM. But mostly it was a mess for the Aussies. Their Missile, James Magnussen, failed to launch. If he'd swum to his Aussie Trials best in the 100 free, he would have flat out smoked Nathan Adrian. And his no-show lead off leg in the men's 4 x 100 free set up a shocking no-medal finish in an event they were overwhelmingly favored to win.

Their Commonwealth brethren, South Africa, did show up. The sent out two stunning men's champions: Cameron van der Burgh in the 100 breast, and in the race of the meet, Chad Le Clos in the men's 200 fly. (Note: What is it about the 200 fly that makes it the event of legendary upsets? There was Australia's Jon Sieben taking down Germany's Michael Gross in 1984. There was Misty Hyman taking Susie O'Neill in Sydney. And now there is Le Clos over Phelps in London. All three must rank among the all-time Olympic swimming upsets. In fact, they may be the top three ever, in any event...)

Making it all the more special for South Africa, both van der Burgh and Le Clos are homegrown talents. Neither left for American universities as soon as they got good, as so many do. van der Burgh is currently studying at the University of Pretoria, near Johannesburg, while Le Clos lives and trains in his hometown of Durban. The pair's success has ignited calls for increased funding for South Africa's Olympic swimming hopefuls. As it stands now, only those considered a "serious medal contender" can receive funding. Both van der Burgh and Le Clos qualified and received funding in their Olympic pursuits, however, it's hoped their success will spur a new tier to be created - to help fund those on the rise.

Their homegrown success is also going to reverberate overseas, in other countries where it's still touchy when top talents leave home and head for scholarships in the States... Canada's two medalists in London - Brett Hayden with bronze in the 100 free and Ryan Cochrane with silver in the 1500 - are both homegrown too, but loads of other top Canadians have found their way to American universities. Same goes for plenty of Aussies, Germans, Brazilians, and South Africans, for that matter. Their previous world-beating champions, Penny Heyns and Ryk Neething, both attended college in the States. But who can blame swimmers who leave and head for the U.S.?

As witnessed in London, it remains the mecca of swimming.

Fearless Minds

Ledecky, Franklin, and the fearlessness of youth...  We knew one was coming. Missy Franklin's world record performance in the 200 back might have been the least surprising swim at these upset heavy Games. We expected her to jump in and dominate and that's exactly what she did. In one week, she has gone from the Next One to just The One. The girl swims without fear.

The next next one, Katie Ledecky, no one saw that coming. At least not to that extent, not yet. It was common knowledge that 15-year-old Katie Ledecky was a rising distance star. A fast rising star... She finished 2011 ranked 55th in the world in the 800 free, the 13th fastest American. Her time was 8:36.05. She dropped over 21 seconds this year. (Note to the president of ASCA and others: Has anyone raised one eyebrow over Ledecky's awesome improvements? As you have about Ye Shiwen, who improved far less in 2012 than her fellow teenage Olympic champion...)

Like Franklin (and Ye for that matter), Ledecky doesn't seem to know what fear feels like. She swims from the start with ice cold confidence. Was Ledecky aware of the moment she stepped into? A moment she instantly spoiled for the home crowd from the very first 50. This was the race that the Brits had been anticipating more than any other. Their hometown girl, Becky Adlington, was the defending Olympic champion and the world record holder. She was their best - and only - real hope for individual Olympic gold at the pool. And Adlington was clearly on. She won bronze in the 400 free earlier in the week, with a faster time than her gold medal performance back in Beijing. She was ready to defend her crown. Ledecky put an end to that right quick.

She was out in 1:59.9 at the 200. Out in 4:04.3 at the 400 -- her lifetime best time! (She was 4:05.0 at U.S. Trials...) If anyone expected her to die on the back half, that wasn't happening. She widened her lead until she touched with a never-in-doubt four second victory. Missy Franklin was surely somewhere cheering her on louder than anyone else. She knows exactly how it feels. Or maybe how it doesn't feel.

In the lead up to these Olympics, Time magazine ran a piece about the psychology of choking. Why do some athletes, no matter how well prepared, fail to get it done when it matters most? It has something to do with your prefrontal cortex, that area of the brain that processes information. When you think too much, when you go over every last detail of your race behind the blocks, your prefrontal cortex is flooded. When that happens, it is stealing precious energy away from your motor cortex - the part of your brain that executes. The part that athletes depend on most.

If you've ever wondered why certain athletes sound like, um, not exactly deep thinkers when interviewed, this is a big reason why. You can be a genius in one cortex, the motor side, and less-than-flooded with thought on the prefrontal side.

Clearly this simplistic explanation of brain function does not explain Missy Franklin. Her prefrontal cortex is doing just fine, thanks. She's whip smart when speaking, the best interview on Team USA. Katie Ledecky's post race interviews with NBC's Andrea Kremer were also composed beyond her years. Which makes their fearless performances that much more impressive. Somehow these teenagers are able to shut off all thought behind the blocks and focus on the task at hand.

It turns out that clichéd phrase "in the zone" is quite literally true. When athletes step up and deliver all-time performances at the moment of truth their brains have entered a quiet zone of memory-free execution. It is a beautiful thing to behold.

To put it as your coach would: They just stand up and race.

The Art of Mojo

Ryan Lochte's London campaign... A study in confidence.  On Sunday they called him King Ryan. He was on the cover of every newspaper in the world, but the New York Post said it loudest as usual. On one side of the tabloid, there was a defeated Phelps; the headline beneath him read "Phlop!" And on the other side, there was King Ryan, breaststroking out at you, the crown passed from the front to the back page.

Twenty-four hours later, the Post was calling him a choker, and worse, a guy who refused to stand up and take responsibility after that ill-fated relay. That's how it goes with the tabloids... You can't believe the hyperbole, whether they're anointing you or tearing you down the next day.

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 carried over into the next day, as Lochte swam a good but not great 200 free, an effort that left him just out of the medals in 4th. Even with an all-time performance, he wasn't going to beat Yannick Agnel that night, but with just a bit more of that signature mojo, you had a sense he should have won a hard-charging silver.

He claimed he got it back the next day. After he and his relay mates delivered a dominated gold in the 4 x 200 free, Lochte told NBC's Andrea Kremer that he'd woken up that morning feeling like himself again, feeling like the "jokester Ryan Lochte." It sounded legit, and the next day he threw down a couple of strong semifinals in the 200 back and 200 IM.

His confidence appeared to be restored. Rowdy Gaines told us that the next night would define Lochte's legacy.

Let's hope not. He is much better than he showed tonight. This is a champion who does not get passed with 25 meters to go in his best event. He's not a guy who loses an IM on the backstroke leg either. Yet that's what we watched go down.

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.

What is mojo? The dictionary defines it as "magic charm." The Urban Dictionary, which of course would be Lochte's preferred reference point, defines it as "self-confidence, self-assuredness. As in basis for belief in ones self in a situation." Meaning this is a word that has always personified Lochte.

It certainly did on Saturday, when he stood glowing and grinning with the stars and stripes grill atop the podium. But it seems France's Yannick Agnel swiped it away the next day. This wasn't just a hard-fought silver in a relay. This was losing a lead in the closing meters in a race that had massive meaning for both countries. Lochte felt that in his bones, you know he did. And it seems he couldn't shake it.

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?

It has something to do with that precarious magic charm.

Judging a Champion By Race

Rampant xenophobia fuels cheating allegations against China's medley champion, Xe Shiwen...  We can't be sure. This should go without saying. Declaring total conviction on either side of a cheating debate is foolish. To paraphrase the mighty Doc Counsilman: The only thing I know is that I don't know.

Here's what I do know: There is a very ugly undercurrent beneath the cheating allegations against China's Xe Shiwen. Certain coaches and commentators can go red-faced and deny it all they like, but there is a big dose of xenophobia behind all this. Because if Stephanie Rice or Hannah Miley or Elizabeth Beisel had gone 4:28 in the 400 IM, with an eye-popping final split, no one would be saying a damn thing. All three of those women are fully capable of going 4:28 - that is the final time to remember, not the freestyle split.

Xe Shiwen's gold medal winning times this week in both the 400 and 200 IMs are totally realistic improvements for this 16-year-old phenom. As Bob Costas pointed out last night in NBC's broadcast, these drops are consistent with Michael Phelps's drops at the same age. They're consistent with every fast improving 16-year-old. Hell, when I was 16, I dropped from 4:41 to 4:32 in the 400 IM. (Yes, Ye Shiwen kicks my has-been ass...)

It's not her times or her splits that have sparked this debate, it's the fact that she is Chinese. You can say it's not about race, it's about her country's dubious cheating history, so let's take a look at that. China brought shame on itself back in 1994 when it became overwhelmingly and disgracefully clear that they were doping their athletes in a state-run systematic way. Ye was born in 1996. The China of the 90's and the doped national team it presented to the world back then does not apply to her. Those were different times and a very different still mostly closed China.

The China of 2012 is infinitely more self aware of itself and the way it is perceived by the Western world. It has more to lose now, and it is much more willing to play the game - presumably by the rules.

No, I'm not an apologist or a denier of China's continued lack of human rights. It continues to devalue basic humanity in all sorts of myriad ways - including the way it chooses its future sports stars, identifying them as young as age 6 and removing kids from their families almost completely. This isn't ok, but neither is it for you to judge another culture's choices.

The Chinese swimmers making a major splash in London - Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen - have both spent much of their training time in Australia, working with the legendary Denis Cotterell, aka Grant Hackett's coach. Understandably, Cotterell does not appreciate these allegations against his swimmers. He's defending them all out, claiming he is 100% certain of their innocence. While this 100% claim is unfortunate (see opening lines of this column), it is also what any coach would say about his swimmers. No coach - and I mean not a one, anywhere - can be 100% certain that his superstar swimmer is clean. You don't need to come from a foreign land with a dark past to sneak away and dope for a bit when no one is looking.

When all drug tests are passed, you can only judge the results and the circumstances around it. Ye's homeland might have a shady cheating past, but her accomplishments in London pass the smell test, despite what certain folks are saying. Yes, she out-split Ryan Lochte on the last lap of the 400 IM, but Lochte finished with a time 23 seconds faster - about the same gap as always between women and men. Lochte was also fading (admittedly, after over swimming the first lap of butterfly) and probably subconsciously shutting it down once he realized the gold was in the bag.

Maybe Ye is the product of something dark and dishonest back home. There is no way of knowing for sure, and there is nothing wrong with asking these hard questions in light of her country's misdeeds a generation ago.

However, the rush to judgement reeks of xenophobia. And there is a lot wrong with that.

A Man at Peace

Phelps, the most decorated Olympian ever, reveals a new relaxed persona... The edge is gone. The untouchable, unparalleled competitor, the man who broke spirits with such crushing excellence that gold always seemed like a foregone conclusion. He won races while he was still behind the blocks with that thousand yard stare. And he could never, ever be caught from behind.

That man is gone now and it's both refreshing and disconcerting. We all knew this was his last meet, but I don't think anyone expected it to be this way. Not just because we couldn't conceive of Phelps losing - the 200 fly of all things! - but because he truly seems fine with everything.

He's a man at peace, it seems. With the decisions he's made over the last four years, and with the consequences he's feeling here in London. He's fine with that. He knows he doesn't have a goddamn thing to prove to anyone. And that sense of satisfied closure appears to have made him a much nicer guy.

Now that's not to say that Phelps isn't infuriated by his out-touched silver tonight in the 200 fly. The way he lost it was eerie, a true live-by-the-sword, die-by-the-sword moment. It was Beijing's miracle 100 fly in reverse, with South Africa's Chad Le Clos playing the role of Phelps, as Phelps himself coasted into the wall just like Mike Cavic. Head up, arms reaching, momentum failing - it looked exactly the same. As did Le Clos's Phelps impersonation - a bad ass head down short stroke punch to the wall that snatched away what looked like certain gold.

Moments after seeing the scoreboard, Phelps tossed his cap, the rage at the result barely contained. He exited the pool quickly. I don't know if he went backstage and threw chairs and screamed obscenities and punched walls, maybe he did and who could blame him? But when he returned on camera with his relay mates in the men's 4 x 200 free, he was back in the zone and he got the job done.

Yet listening to the American foursome's joyful post-race banter, it was bizarre to hear what Phelps kept repeating over and over. I needed a lead. I just told these guys I needed a lead... Come again? Michael Phelps needing a lead, just to hang on to victory? This is the guy who could swim down anyone, in anything. Back in the day, he wouldn't need a lead, he would want to dive in behind, just to make it interesting. Because if you were within striking distance, you were dead.

Phelps was just being honest. France's Yannick Agnel is now the better swimmer. He would have smoked Phelps if he'd dove in a second or two behind. What's bizarre is that Phelps is fine with that. He knows it and he isn't fighting it. He's just trying to enjoy this farewell Olympic tour, come what may.

This is not a champion who can't accept when his time has come. Who can't admit that his passion has waned and now hungrier swimmers are beginning to eat him up. Truth is, he's been waiting for this time to come for quite some time.

He still has two more individual races left and they're going to be special ones. First, that showdown with Lochte in the 200 IM, and then, the rematch with Cavic in the 100 fly. He still may win them both. To win either, he'll have to go to the well one last time. We'll see what's left down there over the next four days.

Many expected this epic career to end with one more dominating scorched earth Olympic performance. But it turns out this one isn't about the medal haul.

Maybe, for the ultimate Olympian of all time, it's about remembering the Olympic creed itself:

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well. 

Franklin, the Face of Swimming

Missy Franklin - There is no better ambassador... Close your eyes for a moment and try to picture the perfect avatar of swimming. He or she would be brilliantly talented for one, a gold medal threat in many events. She would be eloquent and real and warm and beloved by her teammates. She would be grounded and self aware. She would be driven not by money, but by what really matters - having fun and embracing the moment.

But most of all, she would be a fearless competitor. All those warm and fuzzies would belie her essential nature. The nature of a cut throat clutch performer.

Open your eyes and see Missy Franklin standing before you. If USA Swimming could assemble their ideal athlete, the one they'd want to hold up to the world and say this is swimming in America, this is who we are, that athlete would look exactly like Missy Franklin. If I could hold up a swimmer for my daughter and say this is what it's all about, this is a role model for you, that swimmer would also be Franklin. I am positive that I'm not the only parent to feel this way.

Sure, Phelps and Lochte remain the face of the sport for the wider world, and rightly so; Franklin still has a long way to go before she can amass their incredible accomplishments. Yet, this 17-year-old high school senior to be could give both of those guys media training. They might be a decade older, but when Missy speaks, she is far their superior. Good god, how well spoken is this girl?

But back to the water. Yesterday in London, she did something not even Phelps or Lochte have done. Her double - 200 free semifinal and just 15 minutes later the final of the 100 back - must rank among the greatest Olympic swimming achievements ever. As Rowdy Gaines pointed out in the primetime broadcast, if you're not a swimmer you cannot possibly understand how difficult that was.

The 200 free is a back-breaker of a race. It's the perfect masochistic mix of sprint and stamina. It leaves you absolutely gutted. That's why so many consider it the true standard of the sport. The best pure swimmer is the one who wins this race. In her semifinal heat, Franklin somehow stayed contained. She expended just enough energy to secure her place in the final - she grabbed the last spot, in 8th. I'm guessing she was going about 90% for the first three laps. But when she turned for home, she had to notice her spot in the final slipping away. She went to the legs hard that last 50 and did what she needed to do. But she would be needing those legs something fierce fifteen minutes later.

The 100 back is mostly legs, and Franklin had almost no time to recover. She jumped in the diving well and tried to swim it off as Ryan Lochte marched out for the final of the men's 200 free. Consider that little detail for a moment: One of the most anticipated drama-packed races of the Games was going on about fifty feet away from her, while she was trying to warm down and slow her racing heart. That's no small distraction.

Then she was back, dry behind the blocks and looking strangely relaxed and recovered. When the swimmers were told to enter the water, Franklin broke into a huge smile. You see smiles of a different sort behind the blocks all the time at the Olympics. They're forced nerves-cracking pressure-getting-to-me grins. They look painful and they say: Choke Imminent.

This was the exact opposite of that. Like everything else with Franklin, it looked totally genuine. She really is having fun out there.

Now, here's what would happen to everyone else if you were attempting this double. You would force yourself to get psyched up and over energized, and when the race went off, you would blast into it. You would over swim the first 25 meters; you would be winning, but already fading by the 50; by 75 meters the field would go by you. The announcers would be sympathetic, they'd say you just ran out of steam after that too-tough double. But it wouldn't really be that. You would fade because you didn't swim your race.

Somehow, yet again, Franklin swam within herself. She did what every coach on earth tells his swimmers to do: She swam her own race. She surfaced dead last, was still way back at 25 meters, and slowly built momentum into the wall. By 75 meters, instead of fading, Franklin was surging. It was over by then. Franklin finishes her 100 back the way Aaron Peirsol used to. Which is to say, she owns the last 15 meters of the race.

She touched in American record time, a half second drop from her lifetime best. 15 minutes after swimming 1:57.5 in a pressurized 200 free semi.

This is legendary stuff we're witnessing. A bit like watching Phelps first attempt his grueling eight-gold campaign back in Athens. It's resetting the standards of what's possible. Phelps left Athens with six gold and two bronze, setting the table for Beijing perfection four years later. Franklin will probably leave London with four gold (adding the 200 back and the next two relays), a bronze in that first relay, and may reach the podium in the 200 and 100 free too. It will be among the greatest Games ever for any female swimmer.

But of course, this 17-year-old avatar is just getting started.

The Lost Peacock

An inside out account of NBC's doomed broadcast model... Guess what? The ones producing these Games can't stand tape delay either...   It's 9pm London time, 4pm on the east coast of the U.S. The swimming finals have just ended and the NBC production crew has just produced another session of Olympic action. Now it's time to get to work. That is, chopping up the footage, re-calling some races, cutting some features, and otherwise tweaking their coverage until it's just right and ready to air four hours later. Or five or six or seven hours later, depending on when it finally makes it into NBC's primetime broadcast.

The talented folks doing this insane amount of work, they get it. They know - even more than you do - that these events should be airing live. They know it's infinitely better that way, despite the inevitable in-the-moment imperfections. They know this because most of them spend the rest of their days producing other sporting events. Ones that air live. Like the NFL and Wimbledon and, say, the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in Omaha.

Ask the Olympic veterans around the International Broadcast Center about their favorite Games past. Their answers may surprise you. They have almost nothing to do with whatever world capital was the host, or what American superstar delivered transcendent performances. These things are memorable, no question. Sydney was the single best host for an Olympics in anyone's memory, just the perfect Olympic city. And Beijing will always be unforgettable thanks to Phelps's eight gold perfection. But if you're asking about favorites, the answer is simple: The ones that were live. Like Salt Lake City in 2002 and Atlanta in 1996. (Two towns that are on no one's list of favorite world cities...)

For those who work in sports television, live means two things: A better product and sane working conditions. (Is sane the wrong word? Nothing in TV is sane, but at least bearable...) You produce a terrific event with that incomparable live drama, and when it ends it's over. No do-overs, no re-voicing, no re-touching the features. Game over, for both the athletes and the ones bringing it to you.

I was a part of this Olympic road show for some time. These London Games are the first Summer Olympics I've missed since 1992. I was there with NBC in Sydney and Athens and Torino and Beijing... All on tape, with one exception -- the swimming in Beijing. Saw the light during those eight days. It was like arriving in the land of Oz, suddenly alive in technicolor, after three Games in taped black and white. Unfortunately, it went right back to gray old Kansas as soon as the swimming ended and the rest of the events aired per usual on tape.

I know we all want to believe that it's ultimately all about the athletes, but the production and the programming behind them has a profound impact on how those athletic feats are perceived. Phelps mania would never have taken hold the way it did in Beijing if you hadn't been watching it live back home in the States.

So, if the viewers and the ones making it for those viewers know that these events should all be aired live - for the good of all involved - then why aren't they? Two words: bad business.

You can listen to television executives moan about how complicated this all is, how you just don't understand the light speed shifts in the media landscape, how the basic brutal realities make it impossible for a network to air the Olympics live. It must be on tape in primetime if the events are going down in the wrong time zone. This is because the lion's share of advertising dollars are made during primetime, and those ads prop up everything else. Expensive ads need a big audience, and a big majority of the audience is at work when most of these Olympic finals are taking place during the week.

However, this avoids the basic truth, the flaw in the whole design. The Olympics have become a bad business for NBC because bad businessmen have run it into the ground. And they've done it in the exact same manner that every other business gets run into the ground. Follow along with these three fatal steps: 1. Overspend on the product. 2. Misunderstand the market. 3. Try to dig your way out by offering a compromised outdated product in a way that can pay off your debts.

1. Overspend on product: NBC paid $2.2 billion on the rights to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games and the Games in London. The network lost $220 million on Vancouver. They won't earn $220 million on London to break even for this multi-billion two Games investment. The network has said it will likely lose money on these Games too, blaming the high cost of working in London, but it's a lot more than that.

NBC has also paid $4.38 billion for the rights to the next four Olympics. A billion and change each. That's a hell of a gamble for an old media model that they've already proven doesn't work financially.

2. Misunderstand the market: The online vitriol surrounding the London broadcasts has been overwhelming. Complete with the ranting Twitter hashtag #nbcfail. This is because the market understands what NBC doesn't - that this live freezing feed online followed by taped events in primetime is an insulting way to watch the Olympics.

Do not expect them to understand this any time soon. This is because, thus far, the ratings have been great. So much so, that the network is saying they might get a little closer to breaking even, now that they can charge more for the remaining advertising through week two of London. Hiding behind these short term high ratings is like hiding behind the price of your new home in Vegas in 2005. Good luck with that equity.

3. Offer a compromised outdated product. That's what you're watching right now. You're watching Olympic production wisdom from the 60's and 70's. The scripture of Roone Arledge, the gospel of Dick Ebersol. It is difficult to overstate how worshipped this gospel is inside the walls of NBC's upper echelons. Dissent is NOT permitted. That's not to say that all those producers, writers, editors, and talent don't fully see the fallacy in all this. It's just that they're being held hostage as much as you are.

Actually, more so. When you get fed up, you can get up and walk away. Grab a beer from the fridge and rant a little on Twitter. When the folks producing these Games feel that way, all they can do is suck it up, have their eighth coffee of the day, and get back to work.

They deserve better. They deserve live. And so do you.

A Dish Served Cold

France exacts relay revenge with apropos last lap comeback...  You can't say the Olympic gods don't have a sense of humor. Or at least a wicked sense of poetic justice. An epic upset was upturned in the most fitting of ways tonight. Put your allegiances aside for just a moment and smile through the looking glass at the scene.

Four years ago, the greatest race in Olympic swimming history... The men's 4 x 100 free relay in Beijing, back when the Frenchmen were invincible and Phelps's eight gold quest was surely doomed at race number two. And then, Jason Lezak's out-of-body experience. The fastest man on earth, France's Alain Bernard, tracked down over an impossible last lap by Lezak. The post race celebration by Phelps and Co remains the signature moment of those Games.

Fast forward four years. Bernard is gone, so is Lezak from the final, but there's France and Team USA in the center of the pool again, side by side. Except this time, neither was supposed to have a chance. This race was supposed to belong to the Aussies. The squad with the top two ranked men in the world, the foursome that on paper looked unbeatable. (Deja vu, anyone?)

Note to the Aussies: It's very hard to swim fast with your hands wrapped around your throat. It was clear from the first leg that they weren't showing up. Their Missle failed to launch. James Magnussen went 47.1 at Australian Trials, a swim that made him the heavy favorite for gold in the 100 free. He led off in 48.0. He choked. There's no other word for it. So did his mates that came next. But this isn't about them. Turns out they were a mere distraction.

That's the far off truth about revenge, where that cold dish cliché comes from. Revenge is best when you don't see it coming. When you've forgotten all about the pain you caused, when you've moved on, but the victims still simmer. And wait for their time to strike.

The French picked the perfect, cruelest moment. The new king, the greatest swimmer on earth, flipped with a lead with a lap to go. He unleashed his devastating underwater blast and widened it off the wall. The coronation continued. Then something started to happen. Something so twisted and wrong yet right... It was France's turn. Their anchor started to sink Lochte.

This anchor was no no-name. His name is Yannick Agnel and he's the fastest 200 freestyler in the world, the guy who's actually the favorite tomorrow in the final of the men's 200 free. His best time this year is over a second faster than anyone else in 2012 - and that includes the 200 free semifinals tonight. A little detail that won't make much of the mainstream media, yet should be obvious to anyone paying any attention...

Safe to say Agnel's confidence might be surging right about now. His split over that last 100? 46.8. Last 50? 24.6. It wasn't quite Lezak-esque (in Beijing, Lezak was 46.0), but it was more than enough. Fact is, Agnel ended the race with twenty meters to go. He won going away by half a second.

Lochte came home in 47.7. No shame in that, but sure to spark some second guessing. Matt Grevers split 47.5 in the prelims earlier. Many will say he should have been the guy on that relay, not Lochte. But Grevers swam a 100 back semi-final minutes before and no one can deny that Lochte is on as can be this week. The American line-up was the right call. It just wasn't enough.

Yannick Agnel might be the hero tonight, but it's two of his relay mates who are really soaking in this revenge right about now. Four years ago, the French team led off with Amaury Leveaux and followed with Fabien Gilot. This was the exact same front half line-up that France fielded tonight. The pair put the French in contention, a little less than a second back from the Americans after a brilliant second leg split (47.1) from Phelps.

Once again, they were standing there together panting behind the blocks, powerless, waiting for their countrymen to decide their fate.

Like the rest of you, I was screaming for Lochte to pull it out. But the Olympic gods had other ideas.

They cooked up something cold in London.

If It's Not Live, It's Lifeless

Frozen live feeds online, endless waits for taped races in primetime... Is this any way to enjoy the Games?  It has nothing to do with the production. The shots are beautiful, the storytelling gripping, the talent as good as it gets. It's not their problem. They're doing everything they can. They're fighting a losing battle. Because watching the Games on Day One of these London Olympics was a supremely maddening experience.

This is the absolute summit of drama for the sport of swimming. If you were there, or if you watched it live on TV in Europe, it surely was. If you tried to consume the action on the east coast of the United States, it was brutal.

First, the live streaming on NBCOlympics.com... I was psyched. The taped replayed heats of the morning prelims were just finishing up on the actual NBC TV network. A strange sensation - turning off your 42-inch HD television, which is airing swimming that happened eight hours earlier, and opening up your 15-inch laptop, so you can watch the actual live events about to take place on your small computer screen, the only place it's available. And don't expect the passionate A-team call from Dan and Rowdy on your little laptop, here you'll only get the World Feed call, which further dials down the excitement.

Note: this was at 2:30pm on a Saturday afternoon. Not exactly a bad time to watch sports live on TV. The NFL seems to have had a bit of success airing its games around this time in the fall. And I seem to recall the British Open finishing up last weekend at about this time too. Same time zone as London. So, why the hell wasn't this being aired live on NBC?

Look, I understand why this tape delay needs to happen during the weekdays. No one's free to watch TV on a Tuesday afternoon at 3pm. The ratings would be torpedoed, their hands are tied. But NBC, could you please explain why you can't air the first weekend of Olympic action LIVE on Saturday and Sunday afternoon? It defies reason.

But back to the laptop. You suck it up, tell yourself to be thankful that at least they have this awesome endless live feed online, where you can see every last thing as it goes down. You watch Lochte smoke Phelps this way, you're getting into it. Then you start watching the semis of the women's 100 fly... And then, freeze frame. The dreaded spinning wheel. Nothing at all. Awhile later it flashes to the start of the men's 400 free final. You watch them dive in, the first 15 meters, and then... Nothing again. Back to the spinning wheel. You start texting your friends, see if it's just you and your iffy connection in the mountains. No, the friends back in New York City are having the same issues. So is your friend in Chicago. Everybody is freezing, and everybody is pissed.

For twenty minutes, you stare at your laptop, trying to channel your best Skywalker and use the Force to get this fucking thing streaming again. No luck. You make the defiant decision to turn it off and force yourself, for the next five hours, to avoid all contact with results. Don't check your phone, don't look at any other sites. Wait for primetime, where you can watch it proper, on the right sized screen, with the right level of pomp and Olympic circumstance.

This is the new plan, if you can't see it live on the computer, you'll wait and pretend it's live each night. You'll live in a self-imposed bubble every afternoon for the next eight days.

8pm rolls around and you're ready. The opening tease looks great, Costas sets the table with what's in store tonight, you figure it will be just like Beijing, where they send it right out to Dan and Rowdy and for the next ninety minutes you get to marinate in swimming nirvana. Bring it on! I'll even pretend I don't know what happened in that 400 IM, the one race I actually got to watch on the laptop.

Except that doesn't happen at all. First, we head out to beach volleyball for 45 minutes. Misty May and Kerri Walsh, back again for the three-peat, ok that's cool, I'll be getting back into their story as the week goes on. But, um, isn't it time for the swimming? That is the number one Olympic sport now, right? Sure is, and you know what that means, don't you? It means it has the Clooney time slot on Leno. That is, at the end, because they know you'll wait for it. It's the carrot now. And since it already happened, they can slice and dice it up any way they please. So watch some men's gymnastics for a few hours and sit tight, pal.

Around 9:30pm, finally the race we've been waiting for, Lochte / Phelps, kicking off the swimming with style. Thank God, what a way to start, it was worth the wait... Now, how about the rest? Nope, back to men's gymnastics. Then maybe another bite later, if you're good. A bad ass men's 400 free here, an epic women's 400 IM there, served piecemeal, and each time the buzz builds out at the Olympic pool, it's snatched away. Here's some more gymno while you wait. Now, I have nothing against men's gymnastics, what they do is superhuman, and I know I'm absurdly biased towards the swimming, but no matter what you're into, this is no way to watch it.

Your choices seem to be a constantly freezing, stripped down live feed on your computer or an endlessly drawn out drip-drip-drip of races over a four hour period. There was less than 25 minutes of actual swimming action that took place tonight in London, and this was one of the long nights. Three 400 meter finals, one 400 meter relay, two sets of 100 meter semifinals... Live, it took about 90 minutes, when you include all the processions and medal ceremonies and interviews.

In primetime, it took four hours to see it all. After you presumably knew what happened. After you tried to watch it live on a Saturday afternoon on your computer, after you turned off the taped replays of prelims that happened to be airing on your actual TV right before the live events appeared - and then froze - on your laptop.

This is madness. And it's no way to watch the world's greatest sporting event.

Coronations & Confirmations

Lochte confirms hype, China confirms superpower status, Phelps fades to 4th...  It was an unfamiliar sight, the great one cast over there in no man's land. Had he ever swum in lane eight before? Like, ever? Seriously, has Michael Phelps ever competed from lane eight in his life? Certainly never in a race that mattered. It showed. Tonight the man accustomed to inconceivable feats did something shocking yet again. He didn't medal.

In the very first race of these Games, Michael Phelps came in 4th in the 400 IM. It was the second time in his epic Olympic career that he did not finish an Olympic race on a podium. The only other time this has happened? A dozen years ago, when the teenage Phelps came 5th in the 200 fly in Sydney. Perhaps confirming that the 400 IM does indeed take four years of grueling uncompromising work. Somewhere among Team USA's contingent, Tyler Clary was smirking.

But why does the lead have to be about the fourth place finisher? Well, because the man has earned it. He could DQ in every race here in London and still command the most headlines. Ok, glad we have that out of the way, on to the champions.

It's time for Ryan Lochte's official coronation. Let's all admit that his tsunami of pre-Games hype became a little much. Before tonight, the guy had exactly one individual Olympic gold to his name. Yet, there he was, the poster boy of London, the new Phelps, albeit with 11 fewer Olympic gold medals. Tonight, Lochte added substance to all that style and spin. His 4:05.1 was the fastest non-textile time in history. He made it look easy. He was a 4:03 if pressed. A 4:03 if he didn't have a million more races lingering in the back of his mind.

Based on that 400 IM, these days ahead are going to be very special indeed. Right now it's looking like four individual gold, one relay gold, and whatever the Americans can muster in that 4 x 100 free relay. Which would be the second best showing in Olympic history, easily surpassing Spitz's seven gold run forty years ago in Munich. (Remember, back then the relays were really gimmie-golds for the Americans...) It would also get a slight nod over Phelps's six gold campaign in 2004 in Athens, if only because Lochte has to go through Phelps himself to get there.

Speaking of coronations, it's now time to acknowledge that China is officially a superpower in the pool. And despite the instant are-they-cheating xenophobia that ignites whenever a Chinese swimmer has an eye-popping swim, we have to assume they are now clean. Call me naive, but I think there's just too much at stake for China's Olympic team; they're now too aware of how they're perceived by the rest of the world.

So, let's bow to Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen, the new king and queen of the men's 400 free and the women's 400 IM. They didn't just win tonight, they delivered stunning, back-breaking performances over the final laps of their races. In the 400 free, Sun flipped together with Korea's Park Tae-hwan at 300 meters, separated by just .01. He won going away by almost two seconds, in 3:40.1, missing Paul Biedermann's suit-assisted world mark by a fingernail. He will very likely win the mile by ten seconds later this week.

As for China's teenage medley queen, Ye Shiwen delivered perhaps the greatest final 100 meters of any IM in history, man or woman. At the end of the breaststroke leg, it appeared Elizabeth Beisel was headed for gold. Or at least she'd be in a dog fight to win it. Instead, Ye swallowed her up almost instantly, and then proceeded to pull away with astonishing acceleration. Her final 50 was faster than Lochte's. Seriously. She came home in 28.93; Lochte's last lap was 29.10.

For the night, Team USA came away with one gold (Lochte), one silver (Beisel), and one bronze (Peter vanderkaay). China's tally? Two gold (Sun and Ye) and one bronze (Li Xuanxu, behind Ye and Beisel in the 400 IM). The medal count pissing match is about to begin. It won't really be a race, as the U.S. is still far deeper across every event, yet China's time has clearly arrived.

One night down, seven to go. So much more to come. Stay tuned...

Beatles or Stones?

Team Phelps or Team Lochte? A cheeky Olympic analogy...  On one stage, the one who did it all. The incomparable, the untouchable, the one who changed the game and created a mania. On the other, the rock star who dares to do as much. A swaggering challenger with talent and ambition that compares.

Does this sound familiar? A bit like the two greatest British rock bands in history? (Scratch the 'Brit' and the 'rock' part, the two greatest bands in history...) Turns out the two greatest swimmers in history have quite a bit in common with that eternal contrast between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

Phelps, of course, is the Beatles. Lochte, the Stones. Who do you like? It says a lot about you. And a lot about these two swimmers...

Take a look: Phelps and the Beatles, their respective careers were a decade long comet. A period when they both stretched the imagination to its impossible never-be-the-same edge. By their late 20's they were both ready to move on. At age 27, they were the greatest ever. Where do you go from there?

As for Lochte and the Stones, they're about the same age as their mighty rival, but they seem much younger. They seem not to care quite so much. They appear to want to do this forever. And why not? It's what they were born to do.

Phelps has repeated for years that he never wants to swim past 30. Incidentally, the same age as John Lennon when he announced his departure from the Beatles. Lochte has shrugged forever that he'll keep swimming for as long as he pleases. Which is about the same attitude that Keith Richards has always had...

At the conclusion of his London campaign, Phelps will almost certainly conclude his Olympic career with 23 Olympic medals. He has sixteen now, he's swimming seven events this week; the only one questionable for a medal is that complicated 4 x 100 free relay... The colors of those medals may vary, but safe to assume at least half will be gold. Meanwhile, Lochte is a full ten medals back. He's got six Olympic medals so far. He'll likely double that haul in London, leaving with a career dozen, halfway to Phelps. Is it ridiculous to start wondering if he can catch him?

Say Lochte continues his charge through his late 20's and comes into his own as Phelps fades out of the picture. A bit like, say the Stones hitting their early 70's peak with Exile, Sticky Fingers, and Some Girls... Is it that unrealistic to see Lochte winning another six medals in Rio four years from now? It might even be easier, with Phelps sitting on his couch cheering on his spades pal from afar. That would put him at 18 medals. Can you envision a 35-year-old Lochte in a 2020 nation-to-be-named-later, winning another handful? How about a 39-year-old Lochte limping out for a few more in 2024? Like another Stones tour, these things can become highly successful celebrated habits.

But to drag this cheeky analogy back to the past - right now, it's 1969 for Phelps and Lochte. The year when the Beatles were on their way out, the Stones on their way up. Icons sailing by in the midst of contrasting currents.

That will be this week in London... When the two greatest of all time square off for one last time head to head, both at the peak of their powers.

Let the Battle of the Bands begin.

"The Worst Kept Secret in Washington"

Long ago underage sex allegations against Curl-Burke founder Rick Curl...  On the eve of the Olympics, a buzz kill bombshell out of the Washington, D.C. swimming community... In an exclusive front page story by none other than the Washington Post, allegations that A-list coaching legend Rick Curl had a long term relationship with a teenage swimmer. Let's cut right to the heart of this: When it started, she was 13, he was 33. It apparently lasted for four years. That is, through her middle school and high school years.

This was long ago, in the 80's. 23 years of silence for the girl, now the woman. Her name is Kelley Currin. As a swimmer, before she was married, older swimmers and coaches will remember her as Kelley Davies. She was a bad ass. She was the Pan Pacific Games champion in the 200 fly back in 1987. During those years training to become a champion, it seems her coach was having a criminal sexual relationship with the young teenager.

To recap the facts as presented by the Post: Davies considered it a "love affair." There was sex at swim meets, in hotel stairways, sex at her high school. The man was twenty years older and she was a minor, but she truly believed in their "relationship." Her parents learned of this relationship after reading her diary. When that happened, Curl ended all contact. Then, Davies went off to college - on a full scholarship to the University of Texas. The psychological damage clearly had an immediate impact: Davies was a Pan Pac champion her first year at Texas. A year later she finished 7th at the 1988 Olympic Trials in the 200 fly. Then she was checked into a treatment facility for an eating disorder.

When she emerged, her family negotiated a settlement with Rick Curl: $150,000 over 11 years, with a non-disclosure agreement signed by all involved. Now those long past crimes have been disclosed.

Rick Curl is, by far, the most prominent coach ever to be implicated in this on-going underage sex scandal among swim coaches. To say Curl-Burke is a respected club team is a ridiculous understatement. It is one of the most respected and successful American club teams of all time. In the two decades since Curl's alleged relationship with Davies, the club grew into a juggernaut in the D.C. / Northern Virginia area. There are currently almost 1,000 swimmers with Curl-Burke, swimming at 10 pools throughout the Potomac Valley region.

This is all plenty scandalous and distasteful, but that's not the worst of it. Here's the part to make you gag: EVERYONE ALREADY KNEW. The worst part about this breaking news is that it's not news at all - not to the swimmers and coaches and parents who grew up swimming in this area. This has been an open secret for ages. That headline above? That's a line from an email sent from one former swimmer to another, who both swam in Northern Virginia in the late 80's.

This might be the darkest and most telling detail surrounding the institutional scandal of coaches having sex with their swimmers. It happens. A lot. At least it used to. Let's hope those days are gone, but let's not forget how prevalent it's been. Before continuing, an essential distinction: A coach hooking up with a swimmer 18-years-old or older might be highly inappropriate, might be very bad for the career, but this is not a crime. It is, by definition, a relationship between two consenting adults, with a big age gap. On the other hand, a 33-year-old coach hooking up with a 13-year-old? That's a crime. It's statutory rape.

The statute of limitations may have expired on this particular case, the settlement may have taken care of everything legally way back when, but the prosecution on a reputation never expires. Nor does the complicity of an entire community who heard things, who accepted that darkness and kept it collectively private, who continued to swim for Rick Curl's team because it was the best damn program out there.

I am in no way comparing Rick Curl's alleged crimes with the horrors committed by Jerry Sandusky. There is no comparison there. However, the cultural silence must be compared. This is a widespread failure of integrity. Just as at Penn State, good well-meaning men and women heard things, they processed those things, and then they made the conscious decision that the sport, the athletic careers of those immersed, was more important than something that should have halted everything else in its tracks.

When I read about this horrible story earlier this afternoon, here was my first reaction: That's awful, but I can't write about it right before the Olympics. What a buzz kill that would be. Maybe I'll address it after all the fun of the Games.

Maybe then it will be the right time to say something.

The Prince Will See You Now

Big U.S. coaches lead small nations at the Games...  This morning my friend met the prince. Which prince you might ask? Does it matter? How many princes have you met? In this case, it was the crown prince of Brunei, an island nation of 400,000 in Southeast Asia. My friend is in London, at the Games to help coach their sole Olympic swimmer, a 16-year-old high school boarder at the Bolles School named Anderson Chee Wei Lim.

If that sounds odd to you, an American coach on the Olympic staff of a small foreign nation, it shouldn't. It's a long established symbiotic partnership, a win / win for both country and coach. He's not alone. Take a look at a few of the big time U.S. coaches currently in London as a part of various foreign delegations:

University of Michigan's Mike Bottom - coach of Serbia; Southern Methodist's women's coach Steve Collins - coach of Bulgaria; University of Florida's Anthony Nesty - coach of the Cayman Islands; The Bolles School's Sergio Lopez - coach of Singapore; and my friend, Christian Bahr, also of the Bolles School - there with Brunei. (NOTE: Fully aware that Nesty and Lopez are not American coaches, per se, but fair to call them U.S. coaches, as that is where they lead their home teams...)

Of course, some Go-USA'ers might grumble about such nation jumping, might claim that it's coaching the Olympic "enemy." Perhaps you remember this debate from last month, after the Wall Street Journal published that half-bright piece entitled Schools That Train the Enemy. I wrote about it back then, in a post called The NCAA is Un-American. This is the logical extension of that.

These coaches are leading these small nations because they coach their swimmers throughout the year. Nesty is coaching the Caymans because the two great Cayman swimming brothers, Brett and Shaune Fraser, were both All-Americans at the University of Florida. Lopez is there with Singapore because Singapore's incredible young flyer Joseph Schooling goes to Bolles. Steve Collins is coaching Bulgaria because world class Bulgarian freestyler Nina Rangelova will be a junior at SMU next year.

Then of course there's Mike Bottom, who's there with Serbia, aka there to help Mike Cavic beat Michael Phelps in the 100 fly. Remember, Cavic swam for Bottom both during his years at Cal Berkeley, and also back in 2008 when Bottom was coaching at the Race Club in the Florida Keys. Arguably the world's greatest sprint coach (actually, is there any argument at all?), Bottom led the Croatian team in both 2004 and 2008. In '04, Croatian and Cal Bear Duje Draganja won silver in the 50 free behind Gary Hall, Jr., also coached by Bottom. At those Games in Athens, while officially representing Croatia, Bottom coached 10 swimmers from 8 different nations.

Any Americans have a problem with this? If so, maybe take a look at Team USA's head coach in London, Gregg Troy. Want to know Coach Troy's Olympic debut? That would be back in 1992 - when he was the head coach of Thailand.

As Sports Illustrated editor, Terry McDonell, wrote this week in his magazine's Olympic Preview issue: "The best and the worst of nationalism run through the Olympics." When there's a spirit of inclusion and diversity and fair play, that would be the best of nationalism. When coaches are happy to cross Olympic borders and assist the homelands of their college and club swimmers. The worst? That would be those who make the Olympics a medal count us-against-them pissing match.

In his letter, McDonell called these London Olympics the "Revolutionary Games." The first revolutionary moment he mentions? That involves a little nation named Brunei. See, in London, the nations of Brunei, Qatar, and Saudia Arabia will welcome women athletes as members of their Olympic teams for the very first time in history. An overdue and symbolic gesture that reveals the growing openness and diversity that is slowly reaching far corners of the globe.

Equal opportunities for women and every race, color, and creed? What an American concept.

Sexy Beasts

Shirtless swimmers, the Olympic Village orgy, and the selling of the Games...  It should be a romance novel. On the cover, a bare chested shaved stud with the you-know-you-want-it stare. Open it up and find tales of wild breathless abandon inside an ultra-exclusive club, every member with a perfect body. Ok, it also sounds like a big budget porn... But best of all, those bodies are real, and the stories are true!

Call it Olympic foreplay. It happens every time, yet in the lead-up to London, the objectifying and the Village sex talk seems to be at a new level. Maybe that's because the Games are about to take place in the gossip capital of the world. It's an irresistible storyline, and it's also the oldest cliché in advertising - sex sells. So, strip down the swimmers and plaster them all over magazines. Then get a mouthy hot soccer goalie to dish in another magazine about all those inevitable hook-ups inside the Village walls. Paying attention yet? Who cares about the events, plenty of viewers just want to drool over six packs and dream about the hot action that just must be going on behind those well-guarded gates.

Have you seen a newsstand lately? There's Ryan Lochte beefcaking it up on the covers of Men's Health and Vogue. There's Michael Phelps shirtless in jeans on the cover of Details. And open up the latest issue of Rolling Stone, the one with Justin Bieber on the cover. There's Anthony Ervin - on the opening Table of Contents page, also shirtless in jeans, reclining on a couch, electric guitar to his side, rock posters overhead. "The Rebel Olympian" teases the headline in the bottom right.

Something for everyone, ladies: The unknowable icon with the treasure chest of gold; the approachable challenger with the sonnet-inspiring abs; or the brooding sprinter with the tats and the dark past. Take your pick; insert Olympic Village fantasy of your choice.

If you believe Team USA's soccer goalie Hope Solo, it's no fantasy. Apparently, the Village becomes a Roman orgy as soon as athletes are done competing. She caused a stir when she told ESPN The Magazine recently that Beijing resembled a free love festival with better bodies. "I've seen people having sex right out in the open. On the grass, between buildings, people are getting down and dirty," she dished.

Her comments went viral with the usual mix of raunchy delight and scolding judgement. "Sex Crazed Athletes Run Amok in Olympic Village!" shouted London's Daily Mail. "Just a Giant Booze-Filled Orgy for Super-Fit People" said Jezebel.com. (That one gets my vote.) Then, of course The Christian Post had to frown and raise the "Sex Morality Debate" when they weighed in.

Now, couple this talk with the magazine spreads of those swimmers. You can see how that might, um, interest certain viewers. Particularly when we hear reports that 150,000 condoms will be available to athletes in London's Village. For those keeping score at home, that would mean 15 safe-sex romps per athlete. Actually, since they'll be hooking up with each other, with no outsiders permitted, that would be 30 bouts of safe-sex per couple. (Partners will presumably be changing regularly, if you believe all this stuff...)

I have only one Village appearance to report on - back in 1996 in Atlanta. Here's what I can tell you: Following our races, we behaved poorly. At those Games, every member of the Canadian swim team was required to sign a pledge stating that we would not engage "in any sexual or deviant activity" during the course of our stay in Atlanta. This amusing and unenforceable little pledge made it's way to NBC's broadcast of the Opening Ceremony. You know how Bob Costas and his co-hosts will make those did-you-know observations for every country throughout the Parade of Nations? Well, back in 1996, that was the note for Team Canada: Did you know that the swimmers from Canada were all forced to sign a no-sex pledge during these Games?  (Cut to cute Canadian athlete waving in march, add coy reply. And up next, it's the delegation from the Cayman Islands...)

Yes, we did sign that. And no, the pledge was not honored. But I hardly remember the Atlanta Village being the out in the open fuck-fest that Solo described in Beijing. In fact, I have a friend who was on Team USA in '08 who called Beijing "The No Fun Games", in reference to the overbearing security and the difficulty in going out on the town. On the other hand, this same swimmer has stories from Sydney that would make Ms. Solo blush.

Believe what you will. The dirty facts are besides the point anyway. Like all good gossip, you want just enough truth to spin and exaggerate and spread - until the Olympic Village becomes "just a giant booze-filled orgy."

You buying that?

Living and Dying in Olympic Time

Track & Field used to be the premier sport of the Games. Now that honor belongs to swimming. Here's why... Back then, that was the Olympics. The track and the field. Faster, higher, stronger? That didn't refer to the pool or the parallel bars. That meant running faster, jumping higher, and throwing something heavy really far. The ancient Olympians (B.C. Greece version and turn of the century redux) defined the Games on land, in a stadium, with runners - mainly runners, but also jumpers and throwers.

Swimmers were a side show. Back in 1896, they were a demented death-wish curiosity more than anything else. The three swimming events (the men's 100, 500, and 1200 meters) were held in 55 degree high seas open water. The first Olympic swimming champion, Hungary's Alfred Hajos, was quoted as saying post-gold: "My will to live completely overcame my desire to win."

Phelpsian this was not. 40,000 Greeks reportedly watched from shore, but these were likely more of the car accident gawker variety than sports fans. Man still had a long ways to go when it came to conquering the water - and don't even ask about the women, they wouldn't be admitted to join the Games for another sixteen years, in 1912.

Enough history lesson. Fast forward a century and a decade. Those exploits on the track and the field? Nowadays their own athletes refer to their sport as "dying." Meanwhile, in the pool, the all-powerful TV network has appointed swimming the new face of the Olympics.

How did this happen? A bit like Hemingway described going broke: Slowly, and then all at once.

Over the last two decades, track & field has dug its own grave, due to a lack of Stars and Strategy, and too much Steroids. You could say they have an 'S' problem. In America, the management of track & field has long been a joke and the assumption of mass cheating is second only to cycling. These things tend to erode interest - especially in a sport that comes around only once every four years for the great majority of sports fans. That's the slowly part.

As for the all at once, you can credit that part to Michael Phelps. Yesterday on FoxSports.com, columnist Greg Couch laid the blame solely at Phelps's size 14 feet. He called Phelps the final nail in the coffin of track & field. He cites the Beijing schedule in 2008 as the only true evidence you need. Want to know why the general American public went so Phelps crazy back in 2008? Sure, it was because of his epic ride to eight gold medals - but more specifically, it was because you watched that ride live. Because the swimming finals were in the morning, China time. Because NBC's Dick Ebersol rigged it that way, after getting approval from the MP meal ticket.

As for track & field? NBC shrugged, feel free to watch it on tape. Yes, in Beijing Usain Bolt dropped jaws every bit as much as Phelps, but in terms of pure media darling-ness? Bolt was an also-ran.

As for the American track stars... Wait, who? Really, name one. You had to think, didn't you? And chances are, if you're reading this blog, you care about the Olympics a hell of a lot more than your average American sports fan. In case you're still thinking, Alyson Felix is a track star you might have heard of... She's got a chance to win the 200 meters in London. She has two individual Olympic silver medals to her name. Two silvers is plenty special and all, but that's the first name we throw out there? A sprinter with zero individual gold?

Or if you're on the God Squad, you may have heard of distance star Ryan Hall. The guy has run the fastest marathon in American history, and his only coach is the Big Man Upstairs. The New York Times devoted a huge feature on Hall this past Sunday. It's a fascinating story (in a totally demented way), yet the guy's best, and only, Olympic finish is a 10th place in Beijing.

Compelling faith-based story though he is, this should tell you all you need to know about the state of track & field in the U.S. Their A-list front page story is a runner with a minor shot at an Olympic medal. But hey, at least with all that devout faith, we can assume he's one American runner who's clean. (Unlike the fastest American sprinter and would-be rival of Usain Bolt, Justin Gatlin... You might recall Gatlin won the 100 meters at the 2004 Games in Athens; or maybe you don't, since two years later he tested positive and served a four-year ban...)

Contrast that to swimming. To more than just Phelps. Have whatever opinion you may about USA Swimming as a guiding entity, but you can't deny that this is an organization with a clear-eyed expectation-of-greatness strategy. The results end the arguments. Swimming - guided by Phelps, buoyed by Lochte, bolstered by countless athletes more decorated than Alyson Felix - has ridden a rising tide that has all but swallowed up the ever-diminishing sport of track & field.

This is lovely news for us water-dwellers, but now's not the time to go Stanford smug. High tides roll back. The days of swimming being aired on tape - weeks after the fact on the 'Ocho - are not so long ago. They could come again.

Many will say this is a Phelps phenomena, and maybe they're right. We wouldn't be on top of the Olympic media podium without him. But it's so much more than that...

Isn't it?

Tyler the Truth Teller

Tyler Clary calls out Phelps: Makes fair points, assures destruction...  Someone was bound to say it sooner or later. May as well have been the guy with the front row seat. Did you see what Tyler Clary had to say about Michael Phelps yesterday? It came out in the not-exactly-national Press-Enterprise, billed as the source of news and information in Inland Southern California... Here's the column by Jim Alexander. It might be the source in the Valley, but safe to say in the swim universe, this site just expanded its reach. Because apparently Tyler Clary feels like playing with the piranha...

You can predict the outcry. It's already coming in. How dare he! cries the young swim fan... He's just jealous! cries the old swim mom... He's the new Mike Cavic! says the swim site... Thanks for the extra ratings boost! smiles the TV network... Let's face it, that 200 fly in London wasn't much of a story, was it? Phelps already proved he can win that one with his goggles filled with water in Beijing. This event was a gimmie gold for the great one. But now there's more, courtesy of the call-it-like-he-sees-it Mr. Clary.

(The story around the 200 fly in London was bound to go something like this: (Cue Gladiator soundtrack) This is the event where it all started, back in the year 2000, when a pubescent Michael Phelps stroked to a 5th place finish in Sydney... It was his one and only Olympic race that did not end on a podium... Actually, that's rather fine, I can hear Dan Hicks voicing it, but that's besides the point...)

Here's what Tyler Clary had to say of his time training with Phelps at Michigan:

“I saw a real lack of preparation (from) him. Basically, he was a swimmer that didn’t want to be there. They can talk about all of these goals and plans and preparation they have. I saw it. I know. It’s different. And I saw somebody that has basically been asking to get beat for the longest time.”

Check the dates in question and you'll see that this is even more inflammatory than it sounds. It's royally fucking with the whole Michael Mythology. This isn't the same old refrain of Phelps-didn't-do-shit-after-Beijing. Phelps has been admitting as much ever since his party hearty Poker & More tour of '08 and '09. No, that's old news. We get that, and more power to him for that debauched and well earned victory lap. But Phelps had already left Michigan by then. Clary is talking about before Beijing.

Tyler Clary got to Ann Arbor in the fall of 2007 - when Phelps was reputably in full 8 Gold or Bust focus mode. Except Clary claims that wasn't really the case. He was a freshman back then, and not yet a superstar. He was a comer, no question; at the '08 men's NCAA's, Clary won consols in the 400 IM and the 500 free. He swam plenty fast (3:44.1 / 4:16.8), but he wasn't even in the big final in his individual events. He was a quiet freshman looking on at the king. And by his own eye-witness estimation, at the most pivotal legend making period of all, the king wasn't putting in the work.

I'll be honest - it's not the first time I've heard this. It might be the first eye-witness account to be picked up by a reporter in the weeks before an Olympics, but it's hardly the first eye-witness account to circulate through the swimming world. These stories are out there, being spread by former teammates without apology or secret. The media gospel of MP and the daily facts of training life appear to have a few discrepancies. Some fact-checking might be required.

But do those facts really matter? They don't change the number of gold medals he's won. They will never change the fact that what Phelps did in Beijing was the single greatest performance in Olympic history. Probably for all time. Hell, the charge that he didn't put in the work of others might make it even more impressive!

Nonetheless, the grumbling has been out there for a long time, well before Beijing. There is no disputing the fact that Phelps did indeed put in the work when he was a kid, all the way through his teenage years. That much we can swear to a jury. But since Athens? Yes, Athens, not Beijing... Those many years since Greece appear to be up for dispute.

Of course, this raises the question of the verboten T-word. Talent, that cruel bitch we wish we could discount, wish we could minimize and prove how it's all really fair in the end. It's not. It's no more fair than a six foot nothing no-ups gym rat willing to do whatever it takes to play forward for the Miami Heat. Sorry, kid, Lebron doesn't need to work as hard as you either, whatever he says about his off season routine.

Seeing Tyler Clary's comments, I found myself nodding in solidarity. I used to be you, young Tyler. A masochistic give-me-anything practice fiend whose best events were also the 200 fly and 400 IM. And like you, I used to be bitter as hell at those I deemed to have more talent and a lesser work ethic. (Nice guy though he was, I'll still probably never forgive former teammate Lars Frolander at SMU - an NCAA Swimmer of the Year and eventual Olympic champion in the 100 fly in Sydney. Never saw the guy swim more than 25 yards straight of butterfly; never saw him make more than four workouts a week. Alas...)

Tyler, here's some free advice from beyond the competitive grave: You will someday realize how foolish you sound with all that talk about being the "blue collar worker" and not the talented one. Tyler, you're more gifted than I ever was, more talented than all but a tiny few swimmers who ever lived. That is true regardless of how hard you might work. You're going to wind up on an Olympic podium in a few weeks. Your own talents are absolutely other worldly. I can assure you that countless others out there are working just as hard as you are, and they will never ever sniff an Olympic berth.

Ah, screw all that retired perspective, I'm with you. Watching a once-in-a-century talent day in and day out like that, a guy who just gets the water more than any human ever has... That will get to you. It sucks.

But when you step on the blocks for the 200 fly in London, you can't do a damn thing about it.

The Negativity of Miss Muffat

The incredible back half of France's Camille Muffat... The negative split, such a connoisseur's pleasure. To come home faster than you went out, so simple, so full of intention. You can explain it to any Dry Lander and they'll get it. But not really. It takes a swimmer to truly appreciate it.

If you're into such things, you've probably already heard about the recent exploits of France's negative splitting monster, Camille Muffat. They are swims of beauty, a swimmer's version a circus trick. Swimmers love to share those silly eye-popper splits, the absurd last laps or final 100's that stretch the imagination and make us giddy in that unabashed swimmer geek way... Remember Paul Biedermann's last 50's at the World Champs in Rome back in '09? Remember the way Janet Evans finished her 400 free back in '88 in Seoul? If not, check it out HERE.

Camille Muffat doesn't remember that. She wasn't born until a year later, in October 1989. But what she's doing these days is making Janet's swims look like quaint golden oldies. Check out her summer's greatest hits:

- Back in June at the Canet round of the Mare Nostrum tour, Camille takes out her 400 free in a leisurely 2:04.4. Then she decides to start trying. Last 200: 1:58.5. Final time: 4:02.97. That would have made the U.S. Team, just a tenth back from Allison Schmitt's winning time of 4:02.8. Of contrast: Schmitt swam her race almost exactly the opposite in Omaha, going out in an aggressive 1:58.3 and limping home in 2:04.5. Amazing, yes, but it gets better...

- At the Paris Open last week, Muffat unleashed her negative splitting genius over 800 meters. Here's how she swam the 800 in Paris: First 400 - 4:18. Second 400 - 4:04. Her final time of 8:23.60 would have been 3rd at U.S. Trials, but it's clear the total time was just for play. Her back half of 4:04, that would have placed her 3rd at U.S. Trials too. Without the benefit of the dive, after warming up for eight laps, then flipping and storming home faster than any woman in history over the second half of 800 meters.

Rather impressive. An effort that you'd think would leave a girl gutted on deck, limping her way over to a long well earned warm down... Instead, Muffat hopped out, waited for the men to swim their cute 50 fly in between, then got back on the blocks five minutes later and ripped a 1:56.2 in the 200 free. More U.S. Trials comparisons: That time would have been good enough for second in the women's 200 free in Omaha, half a second faster than Missy Franklin. (1:56.2 is pretty great, especially with zero time to recover, but it's not much for Muffat; she's already been 1:54.6 in season this year...)

We'll see in a few weeks if Muffat can translate these crazy swims into complete efforts in London. Short of a sudden bout of meningitis, there doesn't seem much doubt that she will. With these performances under her belt in recent months, she has to be the clear favorite to win three individual gold medals in London, in the 200, the 400, the 800. Incidentally, something only accomplished once in Olympic history by the great Debbie Meyer back in 1968...

Which presents a fine opportunity for would-be gamblers... Because despite these insane swims, Muffat probably won't go off as the pre-race betting favorite in any event in London. In the 200, she'll have to beat Schmitt, who currently has the fastest time in the world, and Italy's Federica Pellegrini, the world record holder and defending Olympic champ. Meanwhile, in the 400 and 800, Muffat will face hometown queen Rebecca Adlington, the Brit who won both distance events four years ago in Beijing.

Don't be distracted by past performance in years gone by... Place your bets, gamblers, here's a sure thing: the 22-year-old from Nice is going to win the 200, 400, and 800 freestyles at the London Games.

There's nothing negative about those recent splits. Only promise of the gold to come...

So, You're an Olympian, Now What?

Three weeks of pride and madness before the Games...  The chosen ones have moved on. After touching the wall and confirming a dream come true, it's been a double rainbow of bliss ever since. They're in the midst of coming down from that high right about now. Time to sober up and get straight. The Olympics are just three weeks away.

What happens after you make the Team? It goes something like this:

Realize that you've made it, outpouring of unrestrained joy. Climb from water, find a microphone and a television camera shoved in your face before you've caught your breath. Try to say something halfway eloquent. Walk ten steps and find more microphones and more cameras waiting. Keep trying to say the right things. Then a strangely serious man or woman will approach with the air of a CIA spook. No worries, that's just the drug tester. Sign his clipboard, confirm that you'll report to testing when told. Buzz kicks in again, stronger this time. It's sinking in. You find your coach, your teammates waiting in the warm down pool. Hugs, tears, high fives, assorted 'fuck yeahs!'

Then there will be a medal ceremony, more interviews, autographs from throngs of young swim fans... There will be your official Outfitting. This takes longer than you might think. Olympians are given an Olympic amount of SWAG. Talk about a misnomer - this term stands for 'Stuff We All Get'. For these purposes, maybe we should change it to SOG. ('Stuff Olympians Get') In any case, there's a lot of it. It takes about three hours to get measured and outfitted for all the things you'll soon be getting as an Official Member of the Team. (Still makes you giddy to hear, doesn't it? Yes, the buzz is still pumping...)

After the meet ends, there will be a brief respite, a chance to go home for a few days, enjoy the comforts of your own bed before boarding the crazy train bound for London. It won't be relaxing, don't kid yourself. It's going to be another whirlwind of hugs and back slaps. Then you'll kiss your family and friends goodbye, and head to... Knoxville, TN. At least that's where Team USA is headed right about now. First stop on the Traveling Camp of No Distractions.

All up to date? Good, because now comes the hard part. Time to set Trials aside.

Three weeks, that's not enough time to do much. Physically, what's done is done. It's not like you're going to get in better shape over the next few weeks. Too late for those skin-deep, muscle-bound concerns. You either did the work, or you didn't. Chances are, if you've gotten this far, you've done all the work and then some. But below the surface, or to be more specific, below the skull? There is still plenty of time in there. In fact, three weeks is an eternity.

"I can't do a damn thing about their bodies," said the Olympic coach. "There's not enough time. But I might be able to help their brains a bit."

That's the coach's job at this point. This is the time when great coaches go Zen and guide those fragile yet enormous egos onto Olympic podiums. This is also the time when less-than-great coaches lucky enough to coach monster talent tend to screw up their swimmers something fierce. This happens every time, at every Games. I don't need to name names. Think back...

Before the U.S. Trials, one top coach emailed me and made a very wise observation. He pointed out that you will never see more over-coaching at any meet than at the Olympic Trials. It's when coaches are as nervous as their athletes and they just try to do too much. They won't stop talking, won't stop tinkering with strokes, won't stop trying to get everything exactly precisely perfect. Too much of that and your athletes feel it. They feel restricted, start second-guessing themselves. We know where that leads.

I'd go one step further with this coach's assessment: You'll never see more over-coaching than in the period between the Trials and the Olympics. Most countries have had months to adjust to that heady making-the-Team high. In the U.S., for myriad reasons (some good, some questionable), the Trials are pressed right up against the windshield of the Games. This leaves zero room for error.

These are high stakes and heavy highs we're talking about. The sort of things that crack fragile minds in a million pieces... Sure, there's pressure at the Super Bowl, the Finals, the World Series, whatever big time annual sporting circus you want to name. But these events come around every year. There's always next year. Not four years later. In every other case, you have a whole game, a crew of teammates, days or hours over a course or a court... Enough room to make mistakes and overcome. That's not the case with Olympic swimming, where four years of life can come down to twenty-one seconds on stage.

This makes for some fabulous theater for those watching from the sidelines. It can also make these Olympians one stiff breeze from a straight jacket in the weeks leading up to it.

Sometimes the real drama is off stage in those times in between, at tucked away training camps, when newly minted Olympians come down off the Trials high.

How Sweet the Sound

The Comeback of Anthony Ervin It was a long shot. The sort of thing that almost always ends badly, no matter the lessons learned spin in the aftermath of defeat. The hunger returns, the training resumes, the dreams of glory are back. Then they learn, the hard way, that it’s been too long. You’re not so young anymore. You’re no longer fast enough.

Except not this time.

This time, after a decade away, Anthony Ervin stepped on the blocks in the men’s 50 free and blistered onto the Olympic Team at age 31. A dozen years removed from the last time he was on this stage, back in 2000. Ervin is faster now than he was back then, when he was a 19-year-old wunderkind tying Gary Hall, Jr. for gold in Sydney.

The years in between? An unguided tour through Dante’s Inferno. Followed by a pass through Purgatory. And now, back to Paradise…

Before I continue, this program note: There is absolutely no objectivity here. For parts of those lost years, Ervin worked for my school, Imagine Swimming. Even at his most lost – and that was evident to all who knew him then – he was always great with the kids. They identified with him in that natural instinctual way of children. Kids have a hound dog’s sense for smelling a fake. In Ervin, they smelled some truth. Also some danger, which kids like too.

As his comeback flashed promise with big in-season swims this winter, a mutual friend approached my partner Lars and I with an idea: Why doesn’t Imagine sponsor him? Unlike all the others, this comeback of his really seemed to be shaping up. Brilliant idea, thought Lars and I. We got on the phone with Tony and hashed out an agreement.

Perhaps it’s unprofessional of me to be writing about a guy we quite literally bet on. Talk about bias. So be it. His story is just too good. A true Hero’s Quest. Joseph Campbell would have loved it.

As sports fans, we love domination, sure. There’s nothing like watching sheer outsized superhuman greatness. Phelps and Lochte, those are our versions of Lebron and Durant. It’s impossible to relate, and so we worship.

But there’s nothing we love more than the comeback story. The all-too-human damaged star that somehow finds his way back. Guys like Andre Agassi and Josh Hamilton… and Anthony Ervin. They have superhuman athletic gifts too, but they’ve also succumbed to many dark impulses. When they come out the other side, they’re the ones embraced in a way those icons never are.

Throughout the weekend, Tony’s many friends and fans were sharing all-time Tony stories. There are many. One involves a wedding dress, running make-up, and an angry mob… Really. But the Tony story that I’ve always remembered most is one of those quiet, confused moments.

After he left New York and Imagine and headed back to Berkeley, Tony would reappear unannounced on deck from time to time. Once, I think it was back in early 2009 or so, he appeared on a pool deck in TriBeCa looking his most un-Olympian.

“Are you lost?” I asked him, not so nicely.

“Casey, you have no idea,” he said.

He didn’t smile, showed no spark at all. Then, a few Imagine kids started to show up and the old Ervin energy reappeared for them right on cue.

That magnetic energy was on full display this week in Omaha. If you knew him in those lost years, the contrast was striking. Like the breath of life was breathed back into a body after years of gasping and wandering without oxygen.

In his ultra-eloquent post-race interviews, between Old Testament references and big word droppings, he’s been careful to thank the many who’ve seen him through this journey. When he was on his descent, touring the various levels of the Inferno, Ervin seemed alone, even among friends. Now he’s well aware that he’s never been alone at all.

As the gospel goes – “I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind, but now I see..."

Amazing grace, indeed.