Did Michael Phelps Really Win That 7th Gold,
Or Was This a Conspiracy of Olympic Proportions?
What Happened? | Check This Out | Cold, Hard Facts | Evidence | F.A.Q. |
On August 15th a corporately-owned athlete by the name of Michael Phelps participated in a 100-meter Butterfly finals race at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He was heavy favorite to win this race, despite losing the same race in qualifying session against someone who is, in an ignorant world we live in today, commonly refered to as 'some guy', but who in the world of competitive swimming is actually the 'big fish' Milorad Cavic. The world's media attention turned toward Phelps expecting him to tie Mark Spitz' 36-year-old record. The world's biggest stage was set. The show had to go on.Or Was This a Conspiracy of Olympic Proportions?
What Happened? | Check This Out | Cold, Hard Facts | Evidence | F.A.Q. |
As it turned out, Michael Phelps did not start this race as expected. At the 50-meter mark he was only 7th out of 8th participants. Milorad Cavic led the race from start to finish, including at the 50-meter mark. Toward the end of the race, it appeared that Phelps closed on Cavic's lead, but still could not manage to beat him. The eyes of all the spectators in the aquatic center in Beijing, as well as those millions around the world, clearly saw that Milorad Cavic has won the race. Televised replays from all the different angles, including the one from underwater cameras, clearly showed that Cavic was the fist one to touch the wall. Television replays also showed Michael Phelps' coach Bob Bowman disappointedly muttering: "He's got him." (meaning that Cavic beat Phelps). Phelps' own mother sitting in the audience in all her confusion raised two fingers in the air as if accepting that her son came in second. Even Phelps himself, in the fist couple of seconds after the finish, appeared to be subdued knowing/believing that he lost the race. But, something happened there, and the official timekeeper of the event Omega showed that Phelps supposedly won by 0.01 of a second. That is 1/100th part of one second, and the lowest margin of difference allowed in the official swimming contests.
0.01 of a second?
Yes, the underwater sensors of the official timekeeper of the event, the watchmaker Omega, have determined that Michael Phelps, has won this race by 0.01 of a second.
100th of a second?
Was this an advertisement for Omega or what?
http://100thofasecond.com/
The devil is indeed in the detail. How is it that the official timekeeper of the event is the same company that sponsors Phelps since 2004? Isn't there a clear conflict of interest here? You know how deligthtfully messed up that is?? That's like having Tim Donaghy officiating in NBA games, and also placing bets on them. And why are leading FINA officials unashamedly and brazenly the biggest cheerleaders of Michael Phelps? We are not talking about NBC and other American-broadcasters who have clear interest in weaving the mythical narrative in their sickening quest for the largest share of ratings, and for purposes of appeasing (read: licking asses of) their advertisers (and therefore for their economical ends) who buy such ridiculously overpriced ad slots. We are not talking about millions of average American fans who are being assaulted by some of the biggest sport-related media hype in history (Hi Bob!). We are not talking about millions of biased American fans that only care that Phelps is an American who "kicks ass". We are not talking about millions of white Americans who rejoice and cherish the success and worldwide fame of an all-white athlete in a sport where speed, stamina and physical contributions are of outmost importance. Instead, we are talking about the officials of FINA, the supposedly neutral governing and regulating body of this sport. Think of the possibilities of inbreeding my friends. Considering that Milorad Cavic did beat Phelps head-to-head in qualifying session, and since Milorad Cavic posted better time than Phelps and everbody else in the semifinals, FINA & Omega had plenty of time to make sure that Phelps wins the final session, even if it had to be by the narrowest of allowed margins. Shame on you FINA! Shame on you Omega! Shame on you IOC for allowing this charade to unfold in front of our very own eyes!
On August 23, Omega released a set of photos which they claim provide "clear evidence" of Phelps' win. Wow! If this wasn't for real, it would've been dismissed as a bad joke. First of all, this set of photos is taken from above, and is of such poor, murky, blurry quality that nothing can even be clearly seen, let alone "proved clear". Even the mainstream media has commented that these photos are not clear. In fact, they look more like some tiny abstract impressionist paintings than the hi-def evidence needed. It is utterly ridiculous that Omega claims this as an 'evidence'. By doing so they only validate the theory that something funky happened in the Water Cube that day. Moreover, it is interesting to note how they waited one full week before releasing these ridiculous images. Are they just trying to promote themselves again. Are they just trying to enter their brand into the conversation again? In any case, we are not asking for this crap as an evidence of Phelps' win, we are asking for a high-def, high-speed underwater video that apparently FINA has in their possession, but refuses to release. We want clear visual evidence from FINA, not blurry, ****ty, tiny photos from the watchmaker Omega.
And if you think this is just about one race in some stupid sport that nobody cares about, think again.
This is the end my friend. Dumbing down of America before the marketing and media and political gods is long complete. Knowingly or not we are in it just for the sake of chasing our own tails. Eating our own young. We are part of the societal and global loop structure that is larger than the capability of our individual comprehension of the matters that concern us and our well-beings. We are pre-wired, pre-programmed, and our basic emotions and life experiences are pre-determined. We are intellectual cyborgs that have inbred and self-mutated. Worst of all -- we come with no expiration date.
So rejoice away my friends, and look forward to another manufactured spectacle brought to you by the masters of the global loop whose unwitting part you are. No amount of Bob Costas-induced stupor will change that.
But until that time, we demand that IOC cease this downright wrong practice of allowing athletes' sponsors, in individual sports, to also be the timekeepers of the events where those athletes appear. Just like people, electronics can be tinkered with. Similarly, we demand that Omega employs a third party that will certify their results. Not that that would make it a fool proof, but it would ad an extra layer of assurance. At the moment the certification is done by Omega itself. In other words, Omega certifies that Omega is telling the truth. If that's not a 'self-fellatio' we don't know what is. So as it stands, not only is the potential abuse always present, but the whole thing is completely in contravention of the original aim of the Olympic games; which was a celebration of human spirit via achievements of the human body; as opposed to today's Olympic 'spirit' which is nothing but a celebration of corporate greed and commercial excess by way of contemporary drugged-up gladiators in their pursuit of hefty endorsements and 5 minutes of fame. As late as 20 years ago the Olympics featured only amateur athletes. Since the IOC has gotten in cahoots with the greedy American and international corporations who saw a potential in planetary profits and their brand promoting and positioning on a global scale, nothing was ever the same again. Do we really believe that Usain Bolt superbly and effortlessly dominated his field because he ate sugar cereal this morning? In an age where designer steroids are being synthesized by thousands so as to avoid detection methods, is anything real any more? We now have obscenely professional U.S. athletes that are not reliably tested in their own leagues (read NBA) dominating the Olympic competition without any 'checks and balances' that are required of other Olympic athletes. You're not gonna tell us that Kobe Bryant will be required to piss in a small bottle to satisfy some test? You're not gonna tell us that a billion-dollar man-beast LeBron James will be denied his gold medal just because he was probably using human growth hormons since the time he was in a kindergarten (HGH, by the way, can't be detected by any tests). In the contemporary Olympic spectacle even horses are not safe from doping. What's next, Barry Bonds and Rafael Palmeiro lining up to get their Olympic gold with a needle hanging up their ass??
But we digress...
- Milorad Cavic beats everybody, including Michael Phelps head-to-head (Qualifying session) at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (Source: Yahoo Olympics)
- Milorad Cavic beats everybody, including Michael Phelps (Semifinal session) at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (Source: Yahoo Olympics)
- Milorad Cavic beats everybody, including* Michael Phelps (Medals session) at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (Source: NBC)
- Photo finish freeze frame at the finals session speaks volumes. (Photo: Heinz Kluetmeier/SI)
- Jay Mariotti: "Let's make something clear: It wouldn't have been good for sport, swimming or anyone but Cavic had Phelps lost. Losing his final individual race would have been one of the great letdowns in sports history." (Source: Chicago Sun-Times, August 16)
- Omega is the official sponsor of Michael Phelps since 2004. (Source: OmegaWatches.com)
- Michael Phelps in an Omega sponsored lane at the finish line next to MiloradCavic. (Source: Michael Kappeler/AFP/Getty Images, August 16)
- NY Times: "The most visible athlete at these Games is getting a paycheck from the same company whose equipment decides the outcome of Phelps’s events." (Source: NY Times, August 20)
- The greatest whatever athlete of all-time can't bear to look the truth in the eyes. (Source: unknown)
- "To the naked eye it appeared to be either a dead heat or a Cavic victory." (Source: San Jose Mercury News, August 16)
- "Replays of Phelps's finish compared with Cavic's appeared to show Cavic reached the wall ahead of his American rival." (Source: Globe and Mail, August 16)
- "To the naked eye, Phelps surely lost." (Source: AOL Sports, August 16)
- FINA official cheers for Phelps and promises: "(Phelps) would have won the race no matter what." ("No matter what"!? I mean, WHAT THE HECK IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN???)(Source: San Francisco Chronicle, August 16)
- FINA official swimming rules for Butterfly races state the requirement of both hands simultaneously touching the pad (Source: FINA.org, August 16)
- As per those same FINA rules, Phelps' hands are clearly NOT touching the pad simultaneously. (Source: Michael Kappeler/AFP/Getty Images, August 16)
- FINA official refuses to release the conclusive evidence of Phelps' win, and states the following: "We are not going to distribute footage. We are not doing these kinds of things. Everything is good." (Source: NY Times, August 16)
- Olympic historian claims that FINA refusal to release the conclusive evidence of Phelps' win is "very damaging" to Phelps, Omega, USA. (Source: NY Times, August 20)
- FINA Vice President, Dale Neuburger appointed as the new Director of sports marketing consultancy TSE Consulting. (Source: InsideIndianaBusiness.com, April 18, 2006)
- FINA Vice President, Dale Neuburger: "I've worked with his (Phelps') agent, Peter Carlisle...on numerous occasions. We're working right now in trying to help Michael have a post-Olympic tour. I've known him, his family." (Source: Indianapolis Star, August 17)
- Global head of sponsorship management for VISA Inc.: "The objective of Phelps' sponsors is to expand Michael's presence in other markets." (Source: Washington Post, August 18)
- Michael Phelps' agent Peter Carlisle: "If he gets to seven or eight... you're talking about hundreds of millions". (Source: CNBC.com, August 12, 2008)
- Michael Phelps' agent Peter Carlisle: "We're going to really explore the merchandising side of the business globally, by sort of taking his name and image alone at times, putting them on merchandise, shirts, things of that nature, posters, and there has already been a lot of demand for that sort of thing.". (Source: CNBC.com, August 19, 2008
- Michael Phelps' mother Debbie lines up for her slice of the action by signing endorsement deal with Johnson & Johnson. (Source: CNBC.com, August 19, 2008)
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you decide i know who i say won
