Monday, August 18, 2008

Men with Golden Arms and legs

To be frank, I am aquaphobic. I have been like this, right from my childhood. Quiet a guy who runs away from water. During my childhood, my dad used to play with my fear, when he used to take me to the beach. He used to deliberately take me inside the water and drop me in middle of no wear. I get those spine chilling feeling and run like hell towards the shore. So I am not good when near water, and don't know how to swim.

So coming from me, you should think over this. I marvel this guy, Michael Phelps. Getting a gold in Olympics is as they say, very difficult (From an Indian). So getting 8 in the same Olympics should be (very) raised to eight times difficult. There is something special with this guy. Just some days back I read an article, which said, an IITian Rajat Mittal, has been researching Michael Phelps style of swimming. He says, "Phelps is able to use his body in a way that is very, very different from the other athletes...much closer to dolphins than we have seen for any other swimmer’’.

He says, "Phelps is able to straighten his massive size-14 feet to a greater angle (about 15 degrees) than any other swimmer to reduce resistance. Almost 90% of all the thrust is coming from the foot,’’ Mittal explained. “And the flatter and bigger your foot is, you essentially have a bigger paddle. Michael’s foot size and the angle he generates with it plays a big role in his ability to swim very well.’’ The irony of a IITian from India studying, swimming patterns of a guy from some other country.

Whatever he does, he must be an expert at that. He has 8 Olympic gold medals to show for that. He might eventually end up as a great Olympian ever. I have been greatly blessed to be born in the same era of such an awesome swimmer. Before the Olympics started, Michael had quoted that it is his dream to win gold in all the 8 events that he participates in. Well isn't that apocalyptic. I would say it is a complete devastation and dilapidation of gold medals, which gave the other swimmers very little time to even grasp, what has hit them.

Only one could even come close to Phelps, he came so close that he was one hunderth of second late. Milorad Cavic of Serbia, would be tearing his hair out for losing out on chance to upstage Phelps. The Serbian team even protested about the judgement. But the officials were spot on with their Omega clock. To add to Cavic's fury, Phelps just 2 days back had said, “There are still three races to go and I am not unbeatable. No swimmer is unbeatable,”.


Truly, this man has been born with a golden arm. He has made a complete mockery of these medals. He is very close to his mother. I came across this video from ESPN, an interview of his mother after the Athens Olympics 2004. You should look into this one. This video was taken before this Olympics. Just look at, how much training goes in becoming a champion.

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/video?id=3511562

They say Athens Olympics 2004 was just an start to his swimm
ing career just at the age 18. Phelps won 6 gold in that. Now at the age of 22, he has 8 in Beijing Olympics 2008. He will be 26 in London Olympics 2012 and raring to go. All I would say is he has ignited interest in me to join swimming. Not many can do that, my dad tried. So I would be behind him in London, to win 8 again. Go Phelps Go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYdmo8DMIuQ

Just to complete the legs, Usain Bolt. A man with legs which can run 100 mtrs at 9.69 seconds. Well, just imagine what you can do in 9 seconds. You can use the oven and set it to get your coffee warmer. Try to catch a fly. Thinking about changing the channel on the TV. Opening a can, which is very badly closed. The door which has self closing tag to it, after it is open fully, closes in 9 seconds. Trying to remove a knot. Man this guy must be fast.


Closer observation shows that, Usian Bolt had come without his shoe lace done. And he lost composure, in the last 3 strides, as he was holding his arms wide and pumping his heart. Otherwise, they say he could have done it in 9.6 seconds. The people with golden arms and legs are surely too quick to catch.

8 comments:

La Pixie said...

I think that Phelps' humble attitude makes it so much more enjoyable for us (viewers) to cheer him on and share in his joy. he is truly talented.

Lan said...

Yes I agree!! He can be a great ambassador for swimming as a sport!!

Joie Mayfield said...

Hey friend! Thanks for stopping by my blog! I agree, Phelps is amazing. Great post!

To add YouTube videos:

On the youtube.com page with the video, on the right hand side will be a place that says "Embed" and contains some HTML code under it. Select that code, and place it into your HTML editor in a post. :) Hope that helps.

Thanks again for stopping by.

Lan said...

Hey thanks!! I will try that!! :) thanks for the info!!

Sara said...

I like how your posts have pictures in more places than just the top.

Lan said...

hey; that is cool; thanks!! :)

Christine said...

phelps is really intense, and over here in the U.S. nearly every newspaper had a full spread where there was a huge picture of his body and a bunch of arrows pointing to why he was as good as he is. he also eats a lot of pizza and pasta....at least he keeps it American hehe.

Lan said...

Christine: Yes I agree, I went through his diet routine, he eats the same way as a normal guy~~ but the difference is that he swims almost everyday; which burns those extra calories~~ :)

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