It seemed like nearly everytime you turned on the Olympics to watch Michael Phelps break world records and win gold medals, the NBC cameras would somehow find his Mom nervously sitting in the stands. Much was made about his Mom having to raise Phelps on her own after her husband ditched the marriage while Michael was still fairly young and before he turned into…oh i dont know…the most popular athlete in the world. Well, after years of mystery, I think I found him. None other than the lead singer from Twisted Sister, Dee Snider.
This look-alike is uncanny. It’s so uncanny it has to be true. So does this give us reason to believe that, as the band was formed, maybe Snider should have gone with “Twisted Swimmer?” Or how about changing their hit song from “We’re not gonna take it” to “We are gonna break it.” Okay, okay, enough with the Twisted Sister play on words.
Seriously though, is Dee Snider just Phelps wearing a blonde pony tail? Phelps doing his war cry after winning a gold medal looks an awful lot like Snider doing the ultra-makeup kinda gay rock band of the 80’s scream. Pretty unbelievable if you ask me.
Note: You can also view the video in high definitionhere on Vimeo.
Over the past week and a half, there’s been tons of talk about Michael Phelps’ performance at the Olympics; his eight gold medals, his world records, and his eating habits. Most people wondered how in the hell Phelps could shovel down 12,000 calories a day in food without having his heart stop. Is it humanly possible to eat that much? Well, we put it to the test. Rich and Kevin from Sportable and Kyle, one of our loyal readers, attempted to tackle one of Phelps’ meals in a gold medal food competition. The results were less than world record worthy.
Kevin had breakfast, which was:
Three egg sandwiches
A five-egg omelet
A bowl of oatmeal (Phelps eats grits)
Three slices of French toast
Three chocolate chip pancakes
Two cups of coffee
Kyle had lunch:
One pound of pasta
Two ham sandwiches
One protein/energy shake
Rich had dinner:
One pound of pasta
A large supreme pizza
One protein/energy shake
Above is a screenshot from Yahoo!’s live blog of last night’s swimming and gymnastics events. There are a lot of things wrong (funny) with this picture. I’ll let you be the judge.
If you would have told me that the men’s 4×100 freestyle relay last night would be the most exciting sports event I have seen since the Super Bowl, I probably would have told you that you were crazy. Instead, the event turned out to be exactly that, easily the most exciting sports moment since the Super Bowl, and probably the most exciting Olympic event in recent memory.
Entering the race the American team was considered underdogs to a French team that was cocky to say the least. Entering the race, the French anchor, Alain Bernard had said “The Americans? We’re going to smash them.” It turns out, Bernard was the one getting smashed as he gave up the lead the French had given him in the final leg to American Jason Lezak. But it wasn’t as if he gave the leg to Lezak, who had to set a world record for an individual leg in the relay, as well as catch up to Bernard in the last 25 meters and then pass him only on the touch of the wall.
The reaction of swimming deity Michael Phelps was perhaps the highlight of the race. He was screaming like he was possessed as Lezak made the turn for the final 25 meters and the screaming only intensified as Lezak approached the wall for the touch. It was upon the touch that Phelps screaming came to a sudden halt as he looked up anxiously at the scoreboard only to see that the United States had indeed pulled off the upset, at which time the screaming resumed.
Phelps reaction was similar to mine, and undoubtedly countless others throughout the United States. Already interested because of the sheer fact that five of the finalists would break the current world record, the ending sealed the deal for me. Leaping off the couch and celebrating was destined to happen when Lezak got the touch first, and I was reminded once again why the Olympics are so amazing.
Remember the 2004 Summer Olympics? Those games were dominated by security threats, constant worship of the Games’ Greek origins, and a swimmer named Michael Phelps. In those games, Phelps won eight medals, six of them gold. Then he celebrated his accomplishments by getting a DUI just a couple of months after the games. Since then, we hadn’t heard much from him. But make no mistake. He’s still one of the most dominant athletes in the world. Just ask the rest of the swimmers at this week’s World Championships in Australia.
For whatever reason, we don’t talk much about water sports. Maybe it’s the body shaving that weirds us out or the fact that few major events exist. But through four races so far this week, Phelps has won four gold medals. What’s even more ridiculous is the three world records he’s set in the process. Breaking world records is nice. Breaking your own world records is just absurd.
“There is nobody out there like him,” said Jon Urbanchek, a longtime American coach. “Right now, Michael stands by himself. He’s more like Michael Jordan. He’s way out there.”
Usually, world records are set by a couple hundredths of a second. But so far this week, Phelps has set world records by 0.86 seconds, 1.62 seconds, and .20 seconds. Phelps’ goal in this competition was eight gold medals and he’s halfway home. It’s just a matter of how many world records he’ll break along the way. The Beijing Olympics are just a year and a half away. Will Phelps be able to hit eight gold medals then?
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Remember the 2004 Summer Olympics? Those games were dominated by security threats, constant worship of the Games’ Greek origins, and a swimmer named Michael Phelps. In those games, Phelps won eight medals, six of them gold. Then he celebrated his accomplishments by getting a DUI just a couple of months after the games. Since then, we hadn’t heard much from him. But make no mistake. He’s still one of the most dominant athletes in the world. Just ask the rest of the swimmers at this week’s World Championships in Australia.