A strange swipe at the champ
I swear, sometimes I don’t understand my own breed — which is to say, journalists.
On Monday, Slate magazine featured this story under a one-word headline saying, “Untouchable” and a subhed (as it’s called in the business) posing this question: “Did Michael Phelps get a gold medal for a race he lost?” In case anyone failed to grasp the doubt being cast on Phelps’ historic achievement, here’s the article’s opening sentence, another innuendo masquerading as a question:
Did Michael Phelps really earn eight gold medals in the 2008 Olympics?
The article, focused on the 100-meter butterfly event that Phelps won by one-hundredth of a second, explains how such close finishes are ultimately settled by electronic touch pads embedded in the wall of the pool. But as author William Saletan points out, swimmers have to firmly touch the pad to trigger the sensor and stop the official clock; they can’t just brush lightly across it. That seems reasonable, and as Saletan points out, that’s the rule: “… the Olympics honchos agreed beforehand to use the touch pads; the touch pads require pressure; all swimmers and their coaches should know this.”
Still, the author speculates that Phelps’ opponent actually got to the finish first, but didn’t hit the pad with enough force to stop the clock right away.
His proof? Well, Saletan doesn’t have any. In fact, he concedes that video of the race which seems to show Phelps a fraction of a second behind his opponent at the end “could be an optical illusion.” He further concedes that frame-by-frame still photos don’t clearly show who hit the wall first. So he, like everyone else, is left only with the electronic sensor.
What’s more, Saletan even acknowledges that the touch-pad system
beats the heck out of the old stopwatch method, not to mention the mysteries of judging gymnastics. It’s the fairest, most precise system around.
So what’s his beef? Ultimately, it’s this:
Even the most precise system leaves a gray area. In this case, it’s the area between touching and pressing. Did Phelps beat [Milorad] Cavic to the wall? We’ll never know.
Except we do know. In a close race, Phelps set off the sensor first and the “fairest, most precise system around” declared him the winner. But for some journalists, knocking down straw men is the better sport.
August 26th, 2008 at 11:56 am
This leads one to wonder if there are not too many “journalists” in the world.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:31 am
There’s precedence for the Phelps/Cavic. Without exception, the previous rulings hve been that simply touching the sensory device isn’t enough. Exertion of force sufficient to trigger the sensor (as Phelps did) is required to register whatever it is the sensor senses.
Want an example? I’ll give you one anyway.
FAMILY FEUD; Tettermans versus the Stringfellows. It’s the final round and Harlan Stringfellow is matched against Nana Tetterman. Richard Dawson poses the survey question and Nana Tetterman clearly makes contact with her giant buzzer button before Harlan had time to ask Dawson to repeat the question.
Unfortunately, the frail martriarch of the family Tetterman could not exert enough force to set off her buzzer - despite repeated attempts to do so.
Eventually Harlan shook himself from his stupor and buzzed in. To his credit, he knew one of the top four survey responses. His fellow Stringfellows then went on to sweep the category and advanced to the championship round.
Harsh? Perhaps, but rules are rules. Better luck next time Nana! Unfortunately, time was a luxury Nana didn’t possess. She died in her sleep two months later- 93 years young. It’s freaking sad, really.
Oh yeah, the deciding survey question was:
NAME SOMETHING YOU WOULD NOT ALLOW YOUR TEENAGED SON TO BE ALONE WITH IN HIS LOCKED BEDROOM.
The top four responses (in inverse order) are
4. Biohazardous waste
3. Internet access and your AMEX card
2. A moulting python
1. Michael Jackson
August 28th, 2008 at 7:00 am
I think John should start his own blog.