I call it synchronized boredom.

And uh....Olympic injury video. Weightlifting. Not for the squeemish.

Ick.

Oh, that is brutal. But I do admire how they have the "screen people" rush out to block the view. That's a smart touch.

That goes back to what I was saying. Who knows what those records would have been if this technology was available then.

Breaking the record by a small amount is feasible, but by several seconds? That's technology.

Eh, old news. Every few years they've come up with some amazing new suit. The records that are currently being broken due to technology were set due to technology, so I have a hard time feeling it's unfair. Technological advancement is part of the sport.

I agree, I was just responding to the question of whether there's a drug influence.

However, it does raise the question of whether we should be racing people against each other or instead just have Phelps swim each distance five times, each in a different suit and then award gold to the manufacturer that wins.

Phelps does not wear the new techno-nifty suit, or at least not the top half.


Phelps has also volunteered for the "super tester" program where he has been baseline tested leading up to the games and is tested daily.

I know Phelps only wears part of the suit. Which is completely irrelevant to the point. But let me rephrase, Phelps can swim the race five times in five different pool configurations and we'll award the gold to the contractor that built the fastest.

And the great thing about our modern drug environment is that I view passing drug tests as essentially meaningless. Several of the recent drug scandals are not from people failing tests but being forced to admit they were taking the drugs while passing the tests.

I have no particular thought that Phelps (or any other swimmer) is doping, I just assume every athlete is -- especially since modern nutrition and medical treatment is essentially doping anyway, we just like some forms more than others -- accept it, and move on.

Does this work for ya?
Here's a close-up of his face--he's a cutie!

Tech advances resulting in broken records is kinda like the new box office champ. The money and time are true, but comparison to past "accomplishments" is practically meaningless.

I wish they would just tout what the result was, and not feel the need to rank it. The rankings are misleading. You can't turn back time.