Captured by Katrina Radke (@katrinaradke_), produced by Coleman Hodges.
Reported by Anne Lepesant.
Michael Phelps of North Baltimore, seeded second behind teammate Chase Kalisz after the morning’s heats, looked ready to take control of the championship final. Phelps turned first at the 50 wall and at the 100 wall, about a body length ahead of Kalisz. Kalisz, an excellent finisher, closed the gap over the second half of the race and wound up getting to the wall just ahead of the world record-holder. Kalisz went 1:58.07 for the win; Phelps was second in 1:58.38.
After reading the Sports Illustrated article and hearing more from MP about his slack training running up to London, Tyler Clary’s remarks at the time about MP’s work habits (or lack thereof), for which Clary got a lot of grief, were spot on.
I’m looking forward to a no excuses Olympics. Everybody should feel free to do as much or as little training as they think benefits them. The results will stand and commentary about “losing momentum into the third wall” will be just that…..commentary.
I never thought Clary was wrong. I just thought he would be better off keeping those observations to himself. Why comment about someone else’s work ethic or abilities? It just seems in poor taste, whoever is doing the talking and whoever they are talking about. If he doesn’t do the work, let the final results speak for themselves.
http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/lactate-threshold.html
Lactate does to the human body what we mistakenly think lactic acid does. We can process up to 4 mml of lactate in the bloodstream and maintain a certain pace. Beyond 4, the body starts feeling the discomfort of exertion. The higher it goes, the more pain. 12 is pretty high. Hence MP was describing an extremely painful race.
Chase himself said that it’s much easier for him to swim these in season races than it is for Phelps. He wasn’t being arrogant- he praised chase multiple times. Both of them know that this race means nothing in the long run.
Is Chase allowed to say “I beat him fair and square”, with the same amount of training?
I’ve been a lifelong MP fan and will forever revere him as the GOAT, however with that said, I question his humility at times. Particularly, his comment about Chase Kalisz “not knowing what pain feels like”..
All swimmers, whether world-class greats or those who casually picked it up their Sophomore year in high school, experience the unique pain of sloshing through a pool as fast as humanly possible. It’s ubiquitous across the sport. The comment felt off-base and somewhat arrogant. Why not just give a nod to his victory without any extra qualification?
finally someone said it…
Due to the long length of the original unedited interview that Michael did, some parts have been cut out and will likely be used for later pieces. To be fair to Michael Phelps and Chase Kalisz, there are several other things said in their interviews that show their mutual respect for one another. What led up to Michael stating “he’s 21”, is: “I know Chase is going to always try to run me down the last 50”. Michael also shared, “I’m pretty hard on him”, and “He’s a great training partner, and he does remind me a lot of me when I was his age. He’s there everyday, every stroke, every set. He helps me a lot.” When we told… Read more »
Dude I think you’re over analyzing this. Of course Phelps recognizes that Chase knows pain. The two train together every day, he’s a world class 400 IMer. All he’s sayin is that when you’re younger you can accelerate on that last 50. When you’re 30, that part of your race diminishes.
It’s a light hearted joke, not a slight at another swimmer. If you can’t recognize the difference, then it could be you’re just looking for evidence that supports your belief that Phelps lacks humility.
Ever chase a pair of 4 year olds around for an hour? It’s like that, but with world class athletes instead.
Huh. This is very different from what I heard. I heard someone acknowledging that he is getting older. I mean, when I was 21 I could be out of shape and hike 15 miles and recover by the next day. The same is not happening now that I am in my 30’s. Is it a lack of humility if I observe that my body isn’t recovering the same way?
These go to 12.
Well, you know how Spinal Tap’s amps go up to 11…?
What he does is, if he needs that extra push over the cliff, you know what he does? Put it up to twelve. Twelve. Exactly. One more painful.
Can anyone explain what it means to have a lactate of 12?
It means 12mmol of lactate in a liter of blood. Definitely too much to swim fast, but not really anything magnificently high.