Michael Phelps fatigue?
Maybe a little.
And there’s no sign of slowing down. Michael Phelps is like Brenda Walsh. Michael Phelps is everywhere. Because he wants to be. Kid says he wants to transform his sport, make swimming more popular than ever, maybe even as popular as golf.
Might be a bit of an overreach although it does make for a good debate.
No doubt, swimming rocks on tv and hopefully many, many, many more kids will be inspired by his example… but would you go to a swimming event? The way you do for football and baseball and basketball and for us in Canada, a hockey game?
It’s easy to see Brett Favre forcing a ball into double coverage and getting picked in the process. You don’t have to squint to notice LeBron throwing down on someone’s head. Don’t need binoculars to witness Ovechkin splitting the defence and scoring top left.
With swimming… they don’t even know who touches first. To say nothing of the fact that concession stands are not currently standard swimming infrastructure. Scoff all you want. Snacks at sporting events are important.
And getting close to the action is important too. At the US Open, you can actually stand mere feet from Tiger Woods when he’s hitting out of a fairway bunker. That’s crazytown. And it’s the kind of intimacy swimming doesn’t offer quite yet. Just saying.
Speaking of Tiger, EA Tiger Woods 2009 just came out on Monday. It’s the only video game I’ll play with my husband. I get to be Tiger, he has to be some random, computer generated amateur. It’s the best except even in a virtual world I still can’t putt.
The launch party was last night in New York. Michael Phelps had the honour of attending and was also invited inside Tiger’s VIP section for a quick visit. If you’re wondering why there aren’t more pictures of Tiger, it’s because he wasn’t in the mood to walk the carpet last night. Maybe his visit to Conan wore him out. He tried very hard to be funny. And, as usual, ended up sounding like a dork although we lost our sh*t when he and Conan went head to head. See clips below.
As for Michael – he appeared on the CBS morning show this morning, tired but polite and pleasant. It’s is hands that keep me connected. Am all over the hands. Only a matter of time before those hands earn themselves an audience with Tom Cruise who also happens to be in New York.
Bet your shoe lifts Tom Cruise can’t wait to meet the great Michael Phelps. What an asset he would be to Xenu.
UPDATE: Phelps will be at Disney World tomorrow (Friday).
