Originally Posted by
tstartrekdude
Don't know how many of you where watching the Men's 4 x 100m Medley swim tonight, but something kind of got my goat. after the relay was over and team usa was being interviewed by the reporter guy,
Brendan Hansen(slowest of the four) had this to say(from memory) "this is the greatest sports achievement ever, Better than the Pressure putt in the PGA, better than the tour de france, the best ever"
Hmmm.....so the 8 swims of about a minute are the biggest things ever in sports...even bigger than 7 tours of about 20+ days long, 2 or 3 thousand miles and over 2 mountain ranges each time.......
When lance was asked if he was the best athlete ever he said that he has never done any of the other sports, and each is great in its own right.....so what do you guys think?
Well since I bike and swim... and do the latter competitively... frankly I think the TDF is a ball buster compared to a 100m swim...
I've done long rides (as much as 165 miles in one day... more typical... a century) and long swims, (2 miles in a day) and at a competitive level I think the long ride beats a long swim as far as endurance is considered.
I was really blown away a few years ago when some columnist compared the TDF to golf in Sports Illustrated... told me the guy did not have a clue as to the sort of effort required for a multiday bike race.
Now on the flip side, I don't recall Lance ever looking like this...
This is Dara Torres... 41 year old female Olympic medal winner (swimmer) :
And I can tell you that I get in shape faster when swim season comes around. Swimming really sculpts my body in a hurry.
However, comparing a 100m swim (even 8 of them) to a 23 day cycle racing event... that's just crazy talk.
