Text 19831, 60 rader
Skriven 2008-08-18 03:32:40 av Jeff Smith (1:14/5)
  Kommentar till text 19811 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
Ärende: The Games
=================
Hello Ward.

18 Aug 08 07:16, you wrote to Lee Lofaso:

 WD> Lee,

 LL>> "The timing system says it all.  There hasn't really been an error
 LL>> in the timing system that I've ever heard of.  The scoreboard said
 LL>> I got my hand on the wall first." - Michael Phelps, the greatest
 LL>> Olympic Champion of all time

 WD> Is someone complaining? Or do the newsservices have not enough stuff
 WD> to report about and invent things? Here there's nothing.

 WD> It's quite easy in swimming: he/she who touches the timing device at
 WD> the end of the lane first is the winner. Touching the wall is not
 WD> enough. The Serbian guy was faster, Phelps timed his arrival better.
 WD> He won. End of story.

    Agreed. I saw no problem with Phelps being the winner. It was visually
clear what happened. The other athlete was ahead but coasted the last body
length or so while Phelps was still in mid stroke and traveling faster. The
result being that Phelps touched the sensing device a fraction of a second
sooner.

    In fact it was close enough that if Phelps had come in second I wouldn't
have seen any reason to complain. As long as he did his best that is all
that can be expected. Regardless of who wins.

 WD> And personally attributing titles like "the greatest" is comparing
 WD> apples with oranges.

     Umm... According to who? When? Where? IOW, it's only a label.

 WD> You are discounting people like Al Oerter winning gold in the discus
 WD> during 4 consecutive games, or Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek or Carl
 WD> Lewis.

 WD> Winning a pile of medals is something, but being an Olympian is
 WD> something else. Look at the limited list of people who got the "Pierre
 WD> de Coubertin Medal". Lutz never won a gold but he sacrificed his own
 WD> chances in the long jump in 1936 by coaching Owens getting through the
 WD> qualifiers. Now 'that' is something.

 WD> Apart from that, the swimming event is totally different from track
 WD> and field to name just that. It is impossible to win 8 of the
 WD> following: 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 10000m, 4x100m,
 WD> 4x200m and 4x400m. At best an athlete these days can have a shot at
 WD> the 4 shortest but 100, 200 and 400 e.g. are already a nono.

 WD>  \%/@rd

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 WD> (2:292/854)

Jeff

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