Sprint News 5/24/12: Phelps a Baltimore Icon; Georgia Scores First Olympic Qualifier

…When Michael Phelps teammed up with Baltimore-born sporting goods franchise Under Armour, you knew that the two would be a good match. But now, the two modern-day icons of Charm City have teammed up to welcome you to their hometown. As visitors enter Baltimore on I-95, Phelps 6’7 wingspan, multiplied to gigantic proportions, coutesy of Under Armour. Check out the shot above, tweeted earlier today by Phelps’ sister Hilary…

…This is a cool story for the globalization of the sport of swimming. 17-year old Georgian Irakli Bolkvadze was 24th in the prelims of the 200 breaststroke on Wednesday morning with a time of 2:16.35. That matches exactly the FINA B-qualifying time for the 2012 London Olympics. Though with FINA’s 900 swimmer cap, this is still a waiting game for him, but if he is confirmed, he would be the first swimmer in the history of his native home (Georgia the country, not the state) to earn an Olympic qualification by the official standards. They had two swimmers (one male, one female) in 2008, but both were brought on Olympic universiality waivers – Irakli Revishvili was 53rd in the men’s 200 free in 1:53.60, and Anna Salnikova was 48th in the women’s 100 breast in 1:21.70. But Bolkvadze is by far the best prospect the coutnry has seen in a while – and whether or not he gets an invite, he should be there either way and it’s quite an accomplishment. This former Soviet Republic has a small, but extremely enthusiastic, swimming core, so watch for the improvement to continue…

…Florida Gulf Coast has hired April Woo as their new assistant coach, Neal Studd announced Thursday. Her previous stop was for three seasons as an assistant at Horizon-League power Cleveland State, another mid-major Division I program, where she focused on the sprints with both the men and the women. That fits right into the Eagles’ hand, where they’ve built one of the country’s better mid-major programs on the basis of their sprinters (though their recruiting class this year makes them a lot more versatile than they’ve been). She is a former Pacific varsity swimmer herself. Former FGCU assistant Elizabeth Lykins was recruited earlier this year to become the head coach of the newly-former women’s program at UNC-Asheville…

Thanks to George Giorgi (the Georgian correspondent) Marsagishvili for contributing to this report.