So here we go! Now, be forewarned that I didn’t end up doing much predicting this year. Mostly thinking/rambling out loud. You love it. I’m sure that’s why you come here anyway. What few predictions I did make stand a chance at being 95% wrong. But I don’t care. It’s fun for me!

SENIORS

#1. Lacey Nymeyer (Arizona)
This is a no brainer. I would be absolutely shocked if Lacey didn’t continue her swimming career. For the longest time I thought she was a senior last year with Whitney. Anyway, there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that she signs with Nike. Nike scooped up Whitney last year and pretty much sucks at scooping up major talent. They’re set up perfectly what with Zona being a Nike school. However, she could sign since the Swoosh is losing their 2 longest signed females Kaitlin and Maritza) after this summer. I’ll put it this way: I’d be surprised if she went Nike, but not shocked. As for agents, who knows. Octagon only seems to sign “superstars”, and while Lacey rocks, I don’t know if she fits the mold they have or whatever. I’d guess PMG, but so many are signing with agents I’ve never heard of that I should probably give up guessing agents.

#2. Caroline Burckle (Florida)
Ahh, the Lochtenator’s better half. I’d like to think including her here is more than wishful thinking. I’m dying to see how Caro does when she can focus exclusively on swimming as a professional. She was a member of the 2005 World Champs squad, so the talent is obviously there. The events she swims are deep, but I still think she can make some noise. Should she sign, I’m chalking one up for Speedo. Congrats to Caro for being awarded the Honda Award for Swimming.

There’s a host of other swimmers who, should they make the decision to continue, could have quite a long career. I mean, take a look at Randall Bal. His events (backstroke) are so loaded that he didn’t make last year’s World Champs or any Olympic team, but he still pushes the competition and does very well for himself. He won this season’s World Cup men’s title which came with a hefty $100,000 prize. If he swam for any other country, he’d be a super star! Same goes for those like Robert Margalis. So, I guess for many, it’s just a decision of how much they enjoy competing in the sport and if they wish to continue or move on to other things in life. I’m not familiar with enough of this year’s class to make that call well. Emily Silver, Emily Kukors, Andrea Hupman, Christine Magnuson, Kara Denby…they have all earned swimwear contracts with their work in the pool. It’s just a matter on if that’s what they want!
Continue Reading »

Stumbled across this article by the Daily Telegraph and my face now looks like this:

Stephanie Rice had some pictures on her Facebook. They looked like everyone else’s. It’s not anything that would have ended up on Bad Jocks or anything. Girl can’t go to a party and take pictures? Well, not if you are a high profile swimmer in Australia!

Swimming Australia thinks the shots were too “raunchy”. That’s what is considered raunchy? Seriously? Wow.

And another thing, while having access to Steph’s page is limited to facebook users and those she’s chosen to be her facebook friends, the Daily Telegraph just went and showed the entire world! How exactly does that help matters?

We have never, nor will we ever, use any swimmers’ facebook pictures on here. Well, not unless we were the ones who took the said picture. We’ve been silently policing certain communities so that personal fb pics aren’t spread.

Over the years, we’ve even counseled a handful of our swim pals with regards to their facebook usage. The Lochtenator used to have his cell phone number on his profile. We made him take that down! Also take note of his listed website, while you’re there. Then there was the Asian. He, too, had his cell phone number posted. I talked to him about it, and he took his down as well.

We’ve always been super protective of our swimmers. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had fans solicit personal information of National Teamers. It’s the reason I’m not on AIM as much anymore. They offer me money for AIM screen names, phone numbers, email addresses, and more. Information that I do not, under any circumstance, give out. They usually want the goods on Phelps, the Lochtenator, and The Hoff, but not always.

Once, someone offered me $100 for PVK’s phone number. I joked with him that he was lucky that I wasn’t an opportunist or I would have sold him out. He countered by wondering if the person was totally crazy. And if not, he instructed me to give it to them and we could split the money 50/50. That PVK; such a kidder!

Swimming World Magazine has some good advice for swimmers that we totally agree with:

Long story short, swimmers – take precautionary online measures to protect your privacy; national bodies – let the young adults be just that, young adults with their own lives.

The swimming communities and their governing bodies need to trust their athletes a little more. No one is shown doing a kegstand or anything. They’re just being themselves and showing part of their personalities. The more personality that is shown, the better for the sport. Can you imagine if USA Swimming removed all signs of Ryan’s personality from his facebook photos? I shudder at the thought.

Just work with me here. Another new idea; just links, no commentary.

• Alain Bernard finally takes down the 100 Free World Record
• Milorad Cavic causes stir at Euro Champs with his wardrobe choice
• 6 year old does not live to fully recover from tragic pool injury
• The Lochtenator’s woman does the damn thing at NCAAs
• Libby officially takes her husband’s last name, Trickett

Why’s that, you ask?

Well we’ve been commenting on this quite a bit these days on MGoSwim, but since it deals with the Lochtenator, we thought we’d bring it over here too.

We’ve noticed that it’s like Mike and Ryan have switched media personalities.

Ryan’s standard media interviews were littered with a string of “um’s” “uh’s” and general stuttering. But he’s dramatically cleaned up his speaking. As evidence, we present his latest interview with Orlando NBC affiliate WESH. I only counted one “um”! Groundbreaking!

Now, countering with Phelps‘ recent interviews, it’s easy to see he’s regressed!

We may or may not have created a drinking game that went along with Ryan’s interview slip-ups. So obviously we never thought this day would come. RyRy may have earned yet another case of Heineken. We’ve lost count. Really.

BTW, it’s nice to see Ryan ‘white boy fro’ coming back. As long as it doesn’t get out of hand, we’re cool with it.

Chris Livingston for The New York Times

There’s a great feature on the Lochtenator in today’s New York Times [link]. It was great to take a look at it and see him showing off his infamous grillz for everyone to see!

Lochte is changing the way people look at swimmers, and in a good way! We all like the way he’s adding more personality. He’s just being Ryan, and it’s having a positive effect on the entire sport.

But I have to laugh at some of the quotes that you just know the NY Times cleaned up during the editing process. Y’all know what I’m talking about! Anyone that has had a conversation with Lochte over AIM, text, email (etc.) knows what’s up Y’all have no idea how much spell and grammar checking I’ve done for his Q&A on RyanLochte.net. No idea!

We’d also like to send a shout-out to “lil Lochte”, AKA younger brother Devon, for committing to swim at Florida. He’s going to be a Gator just like his big bro. We love this trend of little brothers going to the schools that their older siblings attended. Does this mean that lil’ Tarwater is going to play hoops for Michigan? Only time will tell!

So, we always look to the Lochtenator to give us something to talk about, fashion-wise. And so far he hasn’t gotten any “WTF” comments from up in that department; unlike some other people…

We’ve been waiting a while for a new fashion moment and we’ve gotten one! Check out the formal wear Lochte was rockin’ at the Golden Goggles.

AP Photo/Gus Ruelas

And we all know that no one else could pull off this look. Pimpin’ aint easy. Just ask Ryan next time you see him.

We all like hearing about swimmer endorsement deals, don’t we? Thought so!

In a new interview with Smart Money, it is revealed that we can all expect to see Miss Beard hocking beer in 2008. This aint a dinky deal, either. Amanda will pull in 7 figures to appear in these ads.

The name of the beer company was not disclosed, but it better NOT be Heineken. If they need a swimmer to promote their product, they need to call up Lochtenator. We can even provide the number!