Who else thinks Olympic Swimming was rigged?: Phelps 200m butterfly and the 4X100m freestyle relay.?

Question

Without a doubt.. Micheal Phelps is the greatest swimmer and possibly athlete all time.. However I became very suspicious by the results of the 4X100m freestyle relay and the latestt 100m butterfly. Ill explain the "conspiracy" first.

With 8 gold medals, Micheal Phelps will be an endorsement bonanza.. He will make +50 million dollars this year. When someone gets this kind of windfall a lot of people also get to to enjoy the fruits of the phenom.. (the products he endorses, the media he creates, the companies around him stand to receive even more money...

If someone is willing to pay a 10 million dollar endorsement deal, its because they expect a profitable return from that "investment".

How plausible would it be for the US and French swimming federations to cut a deal that would give the gold medal to the USA team in the relay and then get some portion of money from the endorsements that follow.. If I where Bernarnd.. I would have accepted a 2nd place deal to slow down the last 10m to make sure I get that $1m under the table deal... You can see both the swimmers looking at each other right at the end ; )

The 200m butterfly was alittle more complicated. All the experts expect this to be close race. Clavic knows that he has to swim around 95% of his potential to give Phelps a chance at gold. The problem is that after the turn...Phelps is in 7th place... The swimmers underwater with the goggles can see every thing and are aware of everyone around them.. Phelps with amazing speed climbs back into position but even with the help Clavic a world class swimmer clearly making an elemantary mistake at the finish the first place isnt there...

Ask yourself these questions...

"what touch pad?"... yes there is a black panel but in many races that i saw the swimmers cleary touch the white tiles surronding the "touch pad" and still get times.. A

"How reliable are the electronic timing" Does Omega have any incentive to make Phelps a 8X Gold medalist?

As we have found out from the opening ceremony... The broadcast networks are using footage from an "international broadcast channel" The Clavic messup was dissastorous because it was so obviously rigged.. and everyone believes everything that comes out of the media talking heads..

Answer 1

No he won fairly... They can't cheat like that in the Olympics.

Phelps got there first! He touched the pad first and won. You can see it on the vieo. He throws himself forwards, unlike Clavic, and therfore beats him by a tiny bit. I don't understand why everyone makes such a fuss when a person wins! Its always "no he/she must have cheated" or "was it fair" or "is he/she on steroids". Can't we just accept that someone has to win and thats that!

Answer 2

its cant be rigged... its the Olympics... there are millions of people watching. even tho its in china....  

Answer 3

Agreed, he is the greatest swimmer ( not athlete) of our time.

Why would they want to rig anything. Doesn't make sense. You would have to have a large conspiracy to pull it off. It just so happens he has the perfect body for his sport.

Answer 4

Olympic swimming is not rigged.  If anything the electronic touch pads are a lot more reliable than the human judges.

Answer 5

I agree, I agree, I agree.i dont know but the last photo finish race didn't look like Phelps won it!

Answer 6

OK, *one more time* for those of you not paying attention:

The rule goes like this:

- If the US wins, just shut up about it and stop your whining, you sore losers!

- If the US loses, start the investigations immediately, because they winners *must* have cheated!

Answer 7

No i don't think so, This is the Olympics.. And China wouldn't rig something like that, if it WAS rigged, wouldn't you see Chinese athletes win all the swimming competitions?

Answer 8

I am  so happy that  this discussion came up on the internet.I have been watching olympics and this was the first thing that came to  my mind.I was pretty sure that the relay and the 100 m fly  was fixed/rigged.But I thought i might be the only stupid person on this planet who feels like that so i  am happy to see few other people in this world to think outside the BOX and do not beleive necessarily what the media broadcasts on  television.First the relay,Alain Bernard is not just another swimmer,he came back next day after the relay and broke the world record for 100 m freestyle,he was also first in 50 m freestyle semifinal,so we all know how fast  he is ,someone like bernard who has almost a good 1-1.5 seconds lead in the relay wont lose  the race,no  way.If there was some novice french  swimmer in the last lap and the race was even and the americans won would have won the race ,that i understand.But someone as good as bernard who is the world record holder in  100 m freestyle loses a good lead,huh hard for me to beleive.Next the 100 m fly.Poor cavic,He has won that race,no doubt about that.Did you see Phelp's mom,she is certain Phelps got the silver and thats the truth.Cavic won the race but its a big big  setting.I completely agree with the author of this discussion.Its amazing in this world how much television and media can influence people and their mentality .

Answer 9

No way.  Someone who has trained their whole life to become

good enough to compete in the Olympics, IS NOT going to risk

it all by being a part of some half-baked, half-crazed

money/endorsement coupe, which could easily be exposed

in hundreds of different ways.

By he way, a swimmer just has to touch the wall, not the so-called

"black touch pad".  The black square is painted on the white

wall to help swimmers "see the wall", as they are nearing the

finish.  Black on white helps depth perception.  You don't have

to touch the black.

Answer 10

There are a couple of things that you to consider in your conspiracy theory.  First, you need to consider whether all of the swimmers are in on the conspiracy also.  In both races, the USA (Jason Lezak in the 4x100m free-style and Phelps in the 200m fly) came from behind just to make each of the races close.

Since both races were close, you then need to assume that IOC and Omega have a way to "fix" the results within seconds of the completion of the races to make them plausible results.  Each of the races flash up on the screen right after each race.  You can watch each of the swimmers look up to see what their times are.  So, you figure it takes a few seconds for the results come up, then a few more seconds to reaction time to read how they did.  Therefore, those involved need to change the results right way so that there is no noticeable delay.

I am not saying one way or another whether the results were fixed, but just point out how difficult it is to fix a race.  Conspiracy or not, you have to admit that the athleticism of Phelps has made this Olympics something to talk about.

Answer 11

Good Grief!!!  and the moon landings were faked, J. Edgar Hoover planned Kennedy's assassination and George Bush was the one behind the 9/11 attacks....let's see....aliens are really using mind control on the leaders of the world's nations to destabilize us before invading...Mugabe of Zimbabwe is proof of this....LOL

Answer 12

im in agreement with you.

Mainly about the butterfly though.Im certain if Phelps was the won counted as being in second the protest would be still going on just so he could get his medal.

Answer 13

These are competitive Olympic athletes and I don't think any athlete would settle for a silver medal just for some money. It's the greatest accomplishment in a sport and there was also a world record on the line for added historical value. If I could, I think I would rather be the one who upset Phelps at the Olympics...you'd probably get tons of publicity and endorsements for that too!

As for the the touch pads, they don't just cover the cross on the wall. It senses impact onto the wall so that's why those who touch outside the black cross still get times. Its a fairly large panel and if you look closely at underwater shots, you can see it.

If you look closely at the replay from above and underwater of the 100m butterfly, Phelps actually touched the wall first.  

Answer 14

get bent

Answer 15

OFCOURSE it's rigged. Even Michael Phelps own mother held up 2 fingers after watching the replay and realizing that Phelps lost.

The fact that Phelps has a contract with the timer company and and the fact that China wants to promote Phelps to increase interest in the Olympic doesn't hurt.

Finally, there's UNDENIABLE PROOF that Phelps LOST. This photo was in the New York Times.

Cavic beat him period. In the bottom frame, Cavic is either touching the wall, or is 1 milimeter away from touching it. Phelps is a good 1/2 foot from the wall.

Look at how much difference there is between Phelps middle fingers and the edge of the water? Now look at how there's not even 1mm of space between Cavic's middle figners and the edge of the water.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/Sal...