R-C Sports Notebook: Shambles? Really?

Well, you heard it from Bob Bowman first. The swimming world is in shambles.

And until the sport gets "unshambled," his star pupil, Olympic superstar Michael Phelps, won't be swimming in any international races until around April of next year.

This all rose out of Phelps' stunning loss to a virtual unknown German swimmer on Monday at the world championships in Rome. It was Phelps' first loss in any meet since 2005.

The big hubub, just in case you hadn't heard, is over a new miracle polyurethane swim suit that apparently can help elite swimmers move up to two seconds faster in the water. Through three days of the world championships, 21 world records had fallen, many due in large part to the new suits.

Germany's Paul Biedermann happened to be wearing that suit - the Arena X-Glide - when he defeated Phelps in the 200 freestyle. Phelps was not.

What's funny to me, and probably many others, is that Bowman was just fine when international swimming's governing body approved the Speedo LZR suit in February 2008.

He was just fine when the Speedo suits carried swimmers to 94 percent of the international victories last year and over 30 gold medals at the Beijing Olympics - including all eight of Phelps' record-breaking Olympic medal haul.

He was just fine when 62 world records fell in the last year, most of which came from swimmers wearing the LZR suit.

But the polyurethane suits came into prominence this year and Speedo quickly acknowledged it's own cutting edge technology was now comparitively dull. They even gave their contracted swimmers an out to compete in the newer suits from other brands in order to be able to compete at these world championships.

But Phelps didn't jump ship. And he promptly lost, at which point, Bowman, who also coaches the U.S. Men's Swim team (which is also sponsored by Speedo), laid into FINA about its delay in banning the new suits (and they were banned, just not in time for this world championships).

Of course, Bowman's rant can't have anything to do with the millions of dollars Phelps receives from Speedo, can it?

He said things like wanting "swimming to go back to racing" and that the history of the sport has been lost.

He even went as far as suggesting there should be two lists of world records, one for the pre-high-tech suits and one for the grand old days of swimming essentially in your skivvies.

That's right about where he lost me.

The unfortunate side effect of technological advancement is that much of sports history is eventually bettered, due in large part to those advancements.

You saw it when Maris and Mantle were chasing Babe Ruth's single-season home run record ("They had more games on the schedule ... but the Babe didn't have to make road trips to the West Coast") and again when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were chasing Maris' record (legal or illegal, you have to admit the "nutritional supliments" played a large part in how that wrapped up).

I know of a particular contact lens with amber tinting that allows hitters to see the ball better off of the pitcher's arm now.

You see it in track & field with the advancements in footwear, running surfaces and even things like vaulting poles.

Cyclng technology also plays a huge part in results.

What it comes down to is that regardless of the sport, technology advances along with time and the end result is a better "on-the-field" product.

You take away any of the above enhancements, though, and it still requires a phenomenal athlete with an elite skill set to perform the feats they do.

The way I see it is Bowman is really shortchanging the sport, and Phelps for that matter. The suits do make a difference. But there are some remarkable swimmers wearing them when they do.

Personally, I doubt you'll see a "losing streak" develop for Phelps after this. He bounced back the next day to win the 200 fly and break another world record - in his LZR suit.

Swimming isn't in shambles. The bar has just been set higher than it was before. And anytime that happens, it only gives the true competitors more drive to excel.

I've been making calls around for the football season preview and it appears the Northern 4A is shaping up to be wide open.

I'll have more in the coming weeks on that, but from what coaches around the region are saying, expect Douglas to be right in the thick of things. I'm also hearing good things about Reed, Galena, McQueen and Damonte Ranch. Time will tell.

- With the birth of my son a month ago, I quickly renewed my membership in the 3 a.m. 395 cruise crew (membership: me, the on-duty cops and about five rotating truck drivers) with nightly trips around town to get the boy to sleep.

I had to temporarily withdraw, though, when we blew the alternator in the car.

It was a long four nights.

Celebrating Edd Roush, the only player ever ejected from a Major League Baseball game for sleeping in the outfield.

It was reported this week that Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco (I still can't type that without laughing) ran into Denzel Washington at a Lakers game last spring. Washington didn't mince any words, apparently and asked Ochocinco just what he thought he was doing. He told him to clean up his act and get back into the business of being a dominant NFL receiver.

Ochocinco ate the advice up, calling Washington "the coolest" person he'd ever met. Apparently the same advice from his coaches, teammates and every media outlet in the United States, had fallen on deaf ears.

Either that, or Ochocinco is secretly lobbying for "Herman Boone" to be the next head coach of the Bengals.

Oklahoma University quarterback Sam Bradford was sitting down for a nice dinner this spring when a young couple placed their infant on his table and asked for an autograph - on the baby.

He obliged, signing the baby's "onesie". My bet is the autograph lost all of its value approximately five minutes later when the baby spit up.