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http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=502772

He said the choice was difficult, as he believed he would likely take silver in the 200m race behind American Michael Phelps, and the 100m will be competitive.

But he said would rather give himself a slightly better chance to win in the 100m - and become the first male athlete in history to win the event in three consecutive Olympics - than increase his overall medal count.

"I just want to win that one 100m race," the paper quoted him as saying

Damn I'm pretty disappointed, he's my favorite swimmer, dropping a certain medal in the 200 Free to try and fully be in top shape to 3-peak his 100m free, sucks a bit but successfully defending an olympic event twice is quite impressive.

Hopefully the Dutch can bring a soild 4x100m squad to this games. At the Athens Olympics in the 4x100 men relay, he put in what I think is the fastest 100m split i've seen, anchoring from 4th or 5th and pushing Netherlands to Silver.

Edited in:

In his anchor leg of the men's 4x100 free relay here, he destroyed what appeared to be the USA's lock on the silver by gaining nearly a body length on Jason Lezak in the space of 15 meters in the final fifty. He swam the leg in 46.79 seconds, which was more than a second faster than Lezak and the second-fastest relay split in history. (P.VDH also owns the first and third fastest splits.)

i wonder if he won't be the only one who drops a race to get out of Phelps' way

The Duke wrote:http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=502772

He said the choice was difficult, as he believed he would likely take silver in the 200m race behind American Michael Phelps, and the 100m will be competitive.

But he said would rather give himself a slightly better chance to win in the 100m - and become the first male athlete in history to win the event in three consecutive Olympics - than increase his overall medal count.

"I just want to win that one 100m race," the paper quoted him as saying

Damn I'm pretty disappointed, he's my favorite swimmer, dropping a certain medal in the 200 Free to try and fully be in top shape to 3-peak his 100m free, sucks a bit but successfully defending an olympic event twice is quite impressive.

Yeah, it's a shame. Very little chance he'd beat Phelps, but silver was quite possible.

Hopefully the Dutch can bring a soild 4x100m squad to this games.

That's the bad part. I believe VDH will swim both the 4x100 freestyle and medley, but neither team has any chance of a medal. Very nice of him to think of his teammates, but I'd rather see him contend for a medal.

Edited in:

In his anchor leg of the men's 4x100 free relay here, he destroyed what appeared to be the USA's lock on the silver by gaining nearly a body length on Jason Lezak in the space of 15 meters in the final fifty. He swam the leg in 46.79 seconds, which was more than a second faster than Lezak and the second-fastest relay split in history. (P.VDH also owns the first and third fastest splits.)

Ah, the memories...

That's the bad part. I believe VDH will swim both the 4x100 freestyle and medley, but neither team has any chance of a medal. Very nice of him to think of his teammates, but I'd rather see him contend for a medal.

Its the timing of the events... thats the reason he dropped the 200m Free.

The Final of the 200m Free is on the same night as the semi-finals of the 100m Free, and since he is older he doesnt want to chance missing out on 100m free if he is tired.

He will race in the 4X100medley cuz its the last race on the last day, and also in the 4X100m Free cuz its early (day 3 i think)

The Duke wrote:

That's the bad part. I believe VDH will swim both the 4x100 freestyle and medley, but neither team has any chance of a medal. Very nice of him to think of his teammates, but I'd rather see him contend for a medal.

Its the timing of the events... thats the reason he dropped the 200m Free.

The Final of the 200m Free is on the same night as the semi-finals of the 100m Free, and since he is older he doesnt want to chance missing out on 100m free if he is tired.

Ah, that makes sense.

Life could be worse. You could be a supporter of the German team and have the realistic chance of collecting zero medals in the entire swimming competition.

Point forward wrote:Life could be worse. You could be a supporter of the German team and have the realistic chance of collecting zero medals in the entire swimming competition.

Well Im a Canadian Team Supporter, and we havent won a swimming medal since Sydney with Curtis Mydin winning a bronze in the IM. Our hopes lie on Brent Hyden, in 100m and 4x200 free... thats it!