Summer Update #1

It appears I took the summer off.

It has been somewhat of a crazy summer.  I have let a few things slip and consequently left you, my almost 10 loyal readers, without my witty observations concerning local youth sports, random (and often obscure) sports, fat old men, and parenthood in general.  As things have now settled a bit, and the swimming world championships are going on, I feel obligated to remedy my failures.  Over the next several days I will give updates on things I should have been commenting on anyway.  I will try not to take 2 months off again.

Format will start present and go back in time.  Today's update concerns the ongoing World Swimming Championships.  This is appropriate, because my public writings began with commentary on the US Olympic Swimming Trials.  That's back when I was light and witty, before I started to become heavy and deep.  Well, I have been heavy for a while now, and I'm not sure I am really that deep, but I digress.

The World Swimming Championships are a championship swimming meet for swimmers from all over the world.  Funny how that works, huh?  It happens every other year, during odd numbered years, so it doesn't conflict with the Olympics.  Swimming has always been a favorite Olympic sport in the US, but it has never found a foothold outside of Olympic years.  If you need confirmation of this fact, take note that the IOC amended the swimming schedule in Beijing so that finals were telecast live in prime time in the US and the finals of the World Swimming Championships are on the Universal Sports Network, which about 76 people in the US get.

From what little I have read about this network, I am their target audience.  They offer programming of your (well, someone's) favorite olympic and adventure sports.  Do you know anyone else who records and watches swimming, cycling, track and field, and triathlon events on TV?  Do you know anyone else who does not have children over the age of 9, but have attended a high school cross country race, swim meet and track meet in the last year?  Yes, I actually did that.  Why?  One could argue I have no life, and one would not necessarily be wrong.  However, I also do this stuff because I genuinely enjoy these Olympic sports that no one else cares about unless the year is divisible by 4.  So the Universal Sports Network sounds like it was made for me.  Of course, I am not one of the 76 people mentioned above, so I don't get to watch the World Swimming Championships.  That bugs me more than it should.

Nevertheless, we live in the information age, so I have many outlets from which to obtain the information I desire.  The World Swimming Championships are important for a few reasons.  It gives elite international swimmers a chance to test themselves against the best in the world, it gives swimming crazed people something to do and it gives Natalie Coughlin, Laslo Cseh and other really old swimmer-types more excuses to not give up and get a real job.  Ten years ago it introduced the world to an 18 year old phenom who won 4 gold and 2 silver medals.  That guy went on to become the most decorated Olympian ever.  I'm not saying that will happen this year, but there are some phenoms in Barcelona.

I know you don't really want my analysis of the first 5 days of the World Swimming Championships, so I will stick to some highlights:

1.  Ryan Lochte won his first gold medal in the 200 IM today.  Women across the US (including the one in my house) swoon.  Up to this point, Lochte's meet has been a mild disappointment, winning a silver in the 4x100 free relay after losing to France AGAIN and finishing 4th in the 200 free.  Perhaps his reality show, What Would Ryan Lochte Do?, has interfered with his training.  If you haven't seen this gold standard of American television, all I can tell you is what my Ryan Lochte Insider told me, "This just proves that he should be seen and not heard."

2.  Katie Ledecky won the 1500 free and broke the world record by 6 seconds, won the 400 free and swam on the winning 4x200 free relay.  She has the 800 free on Saturday.  The little 15 year old girl with the big smile who shocked the world with a gold in the 800 free last year has grown into a 16 year old monster who destroys the hopes and dreams of distance swimmers all around the globe.  She still has the big smile, though.

3.  Missy Franklin.  4 swims, 4 golds; 3 swims to go.  'Nuf said.

4.  Rowdy Gaines, who was a great story in 1984, continues to baffle me as a television commentator.  In the men's 4x100 free relay, he said France was completely out of it.  Then France won gold.  In the women's relay, he said the race was all but over after the first leg, with Australia holding a large lead.  The US won.  Maybe that was because it was a RELAY, and THREE people still needed to swim.  In the men's relay, he failed to mention that Anthony Ervin is a drop dead sprinter when Ervin took a big league in the first 50.   Shockingly, Ervin died like a rock and his lead disappeared.  Rowdy said for both relays that he broke them down for hours trying to determine what would or could happen.  Four swimmers, four best times, four best relay splits.  Not much analysis there.  Of course, then he spends the entire relay talking about what he thinks will happen, rather than what is happening.  Maybe he should just go in blind.  Or quit.  Or be fired.  Sadly, he won't and we will have to endure Rowdy in Brazil.

5.  US dominance in the 100 back continues.  1-2 for Grevers and Thoman.

6.  US still dominates the meet, but that medal count looks a little weak without Phelps swimming.

7.  Speaking of Phelps, he was asked if he would come back for Brazil.  A year ago his answer was, "No, no, no, no, no, not going to happen."  That is a direct quote.  This week his answer was, basically, "I'm not planning anything, but you don't know what is going to happen in the future. " Retirement, so nice in theory, so hard in reality.

8.  Predictions:  Missy gets 2 more golds, plus a bronze; Lochte wins 3 more golds; Phelps does not swim Rio; Ledecky dominates the 800 free.

That's it for the World Swimming Championships.  For now.

Other observations:

1.  Eric Snowden has been let out of the Moscow Airport and into Russia.  How long until some jack-ass politician says we should boycot Sochi?  Oh, wait, that already happened.

2.  Summer sports without the Olympics gets kind of boring.

3.  I would honestly rather have a super hot summer than a super wet summer.

4.  Why do people post pictures of their food on Facebook?  Is it supposed to make me jealous?  Is it supposed to make me hungry?  It doesn't.  If you made a cake that legitimately looks like a piece of art, go ahead and post a picture.  Otherwise, put the freakin phone away and eat your damn food.  I don't need to see it.  And neither does anyone else.

5.  I am now on Twitter.  Follow me @vasportsdad.  Random comments on sports and kids almost every day.  Hopefully it won't turn into ridiculous conversations with my Volleyball Insider and my Philadelphia Union Insider.

Things to look forward to:

1.  Spring Sports wrap-up.
2.  Summer Sports wrap-up.
3.  Fat old man update.
4.  Tour de France wrap-up.
5.  Preview of the Ironman World Championships from Kona.
6.  Random idioticness?
7.  More almost naked pictures of attractive people (that's just to get you back, especially my Volleyball Insider.)