Peter Bazalgette, media consultant, investor and former producer of Channel 4's Big Brother
As the channels of communication become more complex, and the TV schedule dies, the search to find a particular piece of content becomes more important. I'm all for less regulation, but search will be an Ofcom issue in the future. I'll be interested to see what Google does in the next two years to address society. Will it take on any additional public service responsibilities? Google is brilliant and a great public utility but don't assume it is going to be totally dominant in the future. It's going to face competition from companies that allow you to search for things in a different way. There will be increasingly sophisticated search engines that provide more informed, less broad-brush results. So Google may not be as dominant but it will still be a healthy business.
Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK
We have long-standing concerns about Google regarding the way it is betraying its own principles in going against established international norms around freedom of information. When you go on a Google search engine in London and look for a picture of Tiananmen Square, you get that iconic picture of a man standing in front of a tank. If you go to google.cn and do the same search you'll get a picture of happy smiley tourists. Specific words such as Tibet, democracy, Tiananmen Square are heavily censored. We think that filtering process should be transparent. The rest of us who know that we're using Google in an uncensored fashion have a duty to stand up for people who don't have that access.
Jeffrey Chester, director, Center for Digital Democracy, Washington
Google will be the most powerful media company in the 21st century, and they are really owed tremendous credit for that. But they are so well integrated into everyone's existence, and questions should be raised. They are expanding into mobile communications, which adds a whole new dimension - not only do they know your interests but they know where you are. Strong privacy policies enacted by the EU and the US are urgently required. Competition authorities should investigate Google's growing role as an online advertising gatekeeper. Our democratic future depends on the structure of the new media.
Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive, WPP advertising group
Copyright and fair payment for content are going to become more of an issue in the future. Also, as Google has become more and more dominant, people are becoming increasingly concerned about its market position. There are very few media owners that have 70 or 80 or 90 per cent market share, which they would if the Google-Yahoo! link in America becomes a reality. The most interesting thing is who will be the son or daughter of Google, and whether that will come from a Stanford or a Bangalore or Beijing. I think it's more likely to be the latter. Google's big challenge is the law of big numbers: can a $160bn company become a trillion dollar company?
Ashley Highfield, former director of BBC Future Media & Technology and BBC iPlayer mastermind, now CEO Kangaroo
People are terribly peripatetic in the online world; there is very little loyalty, particularly to search brands. If somebody else comes up with a better mousetrap then the audience will use that service instead of Google's. The web world shows that products do go through generations, and I think you could argue that Google's now looking quite Web 1.0 and maybe hasn't embraced a number of the emerging Web 2.0 features. The future's going to be in layering on top of Google more understanding of the context of the user and the question - the 'semantic web', without getting too cyberbollocks about the whole thing.
Adam Curtis, director of TV documentary on terrorism, The Power of Nightmares
The millions of searches that engines like Google record and store reveal the shifting desires and fears of individuals. They're leading to a new fragmented sensibility among millions of people in the way they see and experience the world. Machines like Google know something about us as human beings that we really don't want to know - that we are not individuals: 'If you like this then you will like that...'. So Google is a paradox. It gives us the feeling we are wild and free individuals, powerfully reinforcing an idea of us as heroic figures in the consumer age. Yet at the same time it is powerfully proving the opposite - that we are completely predictable. Out of that is going to come some very interesting political ideas of how to organise society and also new artistic ideas. The really interesting question is whether it is really a cult....
Sunday, August 17, 2008
China's extravagant Olympics will not be ever emulated for a long time
China's slam-bang, over-the-top and generally spectacular Olympic Games won't be repeated soon, says the director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies.
Nope, it's a politically driven one-off that nobody can, or should, emulate in the opinion of Kevin Wamsley, director of the University of Western Ontario-based centre.
"China has gone all out to make a big impression internationally," Wamsley said yesterday. "It was a decision made long ago. China decided to make a statement and it has."
China, of course, has been emerging in a big way economically and culturally. It seized upon a tried-and-true method of putting its best face before the world through sports and there isn't a more effective international forum than the Olympic Games.
This is why China's athletes have come light years athletically inside mere decades. Sporting success glows wonderfully on an image to a world often bedazzled by image. Since the athletes are so successful, so then must be the entire nation and its political system, right?
It is why China went over the top in terms of infrastructure and venues, Wamsley said. A lot of the massive projects were unnecessary or overdone, he feels, but were created just in case there was any doubt.
Who pays for all this, one is tempted to ask. The answer is roughly the same as that given by a Moscow citizen when the Russians pulled out all the stops to put its best face forward in a similar coming-out party in 1980.
"Those old women with the twig brooms pay," he replied.
What he meant was those with the most menial jobs and every other citizen of the Soviet Union and its republics was on the hook.
This, of course, will be much easier in the world's most populous country. When 1.3 billion people are picking up the tab, the damage is much easier to handle.
The Greeks were not so lucky in the aftermath of of the 2004 Olympics and wound up on the hook for even more than Quebec and Canada did after Montreal's 1976 overpriced show. Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau famously said at the time Montreal would no more lose money than a man could give birth to a child . . . alors, c'etait un miracle.
But what about England, site of the Games four years hence? This Beijing show is an impossible one to follow.
"England won't even attempt to," predicted Wamsley. "To try and match China would be financially prohibitive. More important, England doesn't have to."
England has already made a far-reaching impression on the world and merely has to maintain appearances.
Troublesome to the historian is that much of the massive costs of Olympic Games were not necessary. For all their size and superb architecture, many of the Beijing facilities aren't full.
"It hardly seems reasonable to build all those wonderful things if you can't fill them," Wamsley said. "There's something wrong in Beijing."
Indeed, that's not new. Despite what organizing committees say about sellouts, as they did in Atlanta (1996) and Athens, you still have to prove it by putting bums in the seats. Of recent Games, Sydney came closest in 2000.
Essentially, The Olympic Games have been a massive TV production. It's always nice to have people cheering in the background but the big dough comes from broadcast rights, not the turnstiles.
All of this brings up an ongoing topic. If the venues are mainly television studios, what about a permanent site for the Olympics? Wamsley thinks it's a wonderful idea -- that will never happen.
"Television seeks a varied cultural aspect," Wamsley noted. "I don't think the rights fees would be as high (at a permanent site) and that wouldn't appeal to the International Olympic Committee.
Nope, it's a politically driven one-off that nobody can, or should, emulate in the opinion of Kevin Wamsley, director of the University of Western Ontario-based centre.
"China has gone all out to make a big impression internationally," Wamsley said yesterday. "It was a decision made long ago. China decided to make a statement and it has."
China, of course, has been emerging in a big way economically and culturally. It seized upon a tried-and-true method of putting its best face before the world through sports and there isn't a more effective international forum than the Olympic Games.
This is why China's athletes have come light years athletically inside mere decades. Sporting success glows wonderfully on an image to a world often bedazzled by image. Since the athletes are so successful, so then must be the entire nation and its political system, right?
It is why China went over the top in terms of infrastructure and venues, Wamsley said. A lot of the massive projects were unnecessary or overdone, he feels, but were created just in case there was any doubt.
Who pays for all this, one is tempted to ask. The answer is roughly the same as that given by a Moscow citizen when the Russians pulled out all the stops to put its best face forward in a similar coming-out party in 1980.
"Those old women with the twig brooms pay," he replied.
What he meant was those with the most menial jobs and every other citizen of the Soviet Union and its republics was on the hook.
This, of course, will be much easier in the world's most populous country. When 1.3 billion people are picking up the tab, the damage is much easier to handle.
The Greeks were not so lucky in the aftermath of of the 2004 Olympics and wound up on the hook for even more than Quebec and Canada did after Montreal's 1976 overpriced show. Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau famously said at the time Montreal would no more lose money than a man could give birth to a child . . . alors, c'etait un miracle.
But what about England, site of the Games four years hence? This Beijing show is an impossible one to follow.
"England won't even attempt to," predicted Wamsley. "To try and match China would be financially prohibitive. More important, England doesn't have to."
England has already made a far-reaching impression on the world and merely has to maintain appearances.
Troublesome to the historian is that much of the massive costs of Olympic Games were not necessary. For all their size and superb architecture, many of the Beijing facilities aren't full.
"It hardly seems reasonable to build all those wonderful things if you can't fill them," Wamsley said. "There's something wrong in Beijing."
Indeed, that's not new. Despite what organizing committees say about sellouts, as they did in Atlanta (1996) and Athens, you still have to prove it by putting bums in the seats. Of recent Games, Sydney came closest in 2000.
Essentially, The Olympic Games have been a massive TV production. It's always nice to have people cheering in the background but the big dough comes from broadcast rights, not the turnstiles.
All of this brings up an ongoing topic. If the venues are mainly television studios, what about a permanent site for the Olympics? Wamsley thinks it's a wonderful idea -- that will never happen.
"Television seeks a varied cultural aspect," Wamsley noted. "I don't think the rights fees would be as high (at a permanent site) and that wouldn't appeal to the International Olympic Committee.
Arizona ' super world's largest solar plant awaits federal funding
The spokesman for Arizona Public Service was hoping that the sunshine of his answers would peek through the dark clouds of my questions.
"I'm still optimistic," Jim McDonald said.
Hey, I'm just the weatherman. It wasn't me who rained on what the president of APS called
"the dawn of the Solar Age in Arizona."
It was the United States Senate.
Earlier this year, with much fanfare and media coverage, APS announced plans to partner with a Spanish company that would build one of the world's largest solar-power plants, near Gila Bend. The facility, called Solana, would cover 3 square miles, cost about a billon dollars and generate 280 megawatts, enough to power at least 70,000 households.
"This is a turning point for APS and the future of the state of Arizona as we move to become the solar capital of the world," APS President Don Brandt said at the time.
Before that could happen, however, Abengoa Solar Inc., a Spanish technology company, would have to get financing. And that would happen only if the Senate extended a federal tax credit for these types of projects.
Late last month, the Senate failed to pass legislation that would have extended the credit. It was contained in a bill that included hundreds of other provisions, including a child tax credit, college-tuition tax credits and more.
Republicans and Democrats bickered over details. The vote fell mostly along party lines, with Republicans opposing it. Sen. John McCain didn't vote. (The New York Times' Thomas Friedman pointed out that it was the eighth time in the past year that McCain has skipped a vote on this proposal). Sen. Jon Kyl voted against it.
"Obviously that legislation is important to APS and Solana and the whole solar industry, there is no doubt about that," McDonald said. "But we remain optimistic that the legislation will pass this year. I don't want to predict when it will get done, but I've seen a lot of things get done between the elections and the end of the year."
If built, the solar plant is expected to store heat collected from the sun in order to generate electricity for as long as six hours after the sun sets, a peak time here in the desert. Still, I asked McDonald, why there should be any special tax credits offered for such an enterprise.
"Every emerging technology has had support from the federal government at some point along the way," he said. "This is no different. And the fact is, the societal benefits of renewable energy, not just solar, are so important. And it makes business sense in balancing our system. . . . As a company, we're not just supporting renewable for the sake of supporting renewables. It's important to have a balanced energy portfolio that includes nuclear as well as the use of clean fossil fuels. Renewables make business sense."
It's not like other energy companies - Big Oil, for instance - don't get considerable tax breaks from the government.
Still, McDonald understands that getting anything through Congress is complicated, and he doesn't want to point fingers or irritate any politicians. And why should he? That's my job.
I could suggest, for example, that promoting new drilling for oil while stalling on the exploration of alternative energy sources is hypocritical and potentially dangerous.
But rather than close on such a gloomy note, perhaps it would be better to consider the possibility of bipartisan sunshine breaking through the clouds and end our story with a more rainbow-like comment.
"Now is the time for Congress to act," McDonald told me. "There is no question that now is the time. New energy sources are essential to all of us."
"I'm still optimistic," Jim McDonald said.
Hey, I'm just the weatherman. It wasn't me who rained on what the president of APS called
"the dawn of the Solar Age in Arizona."
It was the United States Senate.
Earlier this year, with much fanfare and media coverage, APS announced plans to partner with a Spanish company that would build one of the world's largest solar-power plants, near Gila Bend. The facility, called Solana, would cover 3 square miles, cost about a billon dollars and generate 280 megawatts, enough to power at least 70,000 households.
"This is a turning point for APS and the future of the state of Arizona as we move to become the solar capital of the world," APS President Don Brandt said at the time.
Before that could happen, however, Abengoa Solar Inc., a Spanish technology company, would have to get financing. And that would happen only if the Senate extended a federal tax credit for these types of projects.
Late last month, the Senate failed to pass legislation that would have extended the credit. It was contained in a bill that included hundreds of other provisions, including a child tax credit, college-tuition tax credits and more.
Republicans and Democrats bickered over details. The vote fell mostly along party lines, with Republicans opposing it. Sen. John McCain didn't vote. (The New York Times' Thomas Friedman pointed out that it was the eighth time in the past year that McCain has skipped a vote on this proposal). Sen. Jon Kyl voted against it.
"Obviously that legislation is important to APS and Solana and the whole solar industry, there is no doubt about that," McDonald said. "But we remain optimistic that the legislation will pass this year. I don't want to predict when it will get done, but I've seen a lot of things get done between the elections and the end of the year."
If built, the solar plant is expected to store heat collected from the sun in order to generate electricity for as long as six hours after the sun sets, a peak time here in the desert. Still, I asked McDonald, why there should be any special tax credits offered for such an enterprise.
"Every emerging technology has had support from the federal government at some point along the way," he said. "This is no different. And the fact is, the societal benefits of renewable energy, not just solar, are so important. And it makes business sense in balancing our system. . . . As a company, we're not just supporting renewable for the sake of supporting renewables. It's important to have a balanced energy portfolio that includes nuclear as well as the use of clean fossil fuels. Renewables make business sense."
It's not like other energy companies - Big Oil, for instance - don't get considerable tax breaks from the government.
Still, McDonald understands that getting anything through Congress is complicated, and he doesn't want to point fingers or irritate any politicians. And why should he? That's my job.
I could suggest, for example, that promoting new drilling for oil while stalling on the exploration of alternative energy sources is hypocritical and potentially dangerous.
But rather than close on such a gloomy note, perhaps it would be better to consider the possibility of bipartisan sunshine breaking through the clouds and end our story with a more rainbow-like comment.
"Now is the time for Congress to act," McDonald told me. "There is no question that now is the time. New energy sources are essential to all of us."
Low Vitamin B12: a hidden cause of diabetes explosion in India?
Ask any pregnant woman and she will vouch for the Group B vitamin known as folic acid. Chances are that her doctor has explained to her how this is a proven cornerstone of good pregnancy nutrition.
But a new finding by a Pune-based diabetologist reveals that babies born to mothers with high folate levels and low vitamin B12 levels are more insulin resistant. Insulin resistance is the body’s inability to use the insulin it produces. It may be linked to obesity, hypertension and high levels of fat in the blood.
Result: A considerable contribution to the epidemic of adiposity and Type 2 diabetes in India, concludes Dr CS Yajnik, diabetologist and head of Pune KEM hospital’s diabetes unit, in a paper published in Diabetologia this January.
“We studied the association between the vitamin B12, folate and total homocysteine status during pregnancy and offspring adiposity and insulin resistance,” says Yagnik. What they found was that it led to low birthweight babies — a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes.
THE STUDY
The Pune researchers — including anthropometrists, statisticians, gynaecologists and medical social workers -- studied 700 pregnant women across six villages. Two thirds of mothers had low vitamin B12 levels. Their protein intake was much lower than the recommended daily allowance.
When their children were six years old, it was found that although the kids were short and thin, they were relatively adipose as per UK standards. The test that established this was skinfold thickness.
These babies grow into shorter, thinner (low BMI) but more adipose (higher body fat per cent and higher central fat) adults compared with whites, and have a many times higher risk of Type 2 diabetes. Children born to mothers with low vitamin B12 concentrations but high folate concentrations were the most insulin resistant.
WHAT IT MEANS FOR INDIA
India has the largest number of diabetics in the world, says Yajnik. This may be related to the fact that Indian babies are among the smallest in the world. The Pune study was the first to demonstrate that low birthweight of Indian babies predicts insulin resistance and adiposity in childhood. Apart from genetic and modern day lifestyle factors, the intrauterine environment may also influence the risk of Type 2 diabetes mellitus.
WHAT’S THE BEST DIET?
The Indian policy is to provide iron and folic acid (60 mg and 500 µg per day) to all pregnant mothers. But there is no official guideline regarding the intake of vitamin B12 as against folic acid in the country, says paediatrician Dr Urmila Deshmukh. Despite the evidence of widespread deficiency vitamin B12 supplementation is not a consideration in pregnant Indian women.
Vegetarianism and low milk intakes contribute to low vitamin B12 status in Indians. Nutritionist Himangi Lubree says their study indicates that finding novel sources of vitamin B12 acceptable to vegetarians should be a priority now.
Low vitamin B12 levels can affect the brain, increase the risk of stroke and risk of cognitive impairment. The ultimate source of the vitamin in nature is microbes and humans obtain it mainly from non-vegetarian food. While pilot studies are now underway on assessing whether vitamin B12 supplements are effective for children, the researchers say a balanced diet includes green leafy vegetables, milk and milk products and consumption of red meat once a week.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
India would face NGO double standards on NSG meet
http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/1997/india-nsg-exemption-in-danger mentions the author to create the deal with conditions. There are no logical arguments. Some NGOs will be paid to raise this issue. Thankfully we see a russia's georgia war that will allow the NSG to pass india specific deal easily.
NEW DELHI: The battle for India's nuclear exemption is likely to focus on access to enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technology and equipment and to avoid a "testing" condition included in the final waiver document by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) when it meets on August 21-22 at Vienna.
As the nuclear deal enters its final lap at the NSG, the opposition to India's case is also getting stronger. In fact, the meeting next week is expected to generate a lot of heat and noise against India and the deal, and it's not only the non-proliferation brigade that will oppose giving India a full nuclear waiver.
There has been an informal agreement that the India decision may have to be taken at another plenary tentatively scheduled for early September. But competing for attention with the nuclear deal is the Russia-Georgia crisis. US undersecretary William Burns, scheduled to arrive here for NSG talks on Monday, cancelled his visit at the last moment. As the US' former envoy to Russia, he is involved in resolving the crisis there.
Of all the "conditions" that NSG countries may try to impose, India will "strongly" oppose any bar on ENR technology and equipment. This, unfortunately, is one issue where almost all NSG member countries are on the same page. While the known objectionists — Austria, Ireland, Sweden, Netherlands and New Zealand — are expected to block India's demand for access to ENR, even Russia, an old friend and a potentially large nuclear supplier to India, has reportedly expressed reservations to transferring ENR technology to India.
Indian officials, particularly the DAE, has made it clear to their US counterparts that any language formulation that explicitly bars India from accessing such technology would be unacceptable. Even if there is no consensus on this at present, India would like the window to be kept open in one of several ways — either letting sovereign nations make sovereign choices on the matter or, keeping the issue open for a later decision. IAEA too has kept the window open for a future ENR pact, as was clarified in the cover note circulated to its members along with the draft agreement, saying India would have to negotiate another agreement for an enrichment plant.
The Indian insistence on ENR technology predates the NSG battle and was a big deal during the 123 negotiations with the US. The US, which has the most stringent laws on transferring ENR technology, has denied it to every country in the world, except Australia, and that too because, in this field, Australia is more evolved than the US. India possesses enrichment and reprocessing technology, and it has been completely indigenously developed, the brainchild of Dr Homi Sethna. But despite having both enrichment and reprocessing plants, India has not been able to scale up the technology to commercial levels.
NEW DELHI: The battle for India's nuclear exemption is likely to focus on access to enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technology and equipment and to avoid a "testing" condition included in the final waiver document by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) when it meets on August 21-22 at Vienna.
As the nuclear deal enters its final lap at the NSG, the opposition to India's case is also getting stronger. In fact, the meeting next week is expected to generate a lot of heat and noise against India and the deal, and it's not only the non-proliferation brigade that will oppose giving India a full nuclear waiver.
There has been an informal agreement that the India decision may have to be taken at another plenary tentatively scheduled for early September. But competing for attention with the nuclear deal is the Russia-Georgia crisis. US undersecretary William Burns, scheduled to arrive here for NSG talks on Monday, cancelled his visit at the last moment. As the US' former envoy to Russia, he is involved in resolving the crisis there.
Of all the "conditions" that NSG countries may try to impose, India will "strongly" oppose any bar on ENR technology and equipment. This, unfortunately, is one issue where almost all NSG member countries are on the same page. While the known objectionists — Austria, Ireland, Sweden, Netherlands and New Zealand — are expected to block India's demand for access to ENR, even Russia, an old friend and a potentially large nuclear supplier to India, has reportedly expressed reservations to transferring ENR technology to India.
Indian officials, particularly the DAE, has made it clear to their US counterparts that any language formulation that explicitly bars India from accessing such technology would be unacceptable. Even if there is no consensus on this at present, India would like the window to be kept open in one of several ways — either letting sovereign nations make sovereign choices on the matter or, keeping the issue open for a later decision. IAEA too has kept the window open for a future ENR pact, as was clarified in the cover note circulated to its members along with the draft agreement, saying India would have to negotiate another agreement for an enrichment plant.
The Indian insistence on ENR technology predates the NSG battle and was a big deal during the 123 negotiations with the US. The US, which has the most stringent laws on transferring ENR technology, has denied it to every country in the world, except Australia, and that too because, in this field, Australia is more evolved than the US. India possesses enrichment and reprocessing technology, and it has been completely indigenously developed, the brainchild of Dr Homi Sethna. But despite having both enrichment and reprocessing plants, India has not been able to scale up the technology to commercial levels.
Michael Phelps , the golden swimmer , his father, sisters ,mother and coach
Swimming's Wonder Boy
Gifted Phelps Is Primed to Win Multiple Medals in Athens
By Michael E. RuaneWashington Post Staff WriterSunday, April 18, 2004; Page E01
First in an occasional series
Shortly after Michael Phelps turned 11, the coach of the North Baltimore Aquatic Club summoned his parents, Debbie and Fred, to a meeting in the baby-sitting room of the pool where their son learned to swim.
The coach, Bob Bowman, told them that Michael was an extraordinarily gifted swimmer who had a fabulous future ahead of him.
Start of rightcontent.inc
"This is my prediction," Bowman explained: By 2000, Michael should be in the audience at the U.S. Olympic trials, just getting the feel of big-time national competition.
"In 2004, he'll probably make his first Olympics," the coach said. "Two thousand eight will probably be a better Olympics for him, [and] 2012 . . . will be his best Olympics ever."
Debbie Phelps, who tells the story, was stunned. "Bob," she replied. "He's 11 years old." How could the coach foretell the boy's life so far into the future?
As it turned out, Bowman was wrong.
Michael Phelps wasn't in the stands at the 2000 tryouts. He was in the water, where, at 15, he made the team, and went on to swim at the Olympics in Sydney. There, he finished fifth in the 200-meter butterfly as the youngest U.S. Olympian since 1932.
This year Phelps is aiming for the Summer Games in Athens, not as a rookie Olympian, but as the most dominant swimmer in the world.
Indeed, just 10 months out of Towson High School, and seven years removed from Bowman's forecast, Michael Phelps could make history this August in Athens. All he has to do is win seven, or more, gold medals, equaling or beating the achievement of the legendary Mark Spitz at the Munich Olympics in 1972, and making him one of the greatest Olympians ever.
"I don't want to be the second Mark Spitz," says Phelps, who will turn 19 on June 30. "I want to be the first Michael Phelps."
Spitz wishes him well: "I hope he does it. It's going to be great for the Olympics. . . . It's going to be great for America. It's going to be great for him."
Phelps, a resident of Rodgers Forge, near Towson in Baltimore County, already has gained world-class attention.
He has a case full of crystal trophies and medallions in the elegant Tudor townhouse he shares with his mother. Last week he beat out basketball stars LeBron James and Diana Taurasi to win the prestigious James E. Sullivan Award, given annually by the Amateur Athletic Union.
Phelps has the added incentive of $1 million offered by Speedo, the swimwear company whose products he endorses, if he matches Spitz's record.
Skilled at several strokes, he is the world record holder in the 200-meter butterfly, the two individual medley events -- which combine all four strokes -- and is regularly referred to by coaches, colleagues and observers as the best all-around swimmer in the world. Last summer he became the first person to break five world records in one meet.
He has the perfect swimmer's physique: He stands 6 feet 4, weighs 199 pounds and has broad shoulders, a long torso and a 6-7 wingspan.
He has the training discipline for which his sport is famous, swimming endlessly up and back in the pool at Baltimore's Meadowbrook Aquatic and Fitness Center, seven days a week, almost 365 days a year.
He has two more advantages.
At a young age he fell by good fortune under the tutelage of Bowman, a former college music major and student of child psychology, who at 39 has become one of the best coaches in the country.
And Phelps grew up in a talented, driven, if somewhat fractured, swimming family.
His parents, who are now divorced, reared him and his two sisters by the side of the swimming pool, and all three children became crack competitive swimmers. Hilary Phelps, the eldest sibling, excelled at the butterfly but gradually lost interest in participating in the sport. Whitney Phelps, the next youngest, seemed certain to make the U.S. Olympic team as a 15-year-old in 1996 only to fail at the tryouts -- a blow so severe that she says she no longer swims, not even for pleasure.
Michael Phelps is the youngest, and most promising.
He has lost just two races in the last eight months, in both cases because of illness. He lost just twice last year, and keeps a picture of a swimmer who beat him last July near the computer in his room for motivation. "Right when I get out of bed, I can see it every morning," he says.
His coach says Phelps is the most competitive person he has ever met.
Phelps says, "I hate to lose."
Numbers Game Bowman is whistling like the driver of a mule team, as he strides rapidly along the pool beside his star swimmer.
"Yeah! Yeah!" he yells at Phelps, who is churning, exhausted, through the last lap of a long butterfly drill.
"Attaboy!" he hollers, stalking the athlete with a stopwatch. "Attaboy!"
It is 5:30 p.m. on a chilly February evening, and the sun is setting behind the bare trees outside Baltimore's Meadowbrook Aquatic and Fitness Center.
Bowman is putting Phelps and other elite swimmers through the second training session of the day, which for some began around 6 a.m. It has been mostly quiet, with the metal pace clocks clicking off the times in big digital numbers, and the coach watching from the plastic chair where others are forbidden to sit.
But the session is almost over, and Bowman is now out of his chair and riding Phelps relentlessly, staying even with him, whistling, yelling, until Phelps touches the pool wall, and finishes the drill, gasping, "way too fast. I went out way too fast."
"That's all right," Bowman calls, briskly walking away. "You gotta go for it."
Training for a swimmer is hard, monotonous labor. It leaves its acolytes in excellent physical condition, pallid from the mostly indoor work, and often with weird circles around the eyes from the pressure of their swimming goggles.
There are numerous diabolical training variations that can be thrown in by the coach, such as swimming laps with sneakers on, as Bowman had commanded earlier that day. But chiefly it is like plowing the same furrow in a watery pasture.
In addition to possessing physical skill and endurance, Phelps is a keen swimming mathematician. In a sport that is obsessed with figures, and times, and where training sets are written on blackboards like dense equations, Phelps is a human calculator. His mind is like a clock, his mother says. "That's all the sport is," Phelps says. "A bunch of numbers."
Among the figures stored in his brain for quick recall are his world record times of 4 minutes 9.09 seconds in the 400-meter individual medley; 1:55.94 in the 200-meter IM; and 1:53.93 in the 200-meter butterfly.
Phelps loves it. He is eager in the pool. He is happy swimming. It is his life, he says. Canadian author and swimming guru Cecil Colwin likens him to the late Russian ballet dancer, Rudolf Nureyev. "He can intellectualize what he's doing," Colwin says.
Bowman sees him more as a musical virtuoso. "Michael swims like he would play an instrument," says Bowman. "If he was a concert pianist he would practice eight hours a day," only a little more than Phelps practices swimming several days a week.
Phelps credits Bowman with much of his success. "The physical part is all Bob," Phelps says. "I just swim. It's something that he's taught me to do. . . . If he says something; if he says 'Your left hand is coming higher than your right,' then I try to fix it, then just keep on swimming."
Phelps would be a freshman in college, had he not deferred his education for the Olympics. He is a big fan of the late comedian Chris Farley. He loves rap music, and during meets loses himself under his headphones to the rumble of 50 Cent or Eminem. He has the Olympic rings tattooed on his right hip.
He drives a sand-colored Cadillac Escalade, purchased after he turned pro and started earning endorsement money three years ago. Two Christmases ago, he bought his mother, a teacher and Baltimore County school administrator, a silver Mercedes-Benz ML320. He put the keys in her Christmas stocking.
In street clothes, baggy corduroys, layered T-shirts and red baseball cap, he is just a big, broad-shouldered kid. He can still walk around a mall, or a hotel, relatively unnoticed. Though he has appeared on network TV, he recently slipped into a meet at Baltimore's Loyola College, gulped down pizza and melted easily into the poolside throng.
So far, he says, "I can just go on, be on my way, and not have to worry about getting mobbed and being jumped on."
That may be, Bowman laughs.
"Not for long."
All in the Family "Watch this," Debbie Phelps said, sitting by herself in the bleachers of Auburn University's James E. Martin Aquatics Center on a rainy Saturday in January. "He always does this."
By the pool below, her son was poised on the Lane 5 starting block, crouched in a classic racing stance: left foot forward, toes gripping the platform edge, right foot back, heel raised.
Then, in the moment of silence before the start, he began swinging his huge arms. He first locked them behind his back as if handcuffed, then swung them twice across his chest, until they slapped against his shoulders.
Twice the quiet was broken by the whack of his hands on his shoulders, part of his ritual, prerace stretching. (The few times he hasn't done it, he says, he hasn't raced well.) When the starting tone sounded, Phelps launched himself at the water, and his mother was soon on her feet yelling: "Come on Michael! Come on honey!"
Michael Phelps is, in fascinating ways, the product of his family.
His sisters have provided inspiration and example. His father, though estranged from Phelps, was an intense and talented athlete in his youth who also dreamed of greatness.
And his mother has been parent, advocate and fan while spending large portions of her adult life beside swimming pools. "You take every moment of your life and you make use of it," she says of the sport.
An amiable, engaging woman who for years taught middle school in the Baltimore County school system and was twice a Maryland teacher of the year, she was fashionably dressed as she watched the Auburn meet. At 53, she had just gotten braces on her teeth last fall. "It was time to do something for me," she says.
Her son credits her for much of his success. And his success has changed her life.
The granddaughter of a coal miner, Debbie Phelps was born in Westernport, Md., a flood-plagued, Allegany County railroad town situated at a bend in the North Branch of the Potomac River.
The second oldest of four children, she was a tomboy as a kid. She married her high school sweetheart, Fred Phelps, a strapping football player from an even smaller mill town up river. Both went off to college in West Virginia, then moved east to take jobs, she as a home economics teacher, he as a state policeman.
But over time, their marriage foundered. She was left with the kids, work and swimming. Amid the domestic turbulence, she says she was determined to provide stability for the children.
All three swam from an early age, and while Hilary, 26, was the first to compete successfully, and is now one of Michael's most ardent fans, it was Whitney, 24, who seemed destined for greatness.
Tall, broad-shouldered and strong, she swam the butterfly, and began to travel, win medals and make headlines.
But she developed serious back problems, which she kept to herself even as they worsened. Her parents had separated, she found solace in the water, and she was determined to make the 1996 Olympics.
At the trials in Indianapolis that year, in front of her anxious family, she failed to make the team.
"To this day," her mother says, "we'll talk, and she'll say, 'How good could I have been?' "
Whitney Phelps now lives with her father, who has remarried, in Linthicum, Md., 20 miles from where her mother and brother live. In a recent interview, she said she loves and admires her brother. "He has this fire burning inside of him that keeps him going," she said.
But she doesn't intrude. "I kind of stand on the outside and look in," she said. She will attend a meet to watch him swim, but then "I like to go."
"I'm still angry about everything," she said. "It's still a touchy subject."
She no longer swims, even for pleasure. "I still want to be able to compete," she said. "But I can't. So I don't want to torture myself just going for a Sunday swim. I'm probably never going to swim, ever again."
Fred Phelps said his daughter's fate was a tragedy. He, too, suffered athletic disappointment as a young athlete, but not in the sport of swimming.
His love was football.
Fred Phelps, 53, who retired from the Maryland State police on Jan. 30 after 28 years on the force, was raised in tiny Luke, Md. His father died when he was 8, and his mother worked as a secretary. He grew up swimming in the nearby Savage River. "Organized swimming?" he says. "Nah, we never had it."
A robust figure at 6-2 and 230 pounds, he said he grew up tough and hard, hunting and fishing and playing sports. As a young man he worked on the labor gang at the paper mill, and, summers, as a bouncer in Atlantic City.
"My God, by the time I was 18 I was in more knockdown, dragouts," he said. "You grow up in a small community, buddy, you either take care of business or you get the [expletive] knocked out of you."
He played football at Fairmont State College in West Virginia, mostly on defense, and dreamed of playing in the NFL.
"I loved playing ball," he said. "I loved hitting. There was something about laying a shoulder on somebody and hearing that gasp of air leave their body." He, too, hated losing.
After college, he tried out for the Redskins but failed to make the team, which took time to get over.
Though he and his son see little of each other, and Michael rarely mentions him publicly, Fred Phelps said he understands.
"He's shooting for the stars," Fred Phelps said. "One of the last things I ever want to do is to step in front of his aim. Never want to do that."
"Ride that rocket while it's running, baby," he said.
"Take it. Take the ride."
To Be the Best Four weeks after the January meet at Auburn, a group of youngsters carrying American flags led Michael Phelps and seven other swimmers toward the starting blocks of an old indoor YMCA pool in Orlando.
Rock music pounded through the PA system, and the pool deck and the stands were filled with spectators. It was the final of the 200-meter backstroke at the Spring Nationals, the biggest national swimming meet before this year's Olympic trials in July.
As he walked in the prerace ceremony, Phelps had on his game face: an unsmiling look of defiant, outta-my-way determination.
His goggles were propped up on his forehead, just below his white swim cap. There was a swagger in his step, and intimidation.
Earlier in the meet, he had told reporters that he was "tapered and shaved," meaning that he had tapered, or sharpened, his training, and had shaved much of his body hair along with a microscopic layer of skin. He was, physically and psychologically, ready to race.
Phelps had beaten out 54 swimmers in heats earlier in the day, and earned the coveted Lane 4 in the middle of the pool for the final.
The event was not one of his best, but he and Bowman had been working on it to broaden his chances for gold in Athens.
The world record was 1:55.15. But Phelps had previously done it in 1:56.10, and the crowd knew he might do almost anything.
At the starting tone, Phelps took the lead and finished the first 50 meters in 27.93 seconds, very close to the record split of 27.75 seconds.
As he pulled further into the lead, the crowd grew more excited, realizing what might be coming. Standing at poolside Bowman began whistling ferociously with his eyes closed, and yelling, "Come on, Michael! Go!"
Paul Yetter, a North Baltimore coach at one of the club's satellite pools, started timing Phelps's stroke cycles with a stopwatch and calling out the numbers.
Phelps finished the first 100 meters in a fast 57.09 seconds, and then streaked to the 150-meter mark at 1:26.54. "Come on!" Yetter yelled, "Come on!"
When Phelps finished in 1:55.30 -- .15 second off the record -- there was a groan from the crowd. "Oh, man!" Yetter yelled. So close. "Whoo!"
But as Bowman stepped out of the throng, and headed to greet his swimmer, he was grinning. He had tried to foretell this young man's future before, and was short of the mark. Here was Phelps, dashing near a world record in an event that was not his specialty. Who knew how far he might go?
"That," Bowman chuckled, "was pretty good."
Gifted Phelps Is Primed to Win Multiple Medals in Athens
By Michael E. RuaneWashington Post Staff WriterSunday, April 18, 2004; Page E01
First in an occasional series
Shortly after Michael Phelps turned 11, the coach of the North Baltimore Aquatic Club summoned his parents, Debbie and Fred, to a meeting in the baby-sitting room of the pool where their son learned to swim.
The coach, Bob Bowman, told them that Michael was an extraordinarily gifted swimmer who had a fabulous future ahead of him.
Start of rightcontent.inc
"This is my prediction," Bowman explained: By 2000, Michael should be in the audience at the U.S. Olympic trials, just getting the feel of big-time national competition.
"In 2004, he'll probably make his first Olympics," the coach said. "Two thousand eight will probably be a better Olympics for him, [and] 2012 . . . will be his best Olympics ever."
Debbie Phelps, who tells the story, was stunned. "Bob," she replied. "He's 11 years old." How could the coach foretell the boy's life so far into the future?
As it turned out, Bowman was wrong.
Michael Phelps wasn't in the stands at the 2000 tryouts. He was in the water, where, at 15, he made the team, and went on to swim at the Olympics in Sydney. There, he finished fifth in the 200-meter butterfly as the youngest U.S. Olympian since 1932.
This year Phelps is aiming for the Summer Games in Athens, not as a rookie Olympian, but as the most dominant swimmer in the world.
Indeed, just 10 months out of Towson High School, and seven years removed from Bowman's forecast, Michael Phelps could make history this August in Athens. All he has to do is win seven, or more, gold medals, equaling or beating the achievement of the legendary Mark Spitz at the Munich Olympics in 1972, and making him one of the greatest Olympians ever.
"I don't want to be the second Mark Spitz," says Phelps, who will turn 19 on June 30. "I want to be the first Michael Phelps."
Spitz wishes him well: "I hope he does it. It's going to be great for the Olympics. . . . It's going to be great for America. It's going to be great for him."
Phelps, a resident of Rodgers Forge, near Towson in Baltimore County, already has gained world-class attention.
He has a case full of crystal trophies and medallions in the elegant Tudor townhouse he shares with his mother. Last week he beat out basketball stars LeBron James and Diana Taurasi to win the prestigious James E. Sullivan Award, given annually by the Amateur Athletic Union.
Phelps has the added incentive of $1 million offered by Speedo, the swimwear company whose products he endorses, if he matches Spitz's record.
Skilled at several strokes, he is the world record holder in the 200-meter butterfly, the two individual medley events -- which combine all four strokes -- and is regularly referred to by coaches, colleagues and observers as the best all-around swimmer in the world. Last summer he became the first person to break five world records in one meet.
He has the perfect swimmer's physique: He stands 6 feet 4, weighs 199 pounds and has broad shoulders, a long torso and a 6-7 wingspan.
He has the training discipline for which his sport is famous, swimming endlessly up and back in the pool at Baltimore's Meadowbrook Aquatic and Fitness Center, seven days a week, almost 365 days a year.
He has two more advantages.
At a young age he fell by good fortune under the tutelage of Bowman, a former college music major and student of child psychology, who at 39 has become one of the best coaches in the country.
And Phelps grew up in a talented, driven, if somewhat fractured, swimming family.
His parents, who are now divorced, reared him and his two sisters by the side of the swimming pool, and all three children became crack competitive swimmers. Hilary Phelps, the eldest sibling, excelled at the butterfly but gradually lost interest in participating in the sport. Whitney Phelps, the next youngest, seemed certain to make the U.S. Olympic team as a 15-year-old in 1996 only to fail at the tryouts -- a blow so severe that she says she no longer swims, not even for pleasure.
Michael Phelps is the youngest, and most promising.
He has lost just two races in the last eight months, in both cases because of illness. He lost just twice last year, and keeps a picture of a swimmer who beat him last July near the computer in his room for motivation. "Right when I get out of bed, I can see it every morning," he says.
His coach says Phelps is the most competitive person he has ever met.
Phelps says, "I hate to lose."
Numbers Game Bowman is whistling like the driver of a mule team, as he strides rapidly along the pool beside his star swimmer.
"Yeah! Yeah!" he yells at Phelps, who is churning, exhausted, through the last lap of a long butterfly drill.
"Attaboy!" he hollers, stalking the athlete with a stopwatch. "Attaboy!"
It is 5:30 p.m. on a chilly February evening, and the sun is setting behind the bare trees outside Baltimore's Meadowbrook Aquatic and Fitness Center.
Bowman is putting Phelps and other elite swimmers through the second training session of the day, which for some began around 6 a.m. It has been mostly quiet, with the metal pace clocks clicking off the times in big digital numbers, and the coach watching from the plastic chair where others are forbidden to sit.
But the session is almost over, and Bowman is now out of his chair and riding Phelps relentlessly, staying even with him, whistling, yelling, until Phelps touches the pool wall, and finishes the drill, gasping, "way too fast. I went out way too fast."
"That's all right," Bowman calls, briskly walking away. "You gotta go for it."
Training for a swimmer is hard, monotonous labor. It leaves its acolytes in excellent physical condition, pallid from the mostly indoor work, and often with weird circles around the eyes from the pressure of their swimming goggles.
There are numerous diabolical training variations that can be thrown in by the coach, such as swimming laps with sneakers on, as Bowman had commanded earlier that day. But chiefly it is like plowing the same furrow in a watery pasture.
In addition to possessing physical skill and endurance, Phelps is a keen swimming mathematician. In a sport that is obsessed with figures, and times, and where training sets are written on blackboards like dense equations, Phelps is a human calculator. His mind is like a clock, his mother says. "That's all the sport is," Phelps says. "A bunch of numbers."
Among the figures stored in his brain for quick recall are his world record times of 4 minutes 9.09 seconds in the 400-meter individual medley; 1:55.94 in the 200-meter IM; and 1:53.93 in the 200-meter butterfly.
Phelps loves it. He is eager in the pool. He is happy swimming. It is his life, he says. Canadian author and swimming guru Cecil Colwin likens him to the late Russian ballet dancer, Rudolf Nureyev. "He can intellectualize what he's doing," Colwin says.
Bowman sees him more as a musical virtuoso. "Michael swims like he would play an instrument," says Bowman. "If he was a concert pianist he would practice eight hours a day," only a little more than Phelps practices swimming several days a week.
Phelps credits Bowman with much of his success. "The physical part is all Bob," Phelps says. "I just swim. It's something that he's taught me to do. . . . If he says something; if he says 'Your left hand is coming higher than your right,' then I try to fix it, then just keep on swimming."
Phelps would be a freshman in college, had he not deferred his education for the Olympics. He is a big fan of the late comedian Chris Farley. He loves rap music, and during meets loses himself under his headphones to the rumble of 50 Cent or Eminem. He has the Olympic rings tattooed on his right hip.
He drives a sand-colored Cadillac Escalade, purchased after he turned pro and started earning endorsement money three years ago. Two Christmases ago, he bought his mother, a teacher and Baltimore County school administrator, a silver Mercedes-Benz ML320. He put the keys in her Christmas stocking.
In street clothes, baggy corduroys, layered T-shirts and red baseball cap, he is just a big, broad-shouldered kid. He can still walk around a mall, or a hotel, relatively unnoticed. Though he has appeared on network TV, he recently slipped into a meet at Baltimore's Loyola College, gulped down pizza and melted easily into the poolside throng.
So far, he says, "I can just go on, be on my way, and not have to worry about getting mobbed and being jumped on."
That may be, Bowman laughs.
"Not for long."
All in the Family "Watch this," Debbie Phelps said, sitting by herself in the bleachers of Auburn University's James E. Martin Aquatics Center on a rainy Saturday in January. "He always does this."
By the pool below, her son was poised on the Lane 5 starting block, crouched in a classic racing stance: left foot forward, toes gripping the platform edge, right foot back, heel raised.
Then, in the moment of silence before the start, he began swinging his huge arms. He first locked them behind his back as if handcuffed, then swung them twice across his chest, until they slapped against his shoulders.
Twice the quiet was broken by the whack of his hands on his shoulders, part of his ritual, prerace stretching. (The few times he hasn't done it, he says, he hasn't raced well.) When the starting tone sounded, Phelps launched himself at the water, and his mother was soon on her feet yelling: "Come on Michael! Come on honey!"
Michael Phelps is, in fascinating ways, the product of his family.
His sisters have provided inspiration and example. His father, though estranged from Phelps, was an intense and talented athlete in his youth who also dreamed of greatness.
And his mother has been parent, advocate and fan while spending large portions of her adult life beside swimming pools. "You take every moment of your life and you make use of it," she says of the sport.
An amiable, engaging woman who for years taught middle school in the Baltimore County school system and was twice a Maryland teacher of the year, she was fashionably dressed as she watched the Auburn meet. At 53, she had just gotten braces on her teeth last fall. "It was time to do something for me," she says.
Her son credits her for much of his success. And his success has changed her life.
The granddaughter of a coal miner, Debbie Phelps was born in Westernport, Md., a flood-plagued, Allegany County railroad town situated at a bend in the North Branch of the Potomac River.
The second oldest of four children, she was a tomboy as a kid. She married her high school sweetheart, Fred Phelps, a strapping football player from an even smaller mill town up river. Both went off to college in West Virginia, then moved east to take jobs, she as a home economics teacher, he as a state policeman.
But over time, their marriage foundered. She was left with the kids, work and swimming. Amid the domestic turbulence, she says she was determined to provide stability for the children.
All three swam from an early age, and while Hilary, 26, was the first to compete successfully, and is now one of Michael's most ardent fans, it was Whitney, 24, who seemed destined for greatness.
Tall, broad-shouldered and strong, she swam the butterfly, and began to travel, win medals and make headlines.
But she developed serious back problems, which she kept to herself even as they worsened. Her parents had separated, she found solace in the water, and she was determined to make the 1996 Olympics.
At the trials in Indianapolis that year, in front of her anxious family, she failed to make the team.
"To this day," her mother says, "we'll talk, and she'll say, 'How good could I have been?' "
Whitney Phelps now lives with her father, who has remarried, in Linthicum, Md., 20 miles from where her mother and brother live. In a recent interview, she said she loves and admires her brother. "He has this fire burning inside of him that keeps him going," she said.
But she doesn't intrude. "I kind of stand on the outside and look in," she said. She will attend a meet to watch him swim, but then "I like to go."
"I'm still angry about everything," she said. "It's still a touchy subject."
She no longer swims, even for pleasure. "I still want to be able to compete," she said. "But I can't. So I don't want to torture myself just going for a Sunday swim. I'm probably never going to swim, ever again."
Fred Phelps said his daughter's fate was a tragedy. He, too, suffered athletic disappointment as a young athlete, but not in the sport of swimming.
His love was football.
Fred Phelps, 53, who retired from the Maryland State police on Jan. 30 after 28 years on the force, was raised in tiny Luke, Md. His father died when he was 8, and his mother worked as a secretary. He grew up swimming in the nearby Savage River. "Organized swimming?" he says. "Nah, we never had it."
A robust figure at 6-2 and 230 pounds, he said he grew up tough and hard, hunting and fishing and playing sports. As a young man he worked on the labor gang at the paper mill, and, summers, as a bouncer in Atlantic City.
"My God, by the time I was 18 I was in more knockdown, dragouts," he said. "You grow up in a small community, buddy, you either take care of business or you get the [expletive] knocked out of you."
He played football at Fairmont State College in West Virginia, mostly on defense, and dreamed of playing in the NFL.
"I loved playing ball," he said. "I loved hitting. There was something about laying a shoulder on somebody and hearing that gasp of air leave their body." He, too, hated losing.
After college, he tried out for the Redskins but failed to make the team, which took time to get over.
Though he and his son see little of each other, and Michael rarely mentions him publicly, Fred Phelps said he understands.
"He's shooting for the stars," Fred Phelps said. "One of the last things I ever want to do is to step in front of his aim. Never want to do that."
"Ride that rocket while it's running, baby," he said.
"Take it. Take the ride."
To Be the Best Four weeks after the January meet at Auburn, a group of youngsters carrying American flags led Michael Phelps and seven other swimmers toward the starting blocks of an old indoor YMCA pool in Orlando.
Rock music pounded through the PA system, and the pool deck and the stands were filled with spectators. It was the final of the 200-meter backstroke at the Spring Nationals, the biggest national swimming meet before this year's Olympic trials in July.
As he walked in the prerace ceremony, Phelps had on his game face: an unsmiling look of defiant, outta-my-way determination.
His goggles were propped up on his forehead, just below his white swim cap. There was a swagger in his step, and intimidation.
Earlier in the meet, he had told reporters that he was "tapered and shaved," meaning that he had tapered, or sharpened, his training, and had shaved much of his body hair along with a microscopic layer of skin. He was, physically and psychologically, ready to race.
Phelps had beaten out 54 swimmers in heats earlier in the day, and earned the coveted Lane 4 in the middle of the pool for the final.
The event was not one of his best, but he and Bowman had been working on it to broaden his chances for gold in Athens.
The world record was 1:55.15. But Phelps had previously done it in 1:56.10, and the crowd knew he might do almost anything.
At the starting tone, Phelps took the lead and finished the first 50 meters in 27.93 seconds, very close to the record split of 27.75 seconds.
As he pulled further into the lead, the crowd grew more excited, realizing what might be coming. Standing at poolside Bowman began whistling ferociously with his eyes closed, and yelling, "Come on, Michael! Go!"
Paul Yetter, a North Baltimore coach at one of the club's satellite pools, started timing Phelps's stroke cycles with a stopwatch and calling out the numbers.
Phelps finished the first 100 meters in a fast 57.09 seconds, and then streaked to the 150-meter mark at 1:26.54. "Come on!" Yetter yelled, "Come on!"
When Phelps finished in 1:55.30 -- .15 second off the record -- there was a groan from the crowd. "Oh, man!" Yetter yelled. So close. "Whoo!"
But as Bowman stepped out of the throng, and headed to greet his swimmer, he was grinning. He had tried to foretell this young man's future before, and was short of the mark. Here was Phelps, dashing near a world record in an event that was not his specialty. Who knew how far he might go?
"That," Bowman chuckled, "was pretty good."
Smart Luxury Takes on the Vanguards of Prestige
A billboard near this Hudson Valley enclave urges people to "drive prestige." It is an unabashed pitch to egos in pursuit of sales of expensive European and Japanese automobiles -- BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Lexus.
But it is a sign of a time past, or certainly of an era that is passing, even in this community of elegant homes and rolling lawns.
Times are tough. Prestige no longer gets an automatic nod. Prestige without value, or encumbered by suspect worth, nowadays gets the boot.
Into that environment comes Hyundai Motor America with its most expensive automobile to date, the rear-wheel-drive 2009 Hyundai Genesis sedan. It's aimed at what the car industry calls the "near-luxury segment" -- that part of the market priced from about $30,000 to $50,000.
Conventional wisdom suggests that Hyundai is making a mistake. It is a Korean-owned company that made its mark in America, a poorly formed scratch that eventually became a strong product signature, selling economy automobiles and wagons. What is Hyundai doing trying to sell cars priced from $33,000 to $42,000?
The short answer is that Hyundai, like its competitors, is going for the gold. If successful, Hyundai could reshape popular notions of prestige. In the process, it could elevate the meaning of "value."
The Genesis, for example, does not have the traditional panache of rivals such as the BMW 528i, Cadillac CTS, Infiniti M35, Lexus ES 350 or GS 350, or the Mercedes-Benz E 350. But it runs and handles as well as any of those automobiles -- and better than a few of them. The Genesis also offers every technical advantage provided by its rivals and serves up more standard safety features -- eight air bags, electronically enabled head restraints in the front seats, and electronic stability and traction control -- than those usually offered by competitors.
Its styling is attractive inside and out. And the car is loaded with amenities, including thoughtful touches such as a power rear sunshade.
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What the Genesis lacks is an astronomically high price. Depending on the model chosen -- the eight-cylinder Genesis 4.6 or the six-cylinder Genesis 3.8 -- and whether that model comes with the "premium," "premium plus," or the "technology" package, the Genesis can cost from $200 to $22,000 less than competitive European and Asian automobiles.
In that regard, the Genesis is a celebration of luxury without hyperbole, luxury with a deal, including one of the best automobile warranties in the business -- five years/60,000 miles bumper-to-bumper protection and a 10-year/100,000 mile limited warranty on engine and transmission.
The pity is that early marketing chatter indicates that Hyundai executives do not understand the nature of the winner their company has produced. They are like young boys in a schoolyard bragging about who is best, who is toughest, talking about "targeting premium consumers and a broader audience to elevate the Hyundai brand."
They would be better served -- and they would better serve the Genesis -- to emulate the smart kid buried in a book in study hall while her classmates are in the schoolyard making noise. She might never become the most popular student. But she is likely to graduate with honors and go on to other educational and career achievements that will make a difference in the world and put money in the bank.
Put another way, instead of following traditional automobile marketing and shouting, "I'm better than you!," Hyundai executives should emphasize that the Genesis represents luxury with a difference. It wraps luxury -- indisputable, meaningful luxury -- with common sense
But it is a sign of a time past, or certainly of an era that is passing, even in this community of elegant homes and rolling lawns.
Times are tough. Prestige no longer gets an automatic nod. Prestige without value, or encumbered by suspect worth, nowadays gets the boot.
Into that environment comes Hyundai Motor America with its most expensive automobile to date, the rear-wheel-drive 2009 Hyundai Genesis sedan. It's aimed at what the car industry calls the "near-luxury segment" -- that part of the market priced from about $30,000 to $50,000.
Conventional wisdom suggests that Hyundai is making a mistake. It is a Korean-owned company that made its mark in America, a poorly formed scratch that eventually became a strong product signature, selling economy automobiles and wagons. What is Hyundai doing trying to sell cars priced from $33,000 to $42,000?
The short answer is that Hyundai, like its competitors, is going for the gold. If successful, Hyundai could reshape popular notions of prestige. In the process, it could elevate the meaning of "value."
The Genesis, for example, does not have the traditional panache of rivals such as the BMW 528i, Cadillac CTS, Infiniti M35, Lexus ES 350 or GS 350, or the Mercedes-Benz E 350. But it runs and handles as well as any of those automobiles -- and better than a few of them. The Genesis also offers every technical advantage provided by its rivals and serves up more standard safety features -- eight air bags, electronically enabled head restraints in the front seats, and electronic stability and traction control -- than those usually offered by competitors.
Its styling is attractive inside and out. And the car is loaded with amenities, including thoughtful touches such as a power rear sunshade.
if ( show_doubleclick_ad && ( adTemplate & INLINE_ARTICLE_AD ) == INLINE_ARTICLE_AD && inlineAdGraf )
{
placeAd('ARTICLE',commercialNode,20,'inline=y;',true) ;
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What the Genesis lacks is an astronomically high price. Depending on the model chosen -- the eight-cylinder Genesis 4.6 or the six-cylinder Genesis 3.8 -- and whether that model comes with the "premium," "premium plus," or the "technology" package, the Genesis can cost from $200 to $22,000 less than competitive European and Asian automobiles.
In that regard, the Genesis is a celebration of luxury without hyperbole, luxury with a deal, including one of the best automobile warranties in the business -- five years/60,000 miles bumper-to-bumper protection and a 10-year/100,000 mile limited warranty on engine and transmission.
The pity is that early marketing chatter indicates that Hyundai executives do not understand the nature of the winner their company has produced. They are like young boys in a schoolyard bragging about who is best, who is toughest, talking about "targeting premium consumers and a broader audience to elevate the Hyundai brand."
They would be better served -- and they would better serve the Genesis -- to emulate the smart kid buried in a book in study hall while her classmates are in the schoolyard making noise. She might never become the most popular student. But she is likely to graduate with honors and go on to other educational and career achievements that will make a difference in the world and put money in the bank.
Put another way, instead of following traditional automobile marketing and shouting, "I'm better than you!," Hyundai executives should emphasize that the Genesis represents luxury with a difference. It wraps luxury -- indisputable, meaningful luxury -- with common sense
SINGH Surendra in Mens 10000m
SINGH Surendra comes in bottom in the start list, his time of 28:02.9 is 29th among the 39 s away contenders. He is about 1 minute and some seconds away from the Ethopians who clock their best in
26:26.0
26:50.5
26:51.2
BEKELE Kenenisa has clocked 27.05 last olympics to win the gold. The objective for Surendra would be to clock his best or even cross 28.0 and complete the race. Bravo Surendra , we will look for your glory.
26:26.0
26:50.5
26:51.2
BEKELE Kenenisa has clocked 27.05 last olympics to win the gold. The objective for Surendra would be to clock his best or even cross 28.0 and complete the race. Bravo Surendra , we will look for your glory.
Olympic Women's Marathon: Romanian TOMESCU Constantina beats Kenya's NDEREBA Catherine
Note: A complete explanation of data type and depth can be found in the Additional Information section of the biography . Kenya must be very disappointed with the result as this was agood chance for Ndereba to clinch the gold. It must be noted that Ndereba ran a good race from behind to take silver. However the romanian was leading from start and did not slow down much.
Previous achiements of TOMESCU Constantina
Rank Event Year Venue Result
Olympic Games
20 Marathon 2004 Athens, GRE 2:37:31
World Championships
3 Marathon 2005 Helsinki, FIN 2:23:19
Previous achiements of TOMESCU Constantina
Rank Event Year Venue Result
Olympic Games
20 Marathon 2004 Athens, GRE 2:37:31
World Championships
3 Marathon 2005 Helsinki, FIN 2:23:19
African power: Tunisia's Ous Mellouli comes into play defeating the world swimming powers
Ous Mellouli, representing the small African nation of Tunisia, pulled off a huge upset in the 1,500-meter freestyle, defeating Australia's two-time defending champ Grant Hackett to win his country's first swimming gold medal.Mellouli finished in 14 minutes, 40.84 seconds to defeat Hackett, the world record holder, who took the silver in 14:41.53. Ryan Cochrane of Canada took the bronze in 14:42.69. In a sign of the globalization of the sport of swimming, Mellouli is the second African to win a swimming gold at these Olympics, following Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry in the 200-meter backstroke.
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