And the Gold for the 100 Meter Frog Hop Goes to...

I was watching the Olympic trials with my wife, a former Division I swimmer, and quite enjoyed it, because any time you can watch sports with your wife, and she is as in to it as you are, that makes the experience that much better.

One thing I couldn't get my mind around, and certainly didn't ask her, was why are there so many strokes?

The 400 Meter Individual Medley (aka "400 IM" in swimmers' lingo), consists of the Butterfly, Breast, Back and Freestyle strokes (not necessarily in that order...I'm still learning).

Now, if someone challenges you to a running race, you run. First one to the finish line wins. If someone were to challenge you to a swimming race, shouldn't the same rules apply? First one to the line wins...as long as they swim, it doesn't matter what stroke they'd use.

My wife's specialty was the backstroke. She wasn't as proficient in the freestyle. So the rules of swimming benefited people like her, who had special skills that allowed to swim a certain stroke faster, and that should be a good thing (to open up possibilities for as many as possible).

Great, but then where is the 500 IM, you know, to include the dog paddle? Why is the breast stroke a more respected stroke that it gets inclusion, but not the dog paddle?

In track and field, they'll change the length of the races to cover for those who may have more stamina but less raw speed. But there is no equivalent to swimming's backstroke, like running backwards, nor an equivalent to the breast stroke ("frog hop 100" perhaps?).

Not that track and field is perfect, mind you. There's a long jump and a triple jump, but what if I were the best in the world at a double jump? I would be screwed out of my place in history, and maybe even a Wheaties box cover.

And with today's technology, why is a foul on the long jump or triple jump even an issue? Just measure from the point of take-off, period. Furthermore, why isn't the standing broad jump an event? Seems to me that if it were, you'd never have the top athlete in the world fail to qualify because he/she accidentally stepped on the line.

Still, I will enjoy the Olympics this year for reasons mentioned, plus the fact that my wife still knows some of the swimming and diving competitors. That's pretty cool. As long as it's not synchronized swimming. I'll leave that topic to the other bloggers. I'm sure there's plenty of commentary on that in the blogs...or at least there will be by the time the '08 games are through.