I'm getting fed up of people saying that Michael Phelps 8 gold medals are easily obtained because he has so many races that he is capable of entering.
Admittedly, most of those saying probably don't swim at all otherwise they might get an idea of just how difficult competing in four different strokes at any level actually is.
The argument that he has four strokes and four different distances he could cover doesn't seem to work for athletes yet to me it should be even easier for them. After all they only have to run. Now, if they had to do some of them backwards, or others on just one leg then I might take some notice. And why don't decathletes compete in the ten individual sports as well as the collective. Because of course, they are good at all of them but not "world class" at any of them. That's not to decry them as I do believe that is the hardest of all gold medals to get.
So, anyone who thinks what he did was easy, I have a challenge. If you don't normally swim butterfly, just have a go. Just one length, that's all. Then assuming you haven't managed to drown yourself by getting the breathing horribly wrong I am up for the following;
I swam at schoolboy level 35 years ago, and then, only 50m breaststroke. I haven't swum more than a length in three years. I will take you on at the eight races he won gold at and see if you can beat me at any of them, but we have to do them all.
There won't be any gold medals though!
1 comment:
You'd beat me! I'm a reasonable and confident swimmer, but when it comes to doing the butterfly, I think I can manage about half-a-dozen strokes at most... and even then I don't seem to actually get anywhere.
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