In his pre-Trials press-conference, Michael Phelps quipped that we would know if he was planning on swimming the 400 IM if the ‘stache was gone on Sunday.
Well, we seem to have gotten our answer. Phelps posted the above picture earlier today of before-and-after shaving his face, and there’s little reason for him to shave Sunday if he’s not going to swim Monday (the 400 IM is the only event he’ll swim.
So we still haven’t heard the words come out of his mouth “I am swimming the 400 IM”, but going by Groundhog Day rules, the ‘stache is gone, so we’ll declare that the nuclear winter of the Clary-Phelps-Lochte IM is on.
I wish they could all 3 make it,But am truly hoping Ryan touches first.Let Phelps and Clary fight for 2nd.What would happen if there were a three-way tie or even a two way tie for second place?Has it ever happened?What if everyone is so focused on these 3 and there is a surprise from lane 8 or lane 0?
What is killing us at home is not knowing what is happening in the pool now because we have to Wait for NBC>>>>>>>>>>>>>>CRAZY!
I don’t care who touches first, as long as clary touches third
Ok, I would have prefered to not see Michael Phelps in the 400 IM but it’s his choice and I respect it. I wish him good luck but I wouldn’t surprised if he would finish third. I know he’s a genius but all the training he hasn’t made in 2010 is a big lack. Yes he can swim a big 400 IM but can he swim 2 big 400 IM in the same day? I’m not sure. Perhaps I’m totally wrong. I hope I’m wrong. And his coach is confident so we’ll see.
You discounted the fact that Phelps is the most competitive person, and I cannot understand why people scoffed and ridiculed me when months ago I said Phelps would definitely want to swim the 400 IM because it would make him the first man to win an individual event in three consecutive olympics. It is as if I’d said something that was insulting to Phelps or something.
Here’s what he said himself:
“I’ve always said I want to be the first to do something,” Phelps said earlier.
Well on the downside, I’m gonna miss the porn cop stache, now it’s back to Gilligan…. on the plus side…. YAHOO– BARNBURNER!!!
i’m thinking that Tyler Clary will claim the second place spot in this 400im, Lochte will claim first. Don’t get me wrong, Phelps is an amazing IMer however, Clary has just been putting in monstrous amounts of work focusing on this event for the past 4 years. This hasn’t really been a main focus for Phelps. Clary’s the US’s most underrated swimmer and he’s proven himself time and again against a top level field. This race could go either way and will definitely be one to watch,if not THE one to watch.
If it weren’t for Clary’s weakness on the breast, I’d agree with you….
Bowman is going to be crapping his pants tomorrow night.. I hope they show a close up shot of him before they step up onto the blocks. I am reminded of Beijing before Michael’s 400 IM, his face was bright red and he was shaking like crazy. This race will be just as intense…
lol yup! and Debbie Phelps will have to sit down to avoid a coronary regardless of the outcome… it’s gonna be a barnburner!
I have reservations about Leverenz’ ability in the 400IM. I think something we have seen in the past year or so is that weak strokes get exposed a lot more in the 400IM than the 200IM. It’s simple, if you have a weak stroke, the weakness is going to be more exposed in the longer distance since the weakness is not only going to slow you down, its going to weigh down your endurance, whereas, the endurance effect is not going to be as significant in the 200.
We saw this with Ye Shiwen in 2011. She had a marvelous 200IM, but the fact of the matter is that her come from behind approach did not work in the 400.… Read more »
True, but Leverenz’s back and free have improved and her breast is so much better than Hoff’s. I think Hoff’s recent 4:40 was a test run that she failed by a bit; I wasn’t even sure she could beat DiRado for 3rd.
I tend to agree with you, and I have Maya DiRado as my darkhorse for 2nd place behind Beisel.
If no one has said yet, I think Leverenz can beat Beisel at trials. Both will qualify and Beisel will win gold in London.