I dunno - that sure as hell looks like a tie to me. Give em both gold-medals (they've done that before).

I would say if the touch pad says Phelps won, the judges who reviewed the tape say Phelps won, and the Serbians who lodged the protest say Phelps won, then maybe we should just believe Phelps won.

Incredible, incredible, incredible. What an athlete.

So I'm supposedly watching boxing on TV. am I gay or not.

That decision by Phelps to recognize that he was too far from the wall and needed that little extra push to finish fast, as opposed to Cazic who decided to glide in made all the difference in the world.

This one comes down to training and instinct.

Oh and I'll buy into two other statements here as well. The guy in front of the mother was priceless, and the overhead super slo mo is something we will remember for a long time.

I didn't get to see all the slo-mo replays, so this is just some dude talking out of his ass, but the videos I've watched, I see Phelps with that last furious stroke and his arm coming up and over to touch before the other guy.

Maybe it's just the illusion of motion - stroking versus gliding with hands under water. You can't see what the other guy did, but you CAN see Phelps touch even with the crappy view, and you see him do it before the other guy straightens up.

Maybe ESPN Classic will package the Olympic races or something and I'll be able to see that one with all of the replays someday. Otherwise, though, just wow.

I am not sure what this even means. Maybe it is a cultural thing, but when I was a kid, every weekend that we went up to Knoxville to visit family, watching boxing on ABC was a common thing that they did (when it wasn't college football season) back in the 1970s and a few years into the 1980s.

I'm not a big boxing fan, but I don't understand how watching it makes you "gay". It is not like you are watching male gymnastics or anything that I could understand someone making that case.

Real Men watch MMA.
Gay Men watch boxing.

At least that that is what I think he meant. Or maybe he was just drunk. I think I will go with the latter.

Or we could just believe it was fixed. You know, NBC and Nike and Microsoft pre-programmed all the computerized timing devices to cheat for Phelps in this specific, one-in-a-million scenario.

When it comes to gay sports in the Olympics, boxing isn't even in the top 100.

Gay Olympic Sport

Another Gay Olympic Sport

Yet Another Gay Olympic Sport


That oughtta clear things up for y'all.

And paid off the Serbians. Of course that was the trickiest part, since they didn't know he was gonna be the real winner. They had previously only paid off Crocker. That's why there was an initial protest, but then a sudden change of opinion afterwards.

dola

The picture on Yahoo's Sports page is a pretty good one. It shows that the guy was still reaching while Phelps was at the end of that last stroke.

i did the same thing...hd, 60 inch tv...it was the only view i thought that showed phelps getting there first

I am watching Spain versus USA and the those refs are utter crap.

Phelps won and the video clearly shows that. In other news, the Redeem Team is looking good against Spain at halftime and Federer is closing in on a doubles gold medal.

Running the 100-meter dash in a world record 9.69 is just sick. Doing it while celebrating the last 10-15 metres in style is just... mind boggling.

How fast would he have run if he went at full tilt all the way?

Yeah, really... that was utterly insane!

The worst thing in sports in doping, then next worst thing is celebrating/chest thumping while the race/play is going on. Be a sportsman, not a clown, and celebrate afterwards but not in a way that is demeaning to your opponents.

Relax already. The man's setting a world record in the Olympics winning a gold medal at 21 - celebrating is no crime, no matter what sensibilities it offends.

If he turned around and pointed at the opponents and laughed at them, that's demeaning. The way he celebrated, was just being proud of a personal accomplishment. He must have known he was making crazy good time and even surprised himself a bit or something.

Nothing wrong with that accomplishment, it was amazing. But shouldn't one do it after you know you have set the world record and actually crossed the line?

He obviously celebrated winning the Olympic gold medal - the world record was just an extra bonus. He already had the previous record.

SI.com has great shots, including a closeup - I think these are from the 'official' cameras.

Phelps' Miracle Finish - Phelps Frame-By-Frame - Photos - SI.com

Great, great shots. Thanks for posting that.

Embarrassing loss of Spain vs USA in basketball. I know USA is the best team, but come on, we are the supposed world champs and we can't play like we did today, letting them win us by 37 points and just walking around the whole second half, showing zero intensity on defense and just shooting some 3's.

Their excuse is that the game meant nothing but... loosing by 37 and playing like a bunch of lazy kids is embarrassing in the Olympic games. Only Felipe Reyes showed some rage and played hard until the end, but our NBA guys, specially Pau Gasol was sleeping the whole game and should be embarrased about his game today.

Let's hope we won't play this bad and lazy in the important incoming games.

fuck - who?

Just to clear up the "official" cameras, the timing system is backed-up by cameras directly over the water (and under the block) which face downwards and take photos at faster than the 1/100 of a second that the timing system records. They are used primarily if the electronic timing system fails, but are authorized under FINA regulations to be used in a protest.

On the race, the really, really interesting thing about the finish is that Phelps did exactly what swimmers are taught NOT to do - instead of taking a half stroke like he did, you are supposed to finish with a strong kick into the wall. However, obviously it worked!

dola - nevermind - bolt hmm?

the amazing thing to me about that phelps-finish was how fast he looked to be moving even in super-slo-mo versus the other swimmers

You win, you get to celebrate however you damn well please.

Right here, it looks like he is toast. Never have seen anything so cool in any Olympics.

"win" = after the event, fwiw. ;) (during the event would be "winning")

It was nice to see the US team shoot the three well today (12-25), if they can keep that up while maintaining the good defense they'll win gold.

Leon Lett would disagree. :)

Even more reason this should be strongly encouraged.

Trampoline is awesome.

LOL, I logged on just to post exactly that. I have two or three "what the hell, that's a sport?" moments in each olympics, Trampoline is my first for these games. But now I completely agree, it's awesome.

Agreed, this is strangely compelling.

They did a pretty good job of explaining the scoring, better than they do some of the other gymnastic events.

The Aussie men's basketball needed to beat Russia to keep their very slim medal chances alive, and do that we did.

Check out this slam from Andrew Bogut. I had to change my underpants when I saw this live, and I believe Kirilenko did as well, as he had the best seat in the house:

So close for Torres in the 50m free. There are 2 swimming races left.

As a Canadian, I am happy we have some medals now. :)

I almost don't want to watch this race

I have nothing invested in it, but i'm still nervous

Same, I really want to see Phelps do this.

Same here. Very excited to watch.

brendan hansen better frigging bring it in the breaststroke

hansen looks okay so far at the turn here - hopefully he holds it in the next 50

hansen did his job

in goes lezak with a slight lead - looking good - opening it up

Damn. They were serious.

HE DID IT!!!!

8 FOR PHELPS!

Lezak ought to get a cut of Phelps endorsement take.

He's certainly made a name for himself.

I bet you when they talk to phelps he gives MAJOR kudos to the rest of the relay teams first thing he does

Lezak was huge, that was awesome.

Awesome, congrats Phelps.

Heh, Visa was ready weren't they?

edit: no point to dola'ing here I guess. The Phelps chase has been cool enough & all that but I really think I'm a bigger fan of Lezak at this point. I just like the perception I have of him refusing to let his team down I guess.

And so was NBC, apparently....

+1

Ugh.

Congrats to Phelps on an outstanding accomplishment, but NBC sure is trying to milk for all it's worth.

i don't mind nbc trying to milk it - they're trying to justify the huge sums of $$ they spent to get the olympic license, and make some of that $$ back, and that's just a fact of life

+1

Something has to pay for the multiple network coverages (among other things).

This swimming stuff has been fun to watch. It's kind of like horse racing, except they're humans and are in water.

Phelps has a little Eli Manning look to him, doesn't he?

If I were an NFL guy, I might be getting a hold of Bolt's agent and giving him a looksie. Hey, it worked for Hayes and Nehemiah.

Dola.

The Butterfly Stroke is hilarious. They look like dolphins.

You broke my damned dola.

I mentioned that to my wife earlier today, although my reference was Willie Gault.

Hmm, that is pretty true if you think about it. Good call on that one.

I agree. I didn't notice the arms, and I thought they were actually swimming like dolphins.

Great accomplishment for Phelps, but he's yesterdays news. Now we can get to more important matters like crowning the Worlds Fastest Man! NBC really should have shown this live this morning. Shame on them.

Imagine what Bolt could run if somebody was chasing him.
I'm not much of a track & field guy but that was f'n sick.

How tall is he?

Seriously, it wasn't even a contest. Man...

6'5"

LOL (for pro wrestling fans at least) ... Walter Dix looks like he's paying tribute to Jay Lethal.

Yeah, Bolt dominated the best in the world. Really amazing.

You know, watching the interviews with these athletes (seeing Canadian ones since I'm watching on CBC), and how happy they are to just be there and compete... the wrestler that won gold for Canada had tears and was smiling like crazy... anyway, seeing this, and then remembering professional athletes complain that $8M a year isn't enough or whatever... it's a world of difference. :) Helps me connect with the Olympic athletes.

(I know the whole business aspect of professional sports, and it makes sense for certain athletes to holdout and whatnot... but still).

like the announcer guy said though - by celebrating early and raising his arms and what-not, he possibly threw away another tenth of a second -- which I guess as a fan of the accomplishment, irritates me. How sick would that have been if he went 9.59?

And, cynical bastard that I am, if Phelps had cried right there it might have been worth another million or two to him down the road.

hahaha

Yeah, that is backwards. MMA is the one where two men try to dryhump each other into submission, boxing is the one where they have to stand up and keep punching each other in the head.

And to think Bolt decided to start running the 100 on a whim...his best race is the 200!!!

With all due respect to Phelps, Bolt's 100 was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

That'd be amateur wrestling, not MMA ;)

There's just as much cuddling in boxing as there is in MMA.

Que?

YouTube - Brock Lesner vs Min Soo Kim

That's exactly how I felt. As a huge fan of track and the parent of an aspiring sprinter, the showboating really turned me off and exactly what we don't need in the olympics. You can do back flips and what not all you want after the race but run the damn race. It's one thing to be self confident but that was just way over the top. He had the chance to put up a Flo-Jo type record (one that will probably not be touched for decades). That would have been a 9.59 easily at the rate of speed he was gaining. Unlike most 100m sprinters, it appears that he never loses speed over the course of the 100 which is crazy. Ben Johnson on roids could even do that !!!!!!

Right, because picking a former NCAA wrestler's first MMA match is obviously a reflection on the entire sport. I don't know if you're being overly serious or not, but if that's your honest opinion of MMA I sincerely hope you take the chance to watch some more matches and if it was sarcasm that I stumbled into, probably for the best that I'm just backing out of this one now.

Mostly valid points, but given how little experience he has in the 100m (relatively speaking), I'd be amazed if he doesn't improve on that performance (and likely knows that). Not necessarily excusing the behavior, but there's a pretty good shot that he can improve on this race which is a pretty scary thought for anybody facing him going forward.

The only problem with Bolt (aside from that he's likely never played football) is that it takes him time to get to that top speed. Once he's there, he's amazing. But he's not a James Jett, where he can accelerate quickly. His 40 time, while it'd be good, may look average for a wideout.

You could only really utilize his speed on a 90-yard bomb, or something that gives him about a 20-yard cushion to get going.

As soon as I saw the post about Bolt and the NFL, I thought it was a great idea...until I realized what I had read about his height causing him to start slowly. That could also be because he's really not a sprinter, and gets slow starts to begin with. But he's a loper, and that takes time to get top speed.

Damn, Torres just missed out on the silver

Woot! 8 for Phelps!

I enjoy track and field, but no matter what, Jon is right - this needs props. Phelps was great and all, but just wow. This is the first year the guy has ever run it, and he breaks 9.68!

Indeed. To me, Bolt is the story of these Olympics.

He earned the right to be in the race and run it however he damn well pleases.

"""". He's not running to please every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the crowd. Yes, he could have gone faster, but damnit, he was the fastest man the world has ever seen!

ESPN anchors in cluelessness shocker when talking about Bolt, "He ran a 3.5 40!"

I am glad I read this here before turning on ESPN News this morning.