Let’s get serious about Olympic records

Gold medals, gold shmedals….

I admit it, I’m not watching the Olympic games, I might try to tune in when they’re running the middle distance races, but then again, maybe not….

The Olympics have been deadened for me by too much media hype, too much “up close and personal stuff” about people I really don’t want to be up close to, too much dreary, frenzied media fixation on asking world-class athletes “exactly how rotten did you feel when you only won the silver medal in your event?” C’mon, that’s second best in the dadburn world, I’d feel fantastic for about 20 years if I would step up (in my dreams!) to get the silver medal….

So, anyway, let’s get serious for a minute, here’s an Olympic tidbit I love to pass on: Michael Phelps won gold—his 13^th individual gold!!—in the 200-meter individual medley swimming event, and he broke a 2,168-year-old Olympic record. Seriously.

You must remember that Leonidas of Rhodes was the last guy to win 12 individual events in the Olympic games, so Mike is in really rarefied company. Leonidas was a superstar in the 152 B.C. games when he notched his 12^th individual win, and that record was on the books until yesterday.

Now, Leonidas was a runner, not a swimmer. In 152 B.C. he competed in events like running twice the length of the stadium carrying a shield and wearing a helmet and armor weighing more than 50 pounds. Now, that’s manly.

So, I’d like to lay down a challenge to Phelps: try doing the 200-meter butterfly carrying a bag of cement.

I’d like to see how that works out.

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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2016 All rights reserved.