BTD - Is that you in the Phelps Phan commercial?

:D

Haha. :p

I know better than to move to a podunk town ;)

Gymnastics on both sides has been a lot of fun to watch this year.

Michale Phelps is inhuman.

Synchro diving is neat but gets really boring to watch after a while. And frustrating because clearly the judges are looking at different details than I look at.

I've been watching the races, and the announcers are calm, cool and collected just knowing he's going to win. Meanwhile I'm a ball of nerves. Overconfidence leads to mistakes. Thus far it seems the overconfidence is contained to the media, and not the athlete.

I've enjoyed Gymnastics and swimming as well this year. I'm not so excited for Track and Field to start. The pool has been a place for many shattered records. I hope there is not doping scandel in our future.

Besides the bodies, the best thing I like about the synchronized diving is the camera that follows the diver into the water. That's so cool.
:)

There may be but the chatter I'm seeing seems to credit technology and pool design. The pool has several new features designed to reduce water resistance and improve performance, even the lane dividers are designed to help the swimmers go faster.

That's what I'm seeing too. The enhancements come with the design.

Now, if that's fair to previous records or not (along with the enhanced suits) is up for debate. Sure, the record was technically broken, but it's not a level playing field. If the previous record holders had these advantages, would their records still be able to be broken? Or would they merely be tied.

There has been a lot of attention on the new swim suit from Speedo (Fastskin LZR Racer). It was supposedly designed with help from NASA.

I think it is as simple as gravity "driving" the camera. There is a guy off to the right of the podium (as you look at it from afar) that I keep seeing. I've seen him A) pulling up on a rope, and B) possible just "dropping" said rope as the divers make their leap. I think the camera is housed in the black-faced square tube.

Just my $0.02 on the subject.


ETA: Garrett Brown is the guy who invented the Dive-Cam as well as the Steadi-Cam and many other camera innovations. Story about him on Wired.

Here's a quick rundown of some of the medical, and technical improvements feeding into the new world records.

I agree that there is no reason for it to be a camera in freefall doing the diving coverage. Still a nice way to see it though. Synchronized diving, however, is still firmly in the lame camp. I look forward to synchronized discus just so we can get some more medals into the Track & Field area.