Supreme efforts

“What are you doing?”

I turned to see David, the host of the Fourth of July party. “I’m trying to figure out the controls of your intergalactic television.”

“I mean, what are you doing in here? I’ve got 30 people out on the porch, about nine hundred bucks in food and a two million dollar view.”

“Then, you don’t need me. Is there some way I can find a channel on this without getting a PhD in electrical engineering?”

“Here, give me that. What channel do you want?” I told him. “What the hell is this?”

“Olympic trials for swimming. I just want to see the individual medley. It’s going to be a shootout.”

“Swimming? Swimming, for crissake? That’s like watching ice melt.” He pitched the control to me and stomped out.

Ordinarily, I would agree. I’m not a spectator. But, this embodied some human drama. Ryan Lochte would take his big shot and I wanted to see if he made it. I think the drama in Olympic events is that you train hard for years for many events, and it comes down to just a minute or two at the highest level of competition. Certainly, they train harder and longer than many professional athletes.

And, there’s no test for a swimmer like the medley. You have to dedicate endless hours to strokes that aren’t your long suit.

The camera work was incredible, including the underwater shots. Predictably, the pre-race coverage focused on Michael Phelps and his butterfly stroke. In slow motion, you could see the power rings coming off his arm pull. And, his kick was like a freakin’ dolphin.

The people I swim with are divided on Phelps. He’s great, no question about it. But, he’s got gifts, including the size 14 feet. Like flippers. I lean toward someone less superhuman, like Ryan Lochte. He’s no runt, but you get the feeling he’s made a lot of what he has. And, his career overlaps with superstars Phelps and Aaron Peirsol (backstroke). In another era, he’d dominate. But, he’s always a fighter.

He would have to be tonight, swimming a grueling double. First, the 200m backstroke against Peirsol. Then, less than a half hour later, the IM. He swam what would be the third fastest time in history in the first event, but Peirsol pulled out a world record. Not a great prelude for Lochte in the IM.

The start finally came. The first lap was the butterfly. Phelps took the lead, as you would expect. Lochte would make up ground on the backstroke, also predictable. In the end, it would be a gut check.

Phelps was the first into the freestyle length, the final lap. But, Lochte wasn’t far behind. It looked like Phelps was running out of gas and Lochte was coming up strong, even after his previous race. Impressive. Could be game over.

But then, it happened. The type of thing that makes this worth watching. Phelps reached down somewhere deep inside and found some more grit. You could see it happen. He kicked it up a gear and beat out Lochte by less than a second.

I was pulling for Lochte, but this wasn’t a disappointment. You seldom get to see a truly supreme effort like that, much less two. It’s inspiring to see what humans are capable of when they hang it all out.