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Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

This blog will pay for itself.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

All hail the time of the bunny!

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

You are here: Home / Sports / Phelps

Reader Interactions

28Comments

  3. 3.

    Narcissus

    Really amazing. I assume they must determine the winner electronically or something, because it looked like a simultaneous finish.

  6. 6.

    kirk

    Narcissus, yes, it’s electronic – old electronic, but electronic. Basically it’s a large, waterproof pressure pad. Tap the wall and it triggers the stop signal. I have no clue about the modern ones, but three decades ago one of the things you learned early was to spear that thing – much as you’ll see runners lean forward to break a tape (and be seen as ahead for the camera).

  7. 7.

    Jon H

    Nice.

    OT, but Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic (not Lucianne’s odious crotchfruit at NRO) has an amusing post of some “Obama campaign emails” that he has obtained.

    The contrast with the Clinton campaign memos is striking.

  10. 10.

    ThymeZone

    What a great frigging athlete this guy is. It’s thrilling to watch the very best at something, doing it at his very best, and making history. Fabulous.

  11. 11.

    larick

    Thanks (not) for the spoiler for those of us on the west coast :-(

    I have intentionally kept my usually open nytimes tab closed in the evenings during the Olympics so I could watch the broadcast with some semblance of suspense.

    Really, no biggie. I’ll still keep you in my feed reader because you have other redeeming qualities :-)

  12. 12.

    John S.

    Conversely:

    It’s thrilling horrifying to watch the very best worst at something, doing it at his very best worst, and making history.

  13. 13.

    just me

    Wonder how fast he’d be with the same gear available to Spitz.

    He may not be as fast, but he would probably still be dominant. The man’s body is the perfect swimmer’s body. He was built for his sport-from his height to his double joints.

    His speed is certainly helped by technology, but my guess is he would have been dominant no matter what era he swam in.

  14. 14.

    Keith

    The finish is being contested…

    Hillary Rules state that if the finish is close, the loser is the winner by virtue of leading on more metrics than the winner. Touching the finish line first is only one small (potential) piece of what constitutes a win.

  15. 15.

    Warren Terra

    Does it suggest something disturbing about my politics obsession that I’m wondering which convention Phelps will speak at?

  16. 16.

    Bob In Pacifica

    At the BBC there’s an article on Phelps’ daily diet, 10 to 12 thousand calories:

    Breakfast: Three fried egg sandwiches; cheese; tomatoes; lettuce; fried onions; mayonnaise; three chocolate-chip pancakes; five-egg omelette; three sugar-coated slices of French toast; bowl of grits; two cups of coffee
    Lunch: Half-kilogramme (one pound) of enriched pasta; two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayonnaise on white bread; energy drinks
    Dinner: Half-kilogramme of pasta, with carbonara sauce; large pizza; energy drinks

    I like this:

    He suggested Phelps, with an estimated 8% body fat, probably burns 1,000 calories per hour during his swimming training, compared to the equivalent exercise for an average person – vigorous walking – that would burn between 170 and 240 calories.

    Consequently, trying to emulate the Phelps diet by consuming up to 12,000 calories a day in order to attain his physique would more than likely come to a wobbly end.

  21. 21.

    Warren Terra

    Sorry for you, Michael G. Those of us on the east coast are getting spoiled by late-prime-time Phelps, those of you in later time zones or stuck at work will likely be seeing it on delay.

    Still, given the drama, hearing about it may have been inescapable. And it’s a 2 minute race, and pretty incredible; you’ll likely see it over and over, especially the last ten yards.

  22. 22.

    w vincentz

    Quoting JC, “I believe”.
    Jumpin’ Jesus on a bronco, John, so do I!

    Halleluia!
    If a swimmer can bring you to that, wow! Time for a baptism.
    Just wear clean underwear, no peeing in the baptism pool, and bring that “I believe” faith.
    HALLELUIA!
    You too can swim.

  24. 24.

    Matt

    That’s not supposed be a happy face, BTW. That should be very frowny. The only thing worse that happened today was trying to drive through Morgantown on move-in day. What was I thinking?

  25. 25.

    Mary

    The man’s body is the perfect swimmer’s body. He was built for his sport-from his height to his double joints.

    Word to the fucking max.

    And I knew that male swimmers shaved their legs and chests, but until I carefully examined the entire series of photos I just linked to, I didn’t know they were being so thorough these days. You have to admire that kind of dedication. To the sport, I mean.

  26. 26.

    Michael G

    Sorry for you, Michael G. Those of us on the east coast are getting spoiled by late-prime-time Phelps, those of you in later time zones or stuck at work will likely be seeing it on delay.

    The West Coast is seeing everything three-hours time delayed, and if you go to a major news site, you stand a huge chance of seeing spoilers. And Drudge loves being an asshole on everything he can. So staying away from those sites is pretty much required.

    But who’da thunk I’d see a spoiler on Balloon Juice?

  27. 27.

    Ted

    The man’s body is the perfect swimmer’s body. He was built for his sport-from his height to his double joints.

    Apparently. His legs are almost strangely short relative to his torso, his arm-span is longer than his height, and reports say his feet are size 14. I’m taller than that guy and even I don’t have feet that big.

  28. 28.

    KRK

    He may not be as fast, but he would probably still be dominant. The man’s body is the perfect swimmer’s body. He was built for his sport-from his height to his double joints.

    You can’t list his swimming-beneficial physical traits and omit his natural flippers. Those feet!

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