FINA blows it again!

Fearing a short term lawsuit from the likes of Blueseventy. FINA has revised its approved suit list to include some polyurethane monsters like the blueseventy nero comp, Arena X-glide, Jaked 01, and Decente Aquaforce. This is quite possibly the worst day ever for modern swimming.

What really pisses me off is that now FINA is basically forced to ratify the ridiculous world records of Fred Bousquet (20.94 – 50 free),  Alain Bernard (46.9 – 100 free) and Ryosuke Irie (1:52.86 – 200 backstroke). We have reached the point of no return. All suits are go for Rome this summer. Be prepared for the record books to be rewritten.

What a fucking joke! It took them all of one month to revise their list of suits…. They had a great chance to make a stand against performance enhancing suits and they folded…Big Time! FINA has shown that it can be manipulted and no longer has credibility. I’m embarressed to be apart of the sport of swimming right now.

They are supposedly going to tighten suit rules January 1, 2010. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Well done FINA!

NCAA All American Team

The NCAA basketball All American team was announced today and it contained some very familiar names;

• Blake Griffin (F/Oklahoma) note: only unanimous decision
• Tyler Hansborough (F/North Carolina)
• James Harden (G/Arizona)
• DaJuan Blair (C/Pittsburgh)
• Stephen Curry (G/Davidson)

For the most part I agree totally….except Stephen Curry. I’m not saying he’s a bad player because he’s not. I just don’t think he would have averaged anywhere near 28 points in any BCS conferences (except maybe the Pac-10, they sucked this year).

g

NCAA Swimming Recap

Congrats to the Auburn Tigers for capturing the 2009 Men’s NCAA team title. They really came through this morning and tonight placing several swimmers in both A and B finals. The University of Texas came in second. Stanford, Cal Berkeley, and Florida rounded out the top 5. 

Personally, I was pulling for Texas to take the team title and if US Olympian Scott Spann wasn’t injured this entire season I feel that things might have been a bit different… But it was not meant to be. 

Congrats to all participants and I hope to see some Missouri State Bears swimming next season!

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2009 NCAA Swimming Final Results

NCAA Swimming thoughts

NCAAs this year are sickening to me. These young men are swimming ridiculously fast but I can’t shake this whole speed suit aura from my head. I know these are fine tuned athletes but how much of this is technology driven.

• Two different 200 free relays had all 4 members under 19…
• Austin Staab splitting 43.5 on the 400 medley relay…
• 8 guys in the 50 subs 19 FLAT START…
• 4:35 wins the 400 IM (Tyler Clary)…
• 50.8 wins the 100 breaststroke (Damir Dugonic)…

All I know is that all the former record holders weren’t wearing NASA spacesuits.

I am happy that I get to watch it all unfold online thought!

g

2 posts in 1 day?!

I just got the link to an old high school buddies blog and it’s rockin my socks off. SO CHECK IT OUT! NOW!

apply.reality

It’s been awhile

It’s been waaaaay too long since I’ve posted anything new so here goes nothing…

This year has been somewhat uneventful. I’m still coaching club swimming and have recently added private lessons instructor to my repetoire. It’s certainly not the best second job, but they’re paying me $20/hour to splash around with little kids, not bad at all. I did come out of retirement at the end of Feb. and swam at the ISI state short course championships. I took fourth in the 100 breaststroke. Not bad for a fat guy who doesn’t train anymore. I really wish my practice schedule and the older kids schedule didn’t conflict because I would love to start training again. I have joined the Y and am swimming quite regularly with my buddy Jeff.

Luckily for me, I had March off which allowed me to travel down to Phoenix to visit my sister, brother-in-law and nephew (whom I adore!) I’ll be heading to Springfield sometime soon to visit the gf for her birthday and to see some old friends. That should be nice. After that it’s back to Des Moines and coaching probably until my brother’s wedding in Seattle in early July.

I’m thinking about applying for a salaried position with Nitro aquatics in Cedar Park, TX (just north of Austin). It’s an assistant job and I would be working mostly with high school kids, which is something I would like to do more. I like working with age group kids but I believe my talents lie more with older, more mature athletes.

That’s all for now. I’ll try and update more frequently in the future.

g

College Football Saturday

I just got finished watching two of the better games I’ve watched all season. Iowa, in all of their mediocrity, upset undefeated Penn State at Kinnick today. I knew Iowa played tough at home but I can honestly say that I didn’t see this coming. Ricky Stanzi played a great second half to help pull the upset and Shonn Green became the first tailback to rush for over 100 yards against the Nittany Lions this season. Unfortunately, this all but eliminates Penn State from national title contention.

I hate LSU, so I was very happy to see the Crimson Tide of Alabama beat them in the Bayou in Baton Rouge. The Tigers put up a good fight and forced overtime with a blocked field goal attempt as time expired. LSU’s downfall can be credited to poor quarterback play from Jarrett Lee who stood in for Andrew Hatch. (Hatch was injured earlier this season against Auburn.) Alabama has clinched the SEC West and will play in the SEC title game (most likely against Florida) for the first time since 1999.

Another year and another BSC shakeup in November. With Penn State falling to Iowa, It leaves Alabama and Texas Tech as the two front runners for the title game. Texas Tech has a fairly brutal remining schedule with games against Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and most likely Missouri in the Big XII title game. We could possibly see 6 or 7 teams at the end of the season at 11-1.

I know President Elect Barack Obama is calling for a playoff system in college football. I agree that something needs to change but I don’t think that an 8 team playoff is the best solution. I like the idea of a “Plus 1″ system. First, we get to keep the bowl game traditions. Big Ten/ Pac 10 Rose bowl etc. Second, might actually find out who the best team is!!! Crazy idea I know. Time to enjoy Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. Go Raiders!

Settling In

Well I’m back in Iowa officially. Work is going well meaning I don’t work until 6 PM every night…. To tell you the truth I pretty much feel like a POS right now because I don’t do anything all day. I’m still working on finding another part time job just to pass the time.

The real world sucks and I need to find some way to go back to school…..

greg

It’s been awhile…

So I haven’t posted in awhile so I thought I give my loyal reader (thanks mom!) something to peruse.

I drove back from Phoenix to Springfield in roughly 17 hours over 2 days. It wasn’t near as bad as I thought sans the fact that it basically rained from Albuquerque to Oklahoma City. I did get bored at times but would counter boredom with some rock out sessions and some extremely light reading. On a good note I found out some new things about my car that I was unaware of in my owners manual.

I spent 2+ days in Springfield and got to see some old faces and had a good time.

I’m currently hanging at the parents house at the Lake of the Ozarks. It should give me a little relaxation before I have to start working this coming Monday. This weekend I will be back in Springfield one last time to get lifeguard certified so that I actually can start working.

I have caught two news flicks since I’ve left AZ. These are the first and possibly movie reviews in Greg Temple history. And I warn you that they are terrible reviews….

Before the Devil Knows you’re Dead with Ethan Hawke and Phillip Seymour Hoffman is pretty damn good. The only thing about it is that I had a hard time believing that Hawke and Hoffman were brothers…. Overall I’d give it a B+.

Tonight I caught Rocky Balboa…… In a word “terrible”. WTF Stallone?!?!?!!?!?! D- (I’m not going to give it an F because that designation is reserved for the worst movie of all time, You, Me and Dupree. Fuck you Owen Wilson!!! I want my $10 back.)

greg

Last day as an intern!

Today is my last day at Choice Hotels International. While it’s been a good experience, I’m glad it’s over. Not because I didn’t enjoy my time here, because now I can start coaching. I honestly feel that an office is not the place for me. First I think I’m too ADD to sit at a desk all day and second I think that my skill set doesn’t fit that mold. I’ve been in or around water my entire life so why stop now?! Aren’t you supposed to find something that makes you happy and somehow find a way to make money doing it? Checkmate!

Hopefully I’ll be off to the Midwest tomorrow morning and arrive in Springfield Saturday to have some time with old college buddies and the gf. I’m excited to see people but more excited to get to Des Moines. But along with the excitement comes some anxiety and nerves but that’s just what happens when you put yourself out there and start something new and relatively unfamiliar.

Assuming all goes as planned I will start working on Sept. 22nd.

Wish me luck!

greg