That is unbelievable. The announcers couldn't even believe it.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'phelps, close, race, intense' to 'phelps, close, race, intense, freestyle, front crawl' - edited by pho3n1x

That was absolutely phenomenal. I tear up with national pride every time. Watched it live with little interest falling asleep and about to go to bed the other night when all of a sudden- WHOA!!!

This is my first time hearing the British announcers and their repetitious "USA cannot come back," and that makes the 0.08 second win even more glorious. If anyone was unaware, before the race the French team was announcing to the media how they were going to smash the USA.

I have three words for them: In. Your. Face. Nyeh!

*PROMOTE

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 3:07pm PDT - promote requested by lucky760.

Absolutely sensational swim, just amazing. Hurrah for Australia in 3rd! (all the top three beat the previous record... so pretty amazing times).

lucky, I do have to say you're a little negative towards the british commentators and the rest, show a little sportsmanship. ANYONE watching that would have said the US could not have closed that gap, that was an insanely large gap to claw back, and more power to the final swimmer for that, incredible swim. And 'In your face?'... come on, brilliant swimming by all competitors, no need to sully such a superb performance with negativity.

Thanks for the Promote! I also heard the French boasting about how they were going to "crush the Americans" and this makes the win that much more awesome. I'm just crossing my fingers that Phelps can get his 8 golds.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

The fact that the top 3 all broke the world record says A LOT about the new Speedo suits.

I don't know what kind of retard would identify with a specific group of athletes just because they happened to be born within a few hundred miles of them.

The US is not competing in the Olympics.
France is not competing in the Olympics.
Australia is not competing in the Olympics.

>> ^gorillaman:
I don't know what kind of retard would identify with a specific group of athletes just because they happened to be born within a few hundred miles of them.
The US is not competing in the Olympics.
France is not competing in the Olympics.
Australia is not competing in the Olympics.


I'm sorry, but wtf? How is a bad thing to root for your country's team to do well in the Olympics? I know that a number of people have issues with sport being over glorified, and I agree that it's the case with football and other such 'popular' sports that are ruled by insane pay packets and ridiculous sponsorship money. But these people train their guts out for years to compete in these games, for little or no money, and deserve the accolades when they do well, especially if they do so in a sportsmanlike manner.

All power to them, and all power to the supporters who cheer them on. I'm sad I haven't been able to watch as much as I'd like this Olympics due to them being on during the working day for the most part. I love the thrill of a close finish when the athlete from your country triumphs where it wasn't expected they would or could.

I feel sorry that you can't enjoy the Olympics for what they should be, which is a gathering of nations for pure competition in good spirit (doesn't always end up that way, and there's a lot of political guff surrounding it these days, but at the core that's what it's all about).

>>I don't know what kind of retard would identify with a specific group of athletes just because they happened to be born within a few hundred miles of them.

Umm, *raises hand*.
With whom should anyone identify then? Not fellow countrymen. Not anyone who lives near you... Just people you're related to or are they also off limits? Please do inform so I know how to behave retardation-free according to the rules of gorillaman for the remainder of my life (if I could only be so lucky).

Or perhaps it's a natural, innocent feeling to experience which means nothing, especially not that one is retarded. Still, please forgive any offense I may have caused by rooting for the representatives of my home country to succeed.

>> ^spoco2:
lucky, I do have to say you're a little negative towards the british commentators and the rest, show a little sportsmanship. ANYONE watching that would have said the US could not have closed that gap, that was an insanely large gap to claw back, and more power to the final swimmer for that, incredible swim. And 'In your face?'... come on, brilliant swimming by all competitors, no need to sully such a superb performance with negativity.

I think my comments were totally misconstrued. About the Brit announcers I was saying that this was the first time hearing announcers of this race saying "He can't close the gap," (the American announcers didn't) which adds to your own feeling of "Damn, they're going to lose," and that made his winning by millimeters even more mind blowing.

And are you kidding about the negativity? My "in your face" (which was intentionally a child-like joke, hence the "nyeh") can not sully the win when it's in response to some assholes announcing to the world how wonderful they are, how much the competitors suck, and how humiliatingly they will get crush their competition.

The Swedish team came in 5th and still broke the previous record! pretty amazing!

>> ^lucky760:
>>
I think my comments were totally misconstrued. About the Brit announcers I was saying that this was the first time hearing announcers of this race saying "He can't close the gap," (the American announcers didn't) which adds to your own feeling of "Damn, they're going to lose," and that made his winning by millimeters even more mind blowing.

Ahh, well, yeah, ok, I misread that then. sorry. It certainly helped with the amazement!

And are you kidding about the negativity? My "in your face" (which was intentionally a child-like joke, hence the "nyeh") can not sully the win when it's in response to some assholes announcing to the world how wonderful they are, how much the competitors suck, and how humiliatingly they will get crush their competition.

Sorry again, I guess I'm just overly sensitive to US people being a little too 'YEAH, TAKE THAT DICK, IN YOUR FACE DUDE' in other arenas, so... again, sorry.

Sensational win it was indeed. Here in Aus we just hear Phelps this, Phelps that... it's enough to make you sick Damn him and his dominance in the pool!

No worries mate. I didn't know you were an Aussie. That's neat that they speak so much about Phelps there; I was also surprised about the lengthy discussion by the Brits in this clip. I guess he must be something special to have qualified for the Olympics at age 15. Maybe he has gills behind his ears and knows how to find dry land.

spoco, you fail at reading comprehension.
lucky, hey, all I'm saying is that you're an unfathomably stupid person. If you're comfortable with that, carry on living your life exactly as normal.

Take satisfaction only from those successes to which you have directly contributed. Otherwise, if you must support someone, support the most competent contender.

>> ^lucky760:
No worries mate. I didn't know you were an Aussie. That's neat that they speak so much about Phelps there; I was also surprised about the lengthy discussion by the Brits in this clip. I guess he must be something special to have qualified for the Olympics at age 15. Maybe he has gills behind his ears and knows how to find dry land.


I don't think it's so much about his age, but moreso he's about to become the single largest gold medal winner in the history of the Olympics, no mean feat by any stretch.

I don't take particular pride in my countrymens accomplishments, but then Denmark can't win sheit. Anyway, this was a freaking spectacular finish! Well done all.

Lol, I think gorillaman lost his paycheck on that race. What a fucktard.

Wow. I have no interest in swimming, but... wow.

I read that Nike said 2 weeks ago that their sponsees could wear the speedo suits(i remember reading adidas but i must be wrong on that). Which really... is pretty groundbreaking in the capitalistic world. 48 of the last 50 world records have been set in that swimsuit. So my question, how does a swimsuit somehow make everybody set records like crazy?

This was awesome.

*actionpacked
*happy (and * dark if you are french)

Adding video to channels (Actionpack, Happy) - requested by Zonbie.

Lol yah i dont understand suporting your country and all that crap but outside of all the sporting bs this swim was more of a spectical to watch due to the dynamic of the actoin and the fact you canot tell who is going to win till the end. so i was like nice win ,

you do have to recofnise that so manny people are compleat tards and will be natoinalistic and be totaly ignorent to other natoins ore suport the lochal football team religously over another one and actualy deep down realy belive them to be better some how. it would be fantastic if everyone was just arbatreraly suporting people and recognized it as that and esentualy just treated it as gambaling but most people dont.

allso !!! lol if you dont belive in free will then you have to admit that the fact that sumone is compeating in the olimpics is purly sercomstance anny way, evan if you do belive in free will you would have to admit an olimpean is only there because of there genetics and granted thay have to put a shit load of work in but having the motivatoin to do that work is down to genetics and sercomstance so there realy is no resoin to get all bat shit crazy over stuff , just enjoy it as you would a film ore watching a big thunder storm roll in its all just movments of nature whitch in itself is a facinating thing to watch take place.

just because there is a big fire work display around the olimpics and it involves humans dosent make it anny more sugnificant then if i was to roll a dice and prodict which number would come up both are equal in terms of skill and and all outcomes are equaly good/bad/ deserving. olimpics is just the same thing packaged in a way that our febal human minds are more pron to getting emotoinaly wraped up in. its good to get emotoinaly wraped up in it however only if you know the realty of what it is and dont take it to far,

Gorillaman, I applaud your hyper-rationality, but I think in practice, the sense of nationalism the Olympics inspires probably has a net increase on overall productivity. (=win4all!)

"how does a swimsuit somehow make everybody set records like crazy?"
Nasa and Speedo engineered a suit that captures the essence of sunshine and butterflies, and the world was never the same thenceforth (see video).

Suits are covered with downvoted comments, which reduces friction to below zero.

Downside is pool has do be drained after every race.

And France loses yet another battle, this time in athletics. Shocking!

To only support the most 'competent' contender is to only root for the favored athlete in any competition.

And that my friend, is decidedly un-American ;-)

Rooting for the underdog, ESPECIALLY from your own country, is a well practiced tradition than pays off so much more rarely than pulling for the dominant player, but when it pays off, it pays off big.

Talent gets you to the Olympics, but in a close race, heart wins it everytime.

Is there a *performance-enhancing-drugs channel?

They dope-check Phelps daily. They showed his personal schedule yesterday when I was watching the tube.

>> ^gorillaman:
Otherwise, if you must support someone, support the most competent contender.


The most competent contender currently being, at least in swimming, the good ol' USofA. My country. So i could either be a retard and cheer for my country, or i could be a sensible person and cheer for my country? listen gorillaman, no one MUST support anyone. we choose to. if you do not feel good when the country that bore you succeeds, or in your case, "the most competent contender," than i truly feel sorry for you.

Another one who can't understand simple english.

you should write in complex english

Perhaps Mr Gorilla, you should explain to us all at length exactly what you are trying to get across seeing as you are of the opinion none of us can understand English. Perhaps you have the defect in actually writing a coherent sentence.

Please, enlighten us all as to just wtf you are on about, and perhaps do so in a way that doesn't involve personally attacking everyone on here.

No. Reread what I've written and then what you unaccountably believe to be a response, in which you debate some phantom of your own mind, assigning him opinions that don't relate in the slightest to the elementary truths I expressed or the point they convey.

Still, you have at least 11 barely sentient admirers who think imaginary conversations and greetings card sentimentality are the constituents of a good comment.

No, you see, these people that disagree with you retain something that you obviously have an inability to grasp: empathy. They, along with most of the human race, have the ability to empathize, and when they see another human overcome difficulties to gain success, (for instance, the United States' 400 Freestyle Relay Team) it makes them feel good.

Alot of nutjobs in this thread. How about just appreciating this race for its amazing world records and increadible comeback. Also that last leg at far above the previous world record. And that 0.08 second edge. Just increadible.

Forget the country bashing for a second. Awesome.

>> ^gorillaman:
No. Reread what I've written and then what you unaccountably believe to be a response, in which you debate some phantom of your own mind, assigning him opinions that don't relate in the slightest to the elementary truths I expressed or the point they convey.
Still, you have at least 11 barely sentient admirers who think imaginary conversations and greetings card sentimentality are the constituents of a good comment.


So, your answer is 'No, actually I can't articulate what I mean in a way anyone but me can understand'.

Goodo then.

Honestly, if you can't penetrate the meaning of sentences as complicated as 'The US is not competing in the Olympics', I suggest you write off all the years of your adult life and start again from kindergarten.

www.youtube.com

If you feel strongly that your opinion is the right one, please head over to the link I've provided.

Pretty phenomenal. Swimming normally bores me, but the finals I have seen have been so close. The womens 400 (forget discipline) was another race where the leader had a metre or so distance between coming into the last 10m, and then just fell into silver. Also, that is an insane amount of time to be ahead of the world record. I wonder, are they going to train in the old suits and then put on the hydrophobic ones for competitions?

All the national pride does make me kinda uncomfortable Bad vibes I guess, but then this IS the Olympics. I just cheer for whoever is in first place.

"GOOOOO FRANCE......GO AMERICA YEAHHHHHHH!"

Gorillaman... Jesus Christ... you gotta pick your battles man. Calling people retards for cheering for atheletes from their countries? How do you think people will respond? And c'mon, obviously the US isn't competing, its a goddamn landmass, but usually when you hear a country is competing in the Olympics you kinda assume its citizens are the ones doing the competing. Not exactly a retarded assumption.

Long time lurker (2 years maybe?) but not a frequent commenter.
I have to say I agree with Gorillaman for the most part (even if his comments may seem kind of jerkish, but really, if we stop and think bout it objectively that should be irrelevant to logical discourse).

Even if America was 98% made up of overweight hydrophobic asthmatics, the result of this would have been the same as long as the Olympians came from the remaining 2%. THAT'S what his comment 'The US is not competing in the Olympics' means to me anyways. No Olympians from ANY country really represent their home. That being said though, if you ever dreamed of being an Olympic athlete (even if you're as out of shape and athletically challenged as I am), pride is due here because the bar has been raised for Olympic athletes everywhere. With that aside though, unless you came to America because of our Olympic teams, I don't see the point in pride in happening to be born in the country that has a couple dozen really skilled athletes competing right now.

Maybe it's just how I've been raised. My mother taught me well : be proud in what YOU do and don't do, feel shame for other things YOU don't, and do.

>> ^dag:
The fact that the top 3 all broke the world record says A LOT about the new Speedo suits.


I hope that was tongue-in-cheek. Speedo has been making "sharkskin" and "aquablade" suits for years with the same goal of less water resistance and better muscle compression. If you watch more of the races you will see plenty of events where the athletes only wear jammers (knee length) or legs. If the new suit material offered a distinct advantage, you'd see body suits in every event.

It all comes down to what will make the athlete "feel" fastest in the water. (This is the same reason why swimmers shave. Removing the layer of dead skin cells makes you feel much faster through the water, and is as important as removing the resistance causing hairs.) Claiming that these suits somehow enabled such great swims is akin to attributing Adrian Peterson's NFL single-game rushing record last season to the plastic pads and helmet he wears that athletes 50 years ago didn't have access to.

After all, those suits aren't the ones in the water for 6 hours a day for the past 4 years.

Look GM, if you find it ridiculous to cheer on people from your country doing well in an international race, then good luck with that. I assume you never cheered on your school teams, or never got excited for a family member doing well in anything.

If you choose to never root for anyone other than yourself in any endeavor, then hurray for you, go and shut yourself in a room and mumble about how terribly deluded the rest of the world is and how everyone should look out for number 1, and how 'no-one ever gave me any support when I did X, Y or Z, so I'll but f*cked if I'm going to support anyone else.'

I'm tired of this now, I'll continue to be happy and support those people who I chose to root for, and you can only support your own good self.

F*ck'n Yanks!

Amazing swim.

(Aussie here)

hay hay hay GM is obvously right im dissapionted that people r only atacking him and not me. i put at least 2x the effort into my post.

Its fine to be tardish around sport nd chear people on so long as you know you r been a tard as you do it. its like eating unhelthy food it tastes good for you evan though its bad for you so long as u know its bad and dont eat to mutch/go to far with it you will be fine and enjoy it. same with sport reolise that its totaly arbatrery who u chere on and just enjoy it then go back to been more ratoinal when you have your retard fix.

Ok westy, I'll give you a serve too if you like... it's just it's so... so... hard to actually read your damn posts!

Look, rationality is a great trait, it helps with being able to sort out all sorts of things, being rational should be brought into play in many areas where it isn't.

BUT

If you live your life SOLELY rationally, and never give in to ANYTHING else, then you're going to be one miserable sonofabitch.

Music... you don't have to rationalize anything to enjoy music, and you can sometimes really enjoy music you know to be 'bad', but you don't care because it makes you feel good and sublime. If you were being purely rational you could talk your way out of enjoying it.

Dramatic arts... Watching a movie, play, whatever... you KNOW it's all not real, you KNOW it's 'fake', but if you allow yourself the privilege of suspension of disbelief then you can enjoy in feeling real emotions based on people's performances. It can be truly wonderful.

Nature... you can look at a beautiful forest or waterfall or animal and think rationally about how it came to be, or you can just feel wonderful that such things exist in this world, and that they can bring you such joy just by seeing them.

Sport... While you can rationalize that you have nothing to really link you to the people over there in Beijing competing for the same country you live in, being able to link yourself with them, to think of them as your team... allows you to get caught up in the moment, allows you to feel a thrill when they win (especially from behind), and it can make you feel great.

I guess the secret to life is knowing when to be rational and when to just allow yourself to enjoy a moment, and quite frankly, I think the Olympics should be some of those moments, just once every four years, where we get to enjoy these feelings without blowhards trying to suggest we're all being mentally challenged for doing so.

I put to you that we are actually running at a higher level as we have worked out one of the things to make life that much more enjoyable, and I welcome you to the insight once you've had enough of being a grumpy pain in the bum towards everyone.

Can someone tell why some of you think the USA isn't competing in the Olympics, yet the same people probably think the USA should get out of Iraq? If the US isn't in China at the moment, it certainly isn't anywhere else in the world, and the Iraq war is just a mass delusion of a million suicides-by-cop.

Anyone who calls another an idiot over semantics is kinda stupid themselves.

The Retardation Police are working extra shifts on this thread.

Fuck nationality and everything connected with that (i.e. arms deals, bogus sporting contests between genetic freaks, etc.)

Nationalism should fuck off back to the previous millennium where it belongs.

...and fuck you too!

>> ^MINK:
The Retardation Police are working extra shifts on this thread.
Fuck nationality and everything connected with that (i.e. arms deals, bogus sporting contests between genetic freaks, etc.)
Nationalism should fuck off back to the previous millennium where it belongs.


If I'm forced to pick between the two (arms deals or athletic competition) I think I'll stick with the latter. Part of the genius of the Olympics is that it takes those nationalist feelings, which for all your proclamations are part of this century as well, and channels them into cheering for your fellow countrymen in good spirited competition. You can have that expression of nationalism, or you can say that war and xenophobic backlash is a better expression of such sentiments. I, personally, know which way I lean.

Phelps has flippers for feet. No seriously.

Who cares about swimming, seriously? This is just like Germany winning Gold for horse riding. Nobody cares about it, unless their country is good at it.

I wonder if an englishman might interject and point out that the british sway of the phrase "He CAN'T come back from this!" is merely missing out a "surely!?" at the end. I'm not sure if anyone knows this, so i thought i'd better throw it out there - "He CAN'T come back from this" is a dramatic way of saying "Coming back from this would be an absolute phenom".. Just puttin it out there.

BTW this sift has a phantom downvoter... perfectly reasonable comments being downvoted for no reason. Either that or the whole "OMG HE'S NOT SAYING AMERICA IS GREAT, DOWNVOTE HIM" trend has returned.

Have a day off people.

>> ^aaronfr:

If I'm forced to ... (arms deals or athletic competition) I think I'll stick with the latter. Part of the genius of the Olympics i...those nationalist feelings, which for all your proclamations ... this century as well, and channels th...ic backlash is a better expression of such sentiments. I, personally, know which way I lean.


what a retarded comeback.

i reject nationalism. all of it. fuck it. it's worse than religion.

i'm irish, whats the point in swimmin when u can just get a boat? and does the boat have alcohol? if not, don't bother gettin in the boat, cuz it'll be shite, and the weather's terrible anyway..

I watched this live at something like 3 in the morning, and didn't care in the least.

... was that a black guy swimming for the US team??

I thought black guys had higher muscle density, thus had disadvantage in water?

Probably explains why the French were able to gain a lead on the US team.

All I have to say is AMERICA! FUCK YEAH! Coming to save the mother fucking day yeah!

*water

Adding video to channels (Water) - requested by EDD.

*dead

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