# I pit Michael Phelps, Omega, NBC and the Olympics. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 16, 2008, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267 "2008-08-16T22:02:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/1 "2008-08-16T22:02:25Z")
We’re all getting had: [Phelps medal conspiracy](http://gawker.com/5037913/the-michael-phelps-gold-medal-conspiracy) If I want to go fast in the water I’ll get on a motorboat. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/2 "2008-08-16T22:04:27Z")
A conspiracy theory. Those are rare. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/3 "2008-08-16T22:06:26Z")
[QUOTE=Spartydog] We’re all getting had: [/QUOTE] The photo in your link shows Phelps winning. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/4 "2008-08-16T22:08:06Z")
Step back from the bong, dude. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/5 "2008-08-16T22:10:19Z")
[QUOTE=Spartydog] We’re all getting had: [/QUOTE] Upon viewing the tape, the protesting Serbians agreed that Phelps had won. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/6 "2008-08-16T22:25:23Z")
Conspiracies aside, I pit Phelps because, I don’t know, 13 golds just seems… _Greedy_. I think I’d be overjoyed with just one. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/7 "2008-08-16T22:26:38Z")
[QUOTE=Frank] Upon viewing the tape, the protesting Serbians agreed that Phelps had won. [/QUOTE] So does Milorad Cavic himself: > [@Milorad Cavic](#): > > Yes, as you all saw, I almost won the Gold, and if you ask me, the clock does not lie. I had nothing to do with this filing, and neither did my coach Mike Bottom. This is just another attack on my coach who has done never wronged anyone in swimming, except coach foreign athletes (non-Americans) to Olympic medals. You all have to understand that any coach would have done this for their swimmer if there were any possibility of error, but I’m sorry to disappoint, it was my Olympic committee and swimming staff who did the filing. We’re not “sour grapes” and we’re not “pissed”… If you ask me, it should be accepted and we should move on. I’ve accepted defeat, **and there’s nothing wrong with losing to the greatest swimmer there has ever been.** Can’t argue with that. ETA: Oops, forgot the [link](http://www.miloradcavic.com/portal/). ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/8 "2008-08-16T22:32:13Z")
Milorad Cavic [on his own blog](http://www.miloradcavic.com/portal/): > [@](#): > > On winning a SILVER medal: I am completely happy, and still in complete disbelief that I was able to achieve this feat! I’m not joking… It’s a tough loss, but I’m on cloud nine. I congratulated Phelps and his coach Bob Bowman. I’m just glad the race was fun to watch for everyone. It was a pleasure for me, really. > > Filing a Protest: Yes, as you all saw, I almost won the Gold, and if you ask me, the clock does not lie. I had nothing to do with this filing, and neither did my coach Mike Bottom. This is just another attack on my coach who has done never wronged anyone in swimming, except coach foreign athletes (non-Americans) to Olympic medals. You all have to understand that any coach would have done this for their swimmer if there were any possibility of error, but I’m sorry to disappoint, it was my Olympic committee and swimming staff who did the filing. We’re not “sour grapes” and we’re not “pissed”… If you ask me, it should be accepted and we should move on. I’ve accepted defeat, and there’s nothing wrong with losing to the greatest swimmer there has ever been. More from Cavic [here](http://www.kansascity.com/495/story/751324-p2.html): > [@](#): > > “How does it feel to … uh … be only swimmer who … uh … beat Michael Phelps,” a reporter asked in halted English. There were a few laughs in the press room. Cavic looked around the room. > > “He did not phrase exactly that the way he wanted,” he said kindly. Then he looked the reporter in the eye. " **I did not beat Michael Phelps**. … It was great that all eyes were on me, looking at me as the guy who could beat Michael Phelps. " > > He was asked about the Serbian protest. He said that, if up to him, he would drop it. He did not feel badly about things. He had taken Michael Phelps to the wall. He had touched the wall with him. He understood that for the rest of his life people would talk about that hundredth of a second. But he was not sad. He had performed for the world. > > “I will say it’s a pity we didn’t both finish at 50.58,” he said. “I would have loved to share that gold.” It doesn’t sound like Cavic is disputing the result and seems pretty happy just to have won the silver (his goal was to win bronze). There’s no conspiracy, but I think Cavic deserves props for pushing Phelps to the absolute limit that way. How many guys can say they came within a 100th of a second of beating Michael Phelps? ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/9 "2008-08-16T22:51:05Z")
OK, so you guys have had a few sips of the Kool Aid. Enjoy the Olympics! BTW, remember Liston not coming out of his corner in Miami even though he was winning and the punch that Ali landed on Liston in Lewiston, ME. It helps to have the opponent getting a piece of the future action of the anointed superstar which was the arrangement with Liston. Too many miracles in Beijing for me but hey, it makes money. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/10 "2008-08-16T22:52:11Z")
[QUOTE=Spartydog] OK, so you guys have had a few sips of the Kool Aid. Enjoy the Olympics! [/QUOTE] How do you explain the photo? ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/11 "2008-08-16T22:54:09Z")
[QUOTE=Spartydog] OK, so you guys have had a few sips of the Kool Aid. Enjoy the Olympics! BTW, remember Liston not coming out of his corner in Miami even though he was winning and the punch that Ali landed on Liston in Lewiston, ME. It helps to have the opponent getting a piece of the future action of the anointed superstar which was the arrangement with Liston. Too many miracles in Beijing for me but hey, it makes money. [/QUOTE] The _fact_ that the replay confirms Phelps’s win is sipping “the Kool Aid”? I have no idea what Ali and Liston has to do with Phelps and Beijing, but whatever dude. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/12 "2008-08-16T23:02:14Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Milorad Cavic [on his own blog](http://www.miloradcavic.com/portal/): More from Cavic [here](http://www.kansascity.com/495/story/751324-p2.html): It doesn’t sound like Cavic is disputing the result and seems pretty happy just to have won the silver (his goal was to win bronze). There’s no conspiracy, but I think Cavic deserves props for pushing Phelps to the absolute limit that way. How many guys can say they came within a 100th of a second of beating Michael Phelps? [/QUOTE] He came within a 100th of a second of _dead-heating_ with him. Let’s have it right. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/13 "2008-08-16T23:13:56Z")
OK, let’s ignore the photos and timer. Let’s pretend there was a conspiracy and consider the mechanics of \* trying \* to fix this race and make it convincing. There’s no way of knowing in advance what the finish would be like. So how would a time keeper look at that finish and decide, in the 0.01 second available to them, that they are going to throw the race to Phelps? The only way to do it would be to decide in the last few feet of the race that you were going to, say, delay one of the swimmer’s touch by a couple of thousandths of a second and, oh yeah, do it in such a way that the high speed cameras supported it. This would require super swift calculations and reflexes on a par with a Phelps’ own. And the \* only \* scenario in which it would even be possible (or useful) would be the one we saw – a virtual dead heat. Otherwise, the dozens of cameras focused on the finish would reveal the shenanigans. So your conspiracy theorist would have to assume that the time keepers and judges would be willing to risk disgrace and the shattering of Olympic credibility for the sake of Phelps, just in case this one very unlikely scenario occurred. Occam’s razor sez it’s easier to believe that Phelps out touched Cavic rather than there’s some insanely skilled conspiracy to throw the race. (Looking at the photos of the finish, the only reason it even looks fishy is that Phelps seems to have touched first with his right hand and the view on TV was of his left which seemed to touch just slightly later than Cavic.) And based on his comments, Cavic is a class act and I wish he had tied with Phelps for the gold. I think in most people’s minds, he did. ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/14 "2008-08-16T23:27:20Z")
You do what typically happens when the fix is in. You show the guy that you can beat him then you pull up at the last instance. It’s been happening in horse racing and boxing since anybody place the first bet. Remember the old LA Lakers? The first team to ever win the first 4 games of a 7 game series and still lose the series. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/15 "2008-08-16T23:30:12Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] How do you explain the photo? [/QUOTE] He doesn’t have to. He’s played the _Conpiracy!_**[sup]TM**[/sup] card, and you have to prove that the result could not possibly be the result of a conspiracy. Sheesh, didn’t you read the rules of the game? (Of course, **Finagle** makes a good try to play by the rules, but I’m sure the Illuminati have the computers and mind-control lasers to perform the deeds he claims are improbable.) On preview: **Spartydog** , are you seriously arguing, now, that it wasn’t jiggering by OMEGA’s timepiece, but that a human can judge a race closely enough to throw it by a hundredth of a second at the finish line? I do want to add my admiration for Cavic. He’s proven himself to be a real class act. ---
**Author:** ![aerodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@aerodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aerodave)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/16 "2008-08-16T23:34:00Z")
[QUOTE=Spartydog] Remember the old LA Lakers? The first team to ever win the first 4 games of a 7 game series and still lose the series. [/QUOTE] Wait…they won 4 in a 7-game series, and then kept playing? And then they somehow lost the other, uh…5? You undermine your own argument with every post. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/17 "2008-08-16T23:38:49Z")
[QUOTE=Spartydog] You do what typically happens when the fix is in. You show the guy that you can beat him then you pull up at the last instance. It’s been happening in horse racing and boxing since anybody place the first bet. Remember the old LA Lakers? The first team to ever win the first 4 games of a 7 game series and still lose the series. [/QUOTE] So which was it? Did Omega rig the wall? Or did Cavic get the payoff to pull up at the last second? ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/18 "2008-08-16T23:49:01Z")
Did you guys get the super slow-mo of the finish at 15,000 frames per second? That will be one of my all time enduring sports memories. You wouldn’t write a script where the guy going for the equal record wins by the smallest measurable margin, but watching Cavic glide toward the wall as Phelps throws in the half stroke is just delicously agonizing. Phelps’s arms leave the water and inch by quarter inch catch up to the outstretched arms of Cavic. Fantastic. How people can’t see the drama in sport often has me amazed. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/19 "2008-08-16T23:57:58Z")
[Here](http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1629971/phelps_7th_gold_medal_in_slo_mo_1_100th_sec_win/) is the super slow-mo from several angles. Even more amazing from underwater watching Phelps’s arms going **backward** to get the half stroke in. What guts. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2008, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267/20 "2008-08-17T00:08:36Z")
[QUOTE=Spartydog] You do what typically happens when the fix is in. You show the guy that you can beat him then you pull up at the last instance. [/QUOTE] Congratulations! If you had stuck to an evil scheme involving Phelps, Omega, NBC, and the IOC, you’d have a run-of-the-mill conspiracy theory no better or worse than LBJ, Cuba, and the Teamsters taking out JFK. But by apparently accusing another swimmer of the superhuman feat of throwing a race by 100th of a second, you’ve moved into X-Files territory. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-phelps-omega-nbc-and-the-olympics/460267.md?page=2)