She’s so cute!!

Can we steal her?

I f*%ckin’ love her!

And who were we referring to? None other than The new Mrs. Luke Trickett (AKA Libby Lenton). We just can’t get over her cuteness. Don’t you just want to put her in your pocket and take her home with you! Well, we do! Lucky for her, we’ll never get that chance, haha!

Anyway, in honor of her cuteness, we present a Libby picspam:

AP Photo by Mark Baker

Around here, we make it no secret that the men’s 800 Free Relay is our favorite out of all of the relays. It isn’t exactly rocket science as to why, now is it? We are quite fond of the members of the relay and constantly excited by their dominance in the event ever since that amazing race in Athens! Big Daddy Keller did the damn thing, and touched out Thorpey. So the relay team remained the same and the boys were salivating at the thought of bringing the WR home, where it belongs!

At the 2007 World Champs, the boys were below WR pace the entire time! Mike got it going with a blazing 1:45.36 leg. Next in the water was the Lochtenator (and no, he wasn’t sporting a grill). He, too, continued the pace set by MP with his 1:45.86 200. Next was Big Daddy Keller. I have to say that I was sooo glad to see his name on the entry list. There had been much speculation as ot whether or not he’d be replaced for this race. Kletus, himself, even suggested that he should not swim. As rough a meet as he may have had, there was no one else on the Team USA roster who can represent with the 800 FR like Klete. I knew he’d step up for this race, and he did. The team stayed well below the Aussie World Record during his leg. Last, but certinaly not least, PVK tried out the anchor slot for the first time ever. But even as the “Thorpe WR Line” attempted to chase him down, he kept his pace. Thorpey may have caught the team at Pan Pacs, but not this time! PVK wasn’t trying to hear none of that! He swam a lifetime best split of 1:45.71 and sealed the World Record for Team USA. Then, after realizing that they finally took down the WR they’d be after for years, the boys celebrated! (See above picture) I’ve never seen anyone get out of the pool, after a race, faster than Pete did! It’s always nice to see displays of emotion out of the male swimmers!

It was about been 6AM here, because I was watching live, but still I couldn’t muffle the frequent “OH SHIT!” exclamations and related expletives that kept trickling out of my mouth!

What a race!

P.S. LOL @ Klete being the only one wearing the old Fastskin and not the FS-PRO suit during this race.

You know the drill, Ryan. You can redeem as much (or little) as you want at the next meet we’re all at!

Cheers!

AP Photo by Mark Baker

Anyway, I’m sure you’ve heard (or seen) the Lochtenator’s latest trend setting experiment. If not, where have you been?! Ryan rocked a grill at his awards ceremony for the 200 IM and we couldn’t be prouder!

Not to mention that he upped his Heineken tally as well. We decided that the grill earned him a bonus case. He’s seriously going to have us taking out loans to pay up!

The new tally stands as follows:

So, we are proud to kick off his Heineken Incentive Plan right now!

Keep up the great work, Ryan!

I understand that beggars can’t be choosy (I’m glad we even get coverage), but this country holds freedom of speech in high regard, so I’m going to take advantage.

We need someone like Rowdy commentating. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I don’t particularly enjoy the bias against Team USA that I’ve been picking up thus far. “The Americans say they have the fastest team ever but…” or “I would have thought they’d go faster…” gets really old after the first few times. Not only that, but if you’re trying to expand swimming’s audience, it’d be nice to have commentators who know more than just the mini-bios of the Team USA athletes, wouldn’t it? (e.g. Brendan Hansen trains in Austin, TX, but he is not from there.)

It would be nice to know when someone swims a personal best time. Maybe those viewers without a wealth of knowledge on Team USA would like to hear a little of the athletes’ backstories. It would also be nice to see some post-race interviews with American swimmers. But more importantly, please tell us when a US Swimmer breaks an American record!

After Natalie Coughlin’s 100 Fly final, all they could focus on was that she didn’t win and how she should have. How negative! Because they aren’t Americans themselves, they were completely oblivious to the fact that Natalie had just broken a longstanding American Record! All they wanted to focus on was how poorly they thought she executed her race strategy. Then there was Tara Kirk who was apparently “faking her confidence”. What does that mean anyway?

Now these were just two of many examples I’ve noted and that’s only from 2 nights of coverage!

How is the American public going to embrace the sport when its athletes are cast in such a negative light? They can’t do anything right in the eyes of these commentators. The ongoing theme is how much faster they thought Team USA would be going, when the focus should be on well they are doing so far! There have been several Championship Records, an American Record, and a slew of personal best swims.

So what I’m saying is, can someone get Rowdy on the next flight over there? And while you’re at it, have him take Kaitlin with him. We need some knowledgeable coverage of Team USA’s quest for gold!

And while I’m complaining, can someone send a memo to Speedo that they need to film more commercials? Because if I have to see Mike’s commercial from the summer of 2005 too many more times, I may go crazy.

Looks like the Associated Press made a little error. Normally, a small mistake is easily correted, but not when you have a wire set up and your error is spread out to hundreds of other media outlets. That turns it into a HUGE one!

Anyway, in a recent article on Worlds, AP attributed a quote Brendan Hansen made last week to Ian Crocker.

Oopsie!

Wouldn’t it be funny if Ian were the breaststroker and Brendan the flyer? Sometimes when I’m bored I think about things like this. Sorry for the randomness

One of our favorite parts of major international meets is the wardrobe that Team USA sports at them. We enjoy making fun of some of the shirts, much like the Hawaiian shirt of fug from Montreal. Yeaaaaa, remember that? I remember riding up an escalator behind Kaitlin the day Team USA was wearing them. Someone asked her why she wasn’t wearing it and she said “I didn’t feel like it”. I remember my admiration for Miss Sandeno growing even more that day. I mean, I am glad someone takes the fashion statements they make seriously!

Anyway, what is with the shirt Mr. Crocker is sporting? Where did the eagle (or whatever it is) come from? Is this going to be a permanent fixture alongside the USA Swimming logo? I’m puzzled.

But at least it’s not an ugly swim cap or a Hawaiian shirt that is hard on the eyes.

So, we have set up a nice little incentive plan for the Lochtenator and sent it to him for approval. Now it is all up to him!

At the end of each day of competition at Worlds, we will post a tally so you can measure success the way Lochte does.

Who really needs medals anyway?