Watching the (crappy) NBC coverage of the Olympics, you really get a sense of the “favorite” athletes of the corporate interests, whether it’s NBC corporate or the various corporations buying ad time on NBC primetime. Michael Phelps is a problematic person with two DUIs, but he’s also the most famous swimmer in the world, with tens of millions of dollars of advertising contracts and endorsements. So Phelps gets the most attention, and thankfully, he lived up to the hype at the Rio Olympics. He’s been dominating, and he picked up his fourth gold medal of the Rio Olympics last night, and his 22nd gold medal overall.
But the corporate interests were wrong about several swimmers. Katie Ledecky has been dominating, but she’s still an amateur (as in, she hasn’t gone pro) and she has no advertising contracts, so the coverage around her has been very different than the coverage around Phelps. Simone Manuel became the first African-American woman to ever win an individual medal in swimming last night, and she barely got any attention before last night (or after) from the corporate interests. I got the feeling that the NBC commentators were barely even familiar with Simone.
And now we need to talk about Missy Franklin. Missy got so much attention at the London Olympics for her domination – she won four gold medal in London – and at first she decided to forgo going pro, avoided cashing in on many million-dollar contracts, so she could keep her scholarship to UC Berkeley. She quit Berkeley two years later and went pro, cashing in big time. Missy got a lot of attention in the lead-up to Rio. She was a “favorite.” The corporate interests were aligned behind her. And she just didn’t deliver. And now everyone is wondering, “What in the world happened to Missy Franklin?”
For Missy Franklin, the Rio Olympics ended as they started – in tears. The golden girl who won five medals at the 2012 Olympics finished 14th in the semi-final of her signature event, the 200-meter backstroke, on Thursday – failing the qualify for Friday’s final. Franklin’s time of 2:09.74 is nearly six seconds behind the world record she set in the event at the 2012 Games.
When asked what she learned from her incredibly difficult week in Rio, Franklin replied: “I’ll let you know in a couple weeks, maybe a couple months. Right now, it sucks,” according to the Denver Post. Franklin added that the week was “probably the hardest thing I’ve had to go through.”
Four years ago, Franklin became the poster child of U.S. swimming. At the 2012 Games, she had ample opportunity to showcase her megawatt smile as the then 17-year-old won four gold medals and set two world records. She followed that up with a record six golds at the 2013 world championships. Then, in 2014, Franklin injured her back. The next year, she left UC Berkeley to turn professional, trading in her college routine to juggle the sponsor and media obligations that come with being one of U.S. sports’ most recognizable faces.
Franklin’s poor performance at the Olympic trials secured her place in just three events – two individuals and a relay – down from the seven events she qualified for in London. Franklin’s debut in Rio on Monday ended in disappointment. Her last-place finish in the 200-meter freestyle semifinal and failure to qualify for the final left her teary-eyed.
Missy is going home with one gold, for her part in the 4X200 freestyle relay. But no individual medals, because she failed to even qualify. It’s really stunning, and I keep seeing analysis pieces on why this happened – Yahoo Sports had a good one, but even they don’t have any insight. Did she just have a rough time in Rio? Was she having a series of bad days? Is there some larger point here, especially with the way we treat athletes, corporate interests and money? The thing is, I don’t blame Phelps or Franklin for cashing in with endorsements. I think you’ve got to strike while the iron is hot, and if someone is offering you a million-dollar contract, take it, the NCAA be damned (I think NCAA is worse than the mafia). But I also think Katie Ledecky is enjoying herself more at Rio, perhaps because she’s beholden to no one but herself.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Could be that everyone else in the pool was doping, and she opted not to.
Weird theory…Does this theory applied to winners such as Philips or Ledecky? or only when we lose?
Serious question: why would we assume that the US athletes are clean?
@Razqy – It’s not a weird theory. Doping in Olympic sport is commonplace. In fact, doping at any type of professional level is commonplace. And Missy just strikes me as someone who would try to “do it clean.”
@Bridget — I don’t assume they’re clean. Not at all. In fact, I bet the majority of the athletes at the Olympics, involved in endurance sports, dope in some sort of way. It’s a pessimistic theory, but yeah, I’ve read too many articles and books on the intersection of sports and doping to not be jaded about it all.
So that’s my point: if *everyone* is doping, why would the US with the money, power, and of course access, be clean? It’s epidemic in sports. If the main evidence that we have that Missy Franklin isn’t doping is that she’s really slow now, what does that say about her previous Olympics?
True I never assume but someone like Phelps does more testing than any other athlete by his own volition to combat any inkling of doping. I really think Missy took her eye off training and turned it towards endorsements
Here’s the problem: doping is so far ahead of testing, that a clean test isn’t always proof that an athlete is clean. But you can’t prove a negative, either. So now it’s all based on trust, but again I ask: why would we trust that the US athletes are clean?
@ Bridget — Again, I do NOT think US athletes are clean. To use an example: Lance Armstrong. As we all know, he was a a serious doper. It’s also common speculation that when he returned for his last tour (came out of retirement), he was really trying to do it clean — but then caved and doped again, just like he always had. That situation was my first thought that popped into my head, and I SPECULATED that it could be a similar situation with Missy — but instead of caving (as many people assumed Lance did — in his last tour) she stuck with it.
As for previous Olympics, yes, I think it is very, very possible — if not probable — that a lot of the athletes we admire aren’t 100% natural. Which is why I don’t get as excited about the Olympics as I did when younger. These days, it’s about drugs and access to money.
At the end of the day, doping is a huge part of professional / Olympic sport, and it seems silly to pretend it’s not.
mytake – the problem with saying stuff like this that I (and Bridget) can just say right back, “Perhaps she was doping last time and can’t make it clean.”
Bridget – I agree with everything you say. One of the reasons it was (relatively) easy to identity the Russian doping was that there was less money involved. And it was therefore easier to catch. Not the only reason, but a significant one. Cheating in sport would be best identified by following the money. Unfortunately, it takes too much money to do that. For example, is it in effect state-sponsored cheating if you keep your regulating body relatively underfunded? BTW – was it you that I had the cool discussion with about the Oregon Project on here a while back?
@sixer: even then the Russians only really got in trouble because there was a whistle-blower willing to go on the record.
@Sixer — Yes! I DO THINK Michael Phelps dopes. That is my point.
mytake – fair enough! I wouldn’t know about Phelps, or Franklin for that matter, as I don’t really follow swimming. But I do follow quite a few sports and I think we can all agree that doping is endemic.
I think you have a very valid point. I once dated a competitive cyclist years ago who was a lower category than Lance Armstrong. He insisted that every single cyclist was doping (this was a few years before it came out that Armstrong was, in fact, doping and he was still insisting that he wasn’t). He believed firmly that ALL elite athletes are doing some sort of doping, but had gotten very clever about getting around testing.
While doping is endemic and Phelps could certainly be doping, Phelps possesses a lot of biological and biochemical advantages. The articles on the science of Michael Phelps are fa skating.
Fascinating. That’s what I meant
@Jessa – Yeah, I saw a program about Phelps’ biological advantages, too. (But, I also saw one of those about Armstrong before he was caught.) I’m not saying that ALL top endurance athletes dope, but I guss I’m more cynical then most when it comes to this topic.
These are huge accusations considering that Phelps has never failed a test, especially from people who probably spend most of their day sitting on their rear ends.
I give these American athletes all the respect they so obviously deserve due to the incredible amount out of hard work and dedication involved just to make the team. To throw out ugly rumors about people you don’t know a thing about makes one look really, really small.
Not to say IDC but Simone Manuel IS the story I wann Hear About!!, I promise everyone i was screeching in my house crying right along with her! then The Fact That Leslie jones was there yelling from the Rafters Gave me New Cries, Then her Remarks this morning Made me cry again, she KNOWS how big this is #BlackGiirlMagic!!!!!
But on Missy it seems to me super unfortunate that they couldn’t let this girl just be you know what kind of mental pressure is that you want to have a normal experience, go to school and sh*t and people are shading you/pressuring you to dedicate more time to the sport?? and then bail out of that under what I must imagine is familial pressure as well, ( a Normal ass family dealing with Standford and training expenses?) and Then to be besieged by injuries and probably your own mind cause you can’t give NBC and the Sponsors a cute sound bite and heartwarming montage?? naaahh I shudder to think really having to be in her shoes
I was crying like a baby when both Simones won. You don’t have to be African American to realize what a significant moment it was for Manuel. She knew it too. It was a historical day. (And Manuel shared the gold with Canadian 16 yr old Penny Oleksiak, let’s not forget her.)
As for Missy- I think we (the press esp.) puts way too much pressure on the “golden” girls and guys to win. When they don’t, they are tossed aside like trash. Anybody can have a few bad days . Most of us don’t go to work with countless injuries and have millions of people watching and judging us. I hate when the damned reporters get in their faces immediately with “how do you feel losing to so and so knowing we were all counting on you?” Well, how the hell do you (insensitive reporter) think they would feel?
That was an a AMAZING race and and AMAZING moment!
Girl Power for SO MANY G*DS D*MN reasons!
#GoPenny
#GoSimone
Amen girl! I was screaming so loud I’m down to whispering excitedly today!
To put Simone’s accomplishment into perspective, 30+ years ago I was a competitive swimmer in high school and working to become a lifeguard at the beach. At one point, I looked around and noticed (out loud) that we didn’t have any black swimmers as lifeguard trainees or on my school’s team. I hadn’t even seen any at meets. Did anyone know why? The coach said that blacks were physiologically different from other races and couldn’t swim. Certainly not well enough to be competitive.
The shootings this year have been heartbreaking reminders of how much work America still needs to do in regards to race relations. Simone’s triumphs are evidence of progress made. I am so glad no one told her (or she didn’t believe them when they did) that she would never be any good.
I’ve also heard the comment that blacks can’t swim but what about all of those Caribbean kids, descended from African slaves, who swim like fish?
My sister believes this was once because urban/inner city people could not afford to join swimming clubs and black people likely were barred for many years from public pools and beaches. When parents don’t swim, their children likely won’t swim either. Fortunately that is now changing.
The show “Blackish” did an episode about it this season. Dre noticed that his neighbor across the street never invites his family to her pool parties. She answers with something along the line of “I thought you couldn’t swim”. When Dre talks to his co-workers about it, his boss says (again paraphrasing) , “You’d sink. Black peoples’ bone are denser.”
Here’s link to the article about it: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/dylan-gwinn/2016/02/11/abcs-blackish-claims-african-americans-cant-swim-because-white
“Physiologically different”? As in, what, they’re missing fins or something? How ludicrous.
I almost always agree with you, when I can decipher your diatribe.
Both her and Gabby Douglas I feel had their moment in London, the Rio Games were for Simone Biles, Simon Manuel and Katie Ledecky.
It’s a small miracle that Douglas and Raisman even made it back for a second Olympics at all given how so many gymnasts retire by their age, and the two gymnasts per country rule really screwed Gabby over – she was the third best on that qualification round but since the two ahead of her were her compatriots, she didn’t get the chance to defend that gold.
Do you think Gabby knows it too? Because she couldn’t even bother to pretend to be happy for Simone when she won gold yesterday. Not even a clap! It kind of tarnished my image of Gabby, especially because i looked up to her so much during London.
I saw her clapping. She just didn’t stand up is all.
Really because from what the girls said gabby sent them good luck messages before the meet and after along with Madison and Laurie. She was definitely clapping when they won on the live feed
She was clapping. People are ridiculously hard on Gabby. First all of the ridiculous outrage over her not having her hand over her heart during the medal ceremony (which is not required) and now this.
Gabby did clap. I think since the other gymnasts stood up people assumed Gabby didn’t support Simone and Aly. Besides I think it should be expected that she would be a little sad. She qualified 3rd AA and couldn’t compete. It must be hard to work so hard and lose out from competing by a few tenths.
Gabby clapped, but I kind of felt for her. I’d be pissed too if I qualified for 3rd AA and had to watch competitors 3-4 points below me fall off apparatus after apparatus or putting up 12-13s. I hate to be mean, but some of them needed to be weeded out.
I think people need to lay off Gabby.
She had the dream of trying to repeat all around medals ruined by a stupid rule, and had to sit there all night and watch others do what she wanted to be doing.
Plus, maybe she’s just not as boisterous and animated as the other two girls on the team. People are different and react differently. Just let her be.
Gabby should not have been in the all-around competition if selection was fair as she came only 7th at the US Olympic Trials – however the gymnast who came 2nd at trials (Laurie Hernandez) and who beat Aly Raisman was taken out of the all-around and denied th chance to compete for a medal to make way for Gabby – but Gabby has the corporate interests and reality show.
Gabby wasn’t going to win, it was Simone’s moment. Gabby has been there before so she knew how to act. The hand over the heart thing was meh. I noticed it but didn’t care but knew it was going to be a big deal. She would have some inkling too. Instead of moving her hand over her heart, she didn’t and made that moment about her and not her team. If I’m being honest, I think laurie Hernandez got robbed by not being give the chance to compete for the AA. Gabby got the call, another courtesy extended to her as the reigning champion and she didn’t extend the same courtesy to her team. She looked completely disinterested in the whole thing. I watched the event on a live feed, as I live in Australia now, and what the camera showed here was probably edited out by NBC. Her teammates had to constantly call her over for photos and to congratulate other athletes. She was on her own and the other girls stuck together.
Something has been up with Gabby, she seemed off at the Trials as well (and there’s that whole weird thing with her coach).
Um, Laurie didn’t lose her uneven bars spot to Gabby. Gabby, Madison, and Simone were locked for that event. The first 2 have a high chance of getting medals in the individual event (going 1&3 in qualifiers). Simone had to do it for AA qualification. That last spot came between her and Aly Raismen, who actually had a lower scoring routine, but let’s just throw something else at the black girl. Also, the whole hand over the heart thing is some made up mess that few people actually do. It’s not the Pledge of Allegiance.
The team doesn’t decide which gymnasts get to make the All Around finals – so they didn’t take it away from Douglas. If that were the case, Douglas wouldn’t even been put in the final in 2012, as she took the slot everyone thought was going to Weiber. Gabby was indeed always going to have the uneven bars slot as she’s the best in the world and the US is weak in the event. But for the rest of the events? Gabby also just hasn’t been her best this year.
I think everyone there knows you can’t win ’em all
I think it’s definitely true Missy Franklin had a lot of pressure on her and it was hard for her to deliver, but she suffered a pretty debilitating back injury in 2014, IIRC. That probably put her off her game and caused a lot of mental/emotional issues that led to her loss of confidence. That’s the big thing nobody is talking about on this post. An injury to an athlete not only messes up their physical abilities but definitely messes with their heads. And this was a relatively recent injury. So it’s hard to recover from that.
Well I’m relieved by the lack of Missy mania this time around. I got so sick of her in London. NBC needs to make a bigger deal about Simone Manuel — that was amazing last night. Katie Ledecky should have turned pro before these Games, she would be making mega bank. If I were an Olympic athlete who was probably going to win a race or two, I totally would. A collegiate career is so overrated. Make that money while you can.
I’m actually happy Katie isn’t turning pro because that’s my problem with monetizing athleticism. What happens after your body gives out? What happens when you hit 30? I’m sure athletes make enough money to support themselves financially, but they still have 60+ years left to live. What are they going to do for the rest of their lives? They need to find something meaningful in their lives other than their sport, and going to college is a place where they can figure that out. I think it’s great that people get to make a lot of money in a short time for a skill that no one else can do, but unfortunately it’s a skill that’s very limited in scope and has an expiration date.
College will always be there. If I were her I would stay with my current coaching staff, turn pro and go to college part time. She can suffer just as many injuries in a college program as a professional one, best to make what money you can while you can. People go to Stanford and UC Berkeley to partake in those swimming programs to BECOME Olympic athletes, it is a total waste of her time to go there for that.
While Australia doesn’t have the big corporate sponsors a lot of our swimmers didn’t race well either this week.
For us I think we treated our swimmers as if they already won gold before they even left Australia. The news treats them like gods even before they race, it prob gets to their heads. It happened in the London game as well. So many bombed out in the races, that and the other athletes were just better than ours.
I watched Simone win with the Canadian teenager they were amazing. The hot faves in the race were Australian sisters. In the post race interview they looked shell shocked at the results. They don’t know what happened In the race. That was the answer for most of our swimmers.
But with all that being said everyone at the olympics are WAYY better at any sport than me. So I won’t criticise to much. But I think the coaching staff need to do a better job teaching these athletes to handle the pressure. I’m sure have a social media doesn’t help.
Imagine the notifications they get when they lose a race, it would be filled w horrible comments.
I agree. Our Australians need to take a leaf out of the US preparation book. They don’t put much emphasis on the world champs the year prior. We did! So we had all these world champs that we all expected would win again in Rio!
We also hold the trials way too early and expect them to peak at those then 4 months later.
The women’s 100 free was the biggest shock as only a couple of weeks ago Cate broke the WR! But all the talk prior was about her and Bronte going 1 and 2 and there wasn’t even a consideration they wouldn’t win and that’s dangerous.
Also there is a lot of pressure on our swimmers as we don’t have the track and field athletes like the US & even GB. So much of our medal tally expectations is on the swimmers.
I feel for them, and I’m proud that they’ve handled themselves well despite the disappointment. Hopefully we finally learn our lesson.
A lot of former swimmers, Thorpe and Leisel Jones have spoken out about this pressure and that some coaching decisions have not been good. For example, not letting McEvoy swim in the 4 x 200 relay. I think that would’ve helped him not have so much pressure on him for the 100 free!
Anyway, I still bloody love the Olympics and love watching our Aussie guys and girls compete! Let’s hope we finish off with a couple more medals!
Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! 😉
Swimmers become big celebrities in Australia and there’s no amateur-college sports circuit to sustain. ‘Distractions’ are an inevitability.
Simone Manuel actually tied for gold with Canadian Penny Oleksiak who was won 4 medals at the games so far and is only 16. I’m watching on CBC – has this awesome athlete even registered on the US channels?
My son and I were watching it live on CBC last night and we were dancing around screaming when Penny won!! I thought she and Simone were adorable hugging each other when they won! ( I posted about Penny winning too before I saw your post, but the more the merrier celebrating the win! 🙂 )
Shes the only Canadian that has won 4 medals in ONE summer olympics before as well.
Thank you RedGirl, for mentioning our awesome Penny O. I just loved seeing her face in pure joy as she turned to read the scoreboard and realized her first place (tie with Simone). And I really and truly don’t think she is doping. She’s a natural talent that was being scouted for the 2020 Olympics, and look what happened! Such a great role model for young people to follow.
Yes, she has. The NBC coverage has been pretty awful, but they did talk about Penny, and they aired both national anthems from the medal ceremony.
No, because we are Americans, not Canadians.
I think very few athletes have the mental strength of Michael Phelps — he’s some kind of anomaly. (Regardless of what has happened in his personal life, which he seems to have overcome, I also think it makes sense that they’d cover Phelps so much — he’s making history every time he swims).
I think what happened to Missy Franklin may not be unusual — they tend to dominate in one Olympics and do poorly the next one.
What I don’t get is the emphasis on beach volleyball. Every time I turn NBC on, there’s beach volleyball…
Beach volleyball? That’s an easy question to answer – girls in bikinis. It’s very misogynistic, but that’s how our news and media coverage is.
I loved how the Swiss players did not wear bikinis!!!
The Swiss ladies at one point were wearing bikinis – they were memorably low cut. I felt bad that they had to compete in those uniforms.
I am just going to say it. I get total Lance Armstrong vibes from Phelps. When someone totally and completely dominates like that at an advanced age? Even in Phelp’s heyday in ’08, his races were much closer. Now he’s just blowing everyone out of the water.
Did you saw him after he completed the 200 medley race yesterday? He was done, completely drained & he seemed to be in extreme pain. He had difficulties to even get out of the pool. He really didn’t look like someone who takes pefromance-enhancing drugs.
It says here he wanted more anti-doping testing done in the lead up to Rio. I guess one could circumvent the system somehow as Armstrong did (I have to admit some of that cheating struck me as rather impressive — changing blood bags in a bus while the press are outside!), but at the same time I don’t get why you’d want more testing done if you’re cheating:
http://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/37059168
Phelps has been very open about getting tested extra. Like he volunteers to get extra drug testing to prove hes clean. The thing with Phelps is that his body is built for swimming. He is a once in a lifetime athlete
Word to this. I love how everyone is condemning the Russians for doping and daring to show when I bet the majority are dope fiends themselves. And yes I get a big Armstrong warning when it comes to Phelps.
I kind of feel where you’re coming from- it’s like we’ve been “burned” too many times by these types of things.
However, for Phelps, I think it might be a combination of things, including that his actual physiology makes him a freak in the pool- his wingspan is huge, his feet are like flippers, his lung capacity, etc.
But I dunno. It’s fun to watch him win and I guess all we can do is hope he’s as clean as most of the other athletes.
I would be shocked if he dopes for sport. I agree with the comment that he has an extreme focus and mental prep that his incredible. I am not his biggest fan, but I admire how he wanted to go out on a high note and his hard work and preparation haspayed off for him.
Yes, I saw. And yes, I know that Phelps has been subject to a ton of testing – but even Lance Armstrong wasn’t caught because of a positive test. But come on. We’re supposed to believe that the one guy in the pool that’s competing clean is the one that’s winning by these monster margins at 31?
I should also add, I recognize that most likely my very favorite athletes on the women’s T&F side are dirty too. It’s just epidemic in sports right now.
@Rhiley: we talk about Phelps’ work ethic as though none of the other swimmers in the pool are working incredibly hard. Lochte especially is a total workhorse, and yet we’re seeing age creep up on him. Not to mention, that’s what doping DOES: it allows someone to recover faster and better, allowing them to sustain a greater training load.
Phelps has said that he’s trained better for these games than he has in the past. He said he didn’t really give it his full potential in training the last time, which shocked me, considering his results. He’s also competing in less races this time around which would probably allow him to compete better in the races that he has committed to. The load is lighter for him this time around which probably helps.
He looks tired after each race this time around. During the race, he’s fast, but afterwards he looks like he can’t move. With Lance Armstrong, they said that he never looked in pain which was a clear indication that he was doping.
I wouldn’t really say he wins by “monster margins” though. He is not as dominant as, say, Katie Ledecky or the Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu. He won the 200 butterfly by 0.04s, that’s practically nothing. The medley win was largely due to fact that his breast stroke improved (it used to be his “worst” stroke… I mean, worst by his standards) and got him the lead he needed.
Again: at 31 he’s able to handle the kind of training load to win these races? If an athlete is doping, it’s not the day of the competition, it’s during training specifically so they can handle this. Granted, this is all purely speculative – not only can you not prove a negative, but I genuinely think we’d never find out even if he was. But my gut is saying this is hinky.
@Bridget Ryan Lochte suffered a groin injury during the Olympic trials in June, that’s why he is not as fast as he used to be.
Stop it! Just because you don’t believe people can put in the work and achieve these things doesn’t mean they can’t. Also if you actually watch he can barely get out if the pool and he is going through extra testing. I don’t get why you feel the need to try and tarnish these athletes accomplishments.
He doesn’t really look sprightly after completing a race. I think his age shows to some degree when he’s trying to come out of the pool — he looks like he wants a mat to rest on/sleep on for half an hour.
Other athletes train as hard as him, but I do think his mental strength is different from most athletes. Whether his coach helped him to achieve that or he’s just naturally like that, I have no idea — but he’s not an athlete who gets psyched out at all by anything. And I think that mental strength accounts as much, if not more, for his success as much as his unusual wing span and lung capacity. Maybe that’s why his personal life spiralled out of control for awhile — perhaps all of that mental strength was devoted so much to sport he didn’t have enough left for real life.
Simone Biles, the young gymnast, is another whose mental strength impresses me. Nothing seems to faze her. So many gymnasts flame out at the Olympics after winning world titles, but she performed like it was another day at the office for her.
I get why it’s easy to believe Phelps is doping. But he really is built like a marine mammal. His wingspan is longer than other humans’ by a few inches, he’s got long flipper feet, a small torso and a huge ribcage. He was born to win gold medals in swimming: he is physiologically perfect for the sport. That said … sigh. I don’t believe he’s doping because I don’t want to believe it. Does everyone do it? Does everyone cheat? I don’t know. I would be incredibly sad: I love the US swimmers.
I’m inclined to agree with Bridget, just on the basis that I really think people deliberately turn their faces from just how endemic doping is in elite sport – especially when it’s one of their own who is beating all comers. (I always get a twinge in the back of my head when our track and field star Mo Farah wins something, for example, but I always end up clamping it down). But I don’t know much about swimming, so I could be way off.
But Bridget – the other face of the coin is that if Phelps *is* doping, it’s entirely likely half his competition is, too. But he is still winning. So y’know…
@K:I’m just going to guess all you know about the Olympics is what’s on the NBC packages.
When we hold individual athletes as though they are above questioning we are aiding in keeping sport dirty. There is this lore that has popped up about Phelps – he’s this superhuman that succeeds clean when others in the sport are dirty – and it’s because Michael Phelps is an industry all of his own. There is SO MUCH MONEY tied to his narrative and his success, not to mention the concept of national pride. Would we be nearly as quick to dismiss this if he wasn’t an American? I simply don’t think so. Though as Sixer said, the next question is of course how clean his competitors are as well. Doping doesn’t mean that you’re putting in less work than your competitors, after all. It means that you can handle a greater training load that would lead to burnout or injury in other athletes (*cough* Galen Rupp *cough*).
I don’t think Phelps is above questioning. But I do think the only way to figure out if he’s doping is to test him, and if he’s submitting to all of the testing and then some (even so far as willing to go through additional testing), and the tests can’t find anything, then I don’t know how else you can catch him. He’d have to slip up like Lance Armstrong did, but he doesn’t seem to have that type of arrogance nor does he seem to make enemies like Armstrong does. With Armstrong, his personality slipped him up more than the system actually catching him (although it did seem like some tests caught him, but they were purposely hidden as well? I’ve watched a lot of the Armstrong documentaries, and the level of cheating was like something out of a spy thriller movie. Hilariously, I was impressed! I should have been appalled, but I was more like “Whoa!”)
If Phelps is cheating and others aren’t, I would think those athletes would want to tell on him though (like the wife of the athlete who competed with Lance, and held on strong throughout the decades that Lance in fact was cheating and never backed down).
I take little comfort from your coughing at Rupp, Bridget!
@Perplexed: a huge part of the issue is that testing is always 3 steps behind doping. Personally, I would be very interested in seeing older samples re-tested years later. But until WADA gets some real teeth, testing positive doesn’t mean that an athlete is clean, because it’s a systemic issue. There is so much money at stake, there is no vested interest in athletes being clean, just in them not failing drug tests (see NOP and what’s going on in track).
@Sixer: I cannot stand Rupp.
Bridget – this is what I have been saying for AGES. We need regular, random, retroactive testing of samples. That would go such a long way to restoring some sanity.
@Sixer: my biggest fear there is that it would turn out that my personal hero Paula Radcliffe will test dirty retroactively. I will be truly heartbroken if that happens.
Bridget: “There is this lore that has popped up about Phelps – he’s this superhuman that succeeds clean when others in the sport are dirty – and it’s because Michael Phelps is an industry all of his own. There is SO MUCH MONEY tied to his narrative and his success, not to mention the concept of national pride.”
This is the EXACT narrative that enabled Lance Armstrong to race for as many years as he did while doping. Alarm bells went off for me almost immediately with him, for a variety of reasons, and my cyclist husband was aghast that I would even suggest he was doping. I tried not to rub it in when I was finally vindicated, lol. His downfall was pretty crushing to my husband and most of his cyclist buddies.
Anyway, I have to say I don’t get the same red flags from Phelps but I know you can never say never. I do, however, majorly side eye Katinka Hosszu. Phelps is not winning by huge margins, but when she shattered that world record in the 400 IM all I could think was “doping.” Sigh.
For me the difference between Phelps and Armstrong and it’s a massive one is that people had been claiming from the beginning that Lance was doping. He destroyed people’s lives because they dared to speak out against him but again the stories were out there. If Phelps is doping then he is doing it on such a scale where everyone who knows is extremely trustworthy because I have never heard a whisper about Phelps.
Another thing Phelps is not doing what he used to do in 2008, he broke multiple world records everytime he hit the pool back then. Now he’s beating folks yes but that has to do with the field not actually getting that much faster since the last time he swam in London. The 200 IM was his largest win the rest of the individual races he has won by hundreths of the second.
This happens a lot with a lot of wonderkid athletes, though – they start out blazing and brilliant, but for a variety of reasons (for example, injury, trouble dealing with increased expectations/pressure, burnout) they don’t live up to the former hype. Phelps-type athletes who dominate throughout most of their career are rare for that reason.
For athletes at the elite level, the mental/psychological aspect is just as important as the physical training. My guess is that Franklin was tired of the grueling training and wanted to live “normally” for a while, but the temptation and/or pressure to turn pro ended up winning out. It’s become more of a job for her instead of something fun that she happens to be exceptionally good at.
Wow, I didn’t know that Simone Manuel was the first African American woman to get an individual medal in swimming! Awesome! Also awesome: 16 year old Canadian Penny Oleksiak who tied Manuel for that gold medal and also got the most medals for swimming in a single Olympics (4) for any Canadian ever last night! Two brilliant swimmers who set a new record! 😀
I appreciate Kaiser’s remark regarding the NCAA. I have mixed feelings about that. Obviously, the NCAA wants to keep the image that college sports are all about the scholastics, and then sports secondary. But that’s such BS!!! Look how much $$$ the NCAA makes with the tournaments for various sports, particularly basketball, and the players/students who make that money for the NCAA are not allowed to cash in at all? That sucks.
But on the flip side, the NCAA prevents things like dubious incentives on the part of the universities to recruit star players (think UNLV and Tarkanian back in the day…corvettes and hookers?). Oy.
But I graduated from UC Berkeley, and I know that we have a great swimming program. Missy Franklin contributed to that reputation. Maybe if she were allowed to cash in on some endorsements after the London Olympics, she wouldn’t have had to worry about her scholarship, and could have gone on to get her degree. And her scholarship could have been given to another deserving student. I don’t know.
Many NCAA students can also “cash in” by manner of partial or full ride scholarships. I imagine the ban on promotionalism has to do with maintaining the integrity of the actual academic program and avoiding a financial gap developing between athletes and the general school population. There’s already a lot of criticism aimed at sports culture and the way athletes are held to a different standard than most students. Allowing a cash in would likely trigger a lot of backlash from other students.
Franklin is having an off week. It happens she is still a brilliant swimmer.
As for NBC I’m livid with the coverage it sucks. I’ve been tweeting (I know this does nothing) how about how bad it is. But the fact is with out question the best event yesterday was Simone Manuel. That race was amazing, ignoring the historical facts for a minute the race was crazy good. Simone and the girl from Canada weren’t even in the conversation it was Australia and Japan. They had an out side chance of getting on the stand, then out of nowhere Simone came out and dominated along with the girl from Canada and you just didn’t know who won! It was amazing!!! That should have been getting non stop coverage.
Then going beyond the race HISTORY, was made this was a big deal. I’m not a black person and even I knew how massive and important that moment was.
This was a huge moment and unbelievable race and I would love to know more about the brilliant Standford swimmer who killed it.
“that girl from Canada” has a name – Penny Oleksiak.
If I can know Simone Manuel’s name, take the time to learn Penny’s.
Both of their achievements are HUGE -!!!
Calm down NBC barely said Simon’s name much less Penny so no need to be rude.
I gave her credit for a brilliant race. I apologize that it never got mentioned on my coverage and I didn’t catch her actual name, but that sort of made my over all point about coverage didn’t it.
Actually our Canadian coverage on CBC wasn’t much better! the announcers didn’t even notice Penny coming up until her name was displayed across the screen as winning. There was a total wtf moment. And right before that in the big men’s race they got Lochte and phelps mixed up and narrated the end of the race as Lochte taking the lead and surprising everyone!! “Its going to be lochte phelps can’t keep up it’s lochte it’s lochte lochte gets the gold!!” and then realized they had the lanes mixed up. “Sorry everyone that would be.. Michael phelps”.
I could only think how much Ryan Lochte would enjoy that coverage and how he will put himself to sleep with it every night. In the parallel universe of Canada , he wins the gold
What happened to Missy? Well. She was a phenom 4 years ago at 17 and backed it up at 18. Then had back injury, left the security of a college and team-mates to hit the pro/corporate big time. That’s what happened to Missy.
And then you point to Katie and say she’s having the best time because she’s beholden to no-one. You mean like Missy was 4 years ago and just 2 years younger? What’s to say that Katie doesn’t sponsor up in a year, have to work through an injury and not live up to this Olympics in Tokyo?
I don’t know. I think we tend to be way too harsh sometimes. It takes a village on top of exceptional physical and mental focus gifts to peak for a week every four years (not running down the annual World Champs). But you’re right too. The corporate favoritism and media darling status is a double edged sword.
I won’t start on the NCAA, they piss me off immensely.
Yes, all very well said. Including the part about the NCAA.
The only thing that I’d add is that I wonder why such pressure to excel not just in one Olympic Games but in multiple games. Of course that’s the athletes’ prerogative, if they want to keep competing then more power to them. But there should be shame in retiring or backing off if continuing doesn’t feel right. I guess for many athletes, it’s all they know so stopping would be really difficult.
Keep in mind, for athletes of this caliber this is all they know. They’ve spent their entire lives training and working toward this 1 goal – can you blame them for keeping going? A lifetime of work, drive, and passion goes into making an Olympic athlete, and they can’t just turn it off. Not to mention, many have issues with a lack of coping mechanisms and life skills. It’s really hard to transition to normal life.
Bridget, agreed. Even semi-professional and elite recreational athletes I know seem to be fish out of water when they’re not competing. So it’s not surprising. But it’s too bad. It was refreshing to hear the plans of one Olympic swimmer, Maya Dirado. Apparently she has a consulting job lined up post Olympics…which seems smart. It seems she’s enjoying the glory of the Games and then putting her Stanford education right to work. Wishing her a smooth transition.
Personal life aside, Phelps is one in a billion. What he does in the pool at all these different Olympics is like winning the lotto over and over every year. Unheard of until him.
Simone and Penny both getting Gold and making history in their own unique way is so amazing! I cried! Missy and Gabby, their time was London.
What happened? Didn’t she have a pretty serious back injury after London? I’m sure that has had a huge effect on her as an athlete
Don’t forgot that Simone tied with Canadian Penny Olesiak and she made some Olympic firsts too.
No1curr about some random white Canadian girl lol.
Except the Canadians who visit this pages as well.
I had no idea that swimmers can actually turn pro. Are there pro swim teams, or is it just individual? So confused. Who exactly pays them when they go pro?
I’m just used to pro athletes being on team sports and being paid by the team which is part of a league – NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, etc.
Turning pro means that they can accept corporate sponsorship and endorsements. In the US, a swimmer cannot go pro and compete in the NCAA, so swimmers have to choose. Michael Phelps went pro, never swam in the NCAA, but attended the Universiry of Michigan and trained with Club wolverine, the private, non-collegiate swim team.
The answer is simple. She is not a teenager anymore and didn’t adjust her training.
That is hella doubtful.
You don’t train that differently as a teen vs adult. You train differently as a prepubescent child to a teen, because the lactic systems are different.
6 seconds is a ton of time on a personal best in this distance, she majorly shit the bed.
Except she hasn’t been doing as well for several years. Her last individual gold from a world championships was in 2013. But since it is the Olympics, people are now noticing things have changed.
It’s not her scholarship that concerned her about turning pro because cost of attending Cal Berkeley with room and board is about $30K. It’s that she would have lost her eligibility to play NCAA sports.
As for NCAA yes they have a lot of rules in place that are supposed to protect the athletes academic endeavors. And coaches are very careful about that as are the athletes. My daughter wouldn’t allow the photographer who took professional photos of her to use them as a promotion on the photographer’s website with my daughter’s name lest the NCAA view that as a violation of her NCAA status. (My daughter needed the pics for something unrelated.) I thought that was crazy but my kid was adamant about not crossing the NCAA. We personally have had really great experiences with that organization so no shade here.
If she accepted the photos for free, that would be an issue, but I think if she paid for them herself she would have been fine. I don’t blame her for being cautious, though.
Bridget, we paid for the photos. But you’re right, she didn’t want to take any chances with her NCAA standing.
Just remember, if you have questions you can always chat with your compliance officer.
Well, she just graduated so we don’t need to worry about that anymore! (But thanks!)
They’re being hard on Missy. I saw a headline that described her Rio Olympics as a nightmare. Nightmare? Really? Swimmers have this spotlight once every 4 years, and there are many life challenges in between. She had a back injury between London and Rio. Don’t even start with all the phenomenal young swimmers she is competing against. And one bad day, a sore muscle, a bit of a flu bug can change it all. She’s still competing with the best in the world and won gold with the relay team. She didn’t do what she did last games, but flogging her effort seems crass.
I know, I feel for her. I guess if she hadn’t gone pro then she wouldn’t have felt so much pressure to do well on the heels of a major injury.
I am so glad you all are saying what I’ve been thinking. Phelps gives me huge Lance Armstrong deja-vu. How do you continue to dominate after so many years and when he is not even young for the sport anymore. I believe probably they all do it though – that’s how every year there are records being broken and by such huge margins. It’s not like technology is that much better than 4 years ago.
By the way, Missy still did win one gold in the group event! Girlfriend still got one more gold! A back injury is a HUGE deal in swimming.
Someone going from winning 5 medals in London (4 golds) to not even qualifying for the final in her signature event seems very suspicious. Perhaps she crashed and burned or maybe she was doping last time and was forced to compete clean now.
Possible but let’s not forget her back injury in 2014. That’s extremely debilating in swimming and takes time to recover
She has competed and won medals in World Championship races since the back injury.
So now people are claiming doping when someone *doesn’t* win? That’s massively unfair. There are a ton of factors in play that can differentiate the Olympics, including aging, fitness or just how you feel on the day.
It’s as simple as swimming being a tough sport. To win at an Olympic level, you have to get your training just right. They break their bodies down over months and then have to perfectly time their taper/rest so that they are in a perfect balance of fitness/rest on the day of the meet. Get that off by even a little bit, and Franklin could have been insufficiently rested/rested too long to win.
Exactly. That’s what happened with the Lithuania swimmer Ruta Meilutyte. She spent the fall and winter rehabbing through an injury and was basically on a different training schedule than most Olympic swimmers — her coach said that while most athletes were tapered and rested she was still in full training mode. She did remarkably well considering that fact but not as well as the country had hoped. I’m sure she’s not the only one, so many factors are in play here.
That’s not quite the same thing. When an athlete is injured, not only does it throw off their training cycle, but they also have to deal with any lost fitness due to the time off. It wasn’t just that she was in “full training mode” and un-tapered, it’s that she hasn’t had a full training cycle and hasn’t been able to reap the physical benefit of training gains. Because that’s what training is: applying a training load to the body, and getting stronger and faster. Not enough load, not enough training gains.
And don’t forget folks, Franklin is a seasoned, experienced athlete. I have no clue what went on with her at this Olympics, but I highly doubt that it was a training error. She’s super experienced and has expert coaching available. I’m just a recreational distance runner and I can tell you exactly what I need to taper, I can guarantee you Missy Franklin has that part down pat.
After every race, the swimmers are tested for PEDs.
If you follow the sport of swimming you will see that swimmers evolve over their careers. Every swim is not their best swim–unless you’re Michael Phelps! What Phelps is doing is uncommon. He truly is in my opinion, the GOAT.
Missy Franklin was only 17 at London, she’s 21 now. Her body has probably changed and grown which will effect her training and performance. There was also a lot of pressure on her to medal like she did in London. That type of pressure effects people differently.
Just the opinion of a former swimmer and current swim mom 🙂
The Chinese cyclists have the best helmets EVER thats all I’ve got.
Jesus who are you people judging from your comfy couches these elite athletes representing our country? There is zero proof that Phelps is doping, and I’m sure he is being tested just as much as anyone else, maybe even more due to his high visibility. And to call him a “problematic person” due to his DUI’s, after the dude just got his freaking 22nd gold medal, breaking a record from 152 B.C., is just a sad commentary on how negative this website can be. None of these athletes are perfect, and it’s common for them to have a personal breakdown after a huge win. Bring on Leslie Jones and her twitter commentary and y’all should take a lesson on Olympic pride from her.
So you’re saying that someone doesn’t have to behave well if they win lots of sports events?
More Olympic stories, please Kaiser? This is great!
Doping or not (a lot of them are doping, yeah), an Olympic caliber athlete must train for four years to compete at the Olympic level. The best athletes have said, personal lives aside, they spend most of their time training as unrelenting obession and a full-time job. Some coaches try to ensure some don’t psychologically snap by forcing them to not train every single day. I see Michael Phelps having far less down time now because he’s training constantly and consistently, with weights in the water, to retain what he can of his strength and speed. I don’t think the whole answer is Missy didn’t work hard enough. I do think part of her collapsed comeback was because she didn’t continue to train enough at the Olympic caliber level to remain competitive. As for doping, I love the comic who joked there should be two Olympics: The Doping Olympics and The Non-Doping Olympics. He joked the dopers would race bikes in a marathon and easily cross the finish line at 2 hours 4 minutes and do a victory shout. The non-dopers would barely cross the finish line at 17 hours 48 minutes and do an exhaustion collapse.
She injured her back in 2014, yeah? It can take years for a body to recover from that. My sister is still disabled after a major car accident and may never fully recover. I wouldn’t be surprised if that affected her performance.
I do like that she didn’t pretend to be happy in the interview. What a dumbass question to ask someone who trained four years and blew it at the actual event.