Word: swimmers
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...heat of performance, though, it can be difficult to give the mind sufficient distance to understand what the body may be doing incorrectly. That's where a new generation of video software technology can make a vital difference. When Tara Kirk, a swimmer at Stanford University and Olympic-medal hopeful, was competing in races in 2003, she thought she was keeping her body straight in the water as she swam. Then she had a chance to look at herself on a laptop screen. Using a software program called Dartswim, her coach superimposed a picture of Kirk's technique from...
...Nothing, though, has created a bigger splash in swimming circles than the slippery new bodysuits being prepared for the Athens Olympics, particularly the Fastskin suit unveiled in March. Designed by Speedo and Japan's Mizuno, the drag-reducing Fastskin makes it appear as if a swimmer has been dipped in a glossy, water-resistant paint. Olympians who plan to wear one include Japanese swimming sensation Kosuke Kitajima, who has set world records in the 100- and 200-m breaststroke. Speedo claims the $250 suit reduces drag by at least 4% compared with the original Fastskin design released...
Even before a single Olympic medal has been hung around his neck, Michael Phelps is rewriting the manual on what it means to be a world-class swimmer. Entered in five individual events and a candidate for each of the three relay races in Athens, Phelps has the potential to win eight gold medals, and eclipse the standard held by Mark Spitz, who won seven golds in 1972. It's a long shot, but no one is better prepared to do it. Just 19, Phelps holds the world record in three of those five individual events and is a fingernail...
...mastery of all four swimming strokes, Phelps possesses a phenomenal ability to compete with the best specialists in three of those strokes--butterfly, backstroke and freestyle. In the fourth, the breaststroke, he's merely outstanding. In fact, at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials last month, Phelps became the first swimmer to qualify for six individual events. (He will drop the 200 backstroke in Athens.) "He is really redefining our expectations of swimming excellence," says Pablo Morales, a two-time Olympian in the butterfly and Phelps' role model. "He is blazing his own trail now, and there is probably a whole...
Money isn't enough, though. Phelps wants to make swimming matter. He sees the attention that Americans lavish on their swimmers every four years evaporate between Games, and he desperately wants what Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe has--the prestige, the celebrity and, not least of all, the marketing clout to stand, here in the U.S., with the best athletes. "People don't think about swimmers when they look for athletes to sponsor," he says with some frustration. "You don't see a swimmer doing a Sprite commercial. We have so many other sports to take [people's attention] away from...