I thought so! He is.

Does Kirk Hamilton play that sexy horn intro to the SplitScreen podcast?

This game is starting to feel like the last season of Lost.

No, Pastawhatever. Like, the idea that he needs to make Phelps’s win into a better narrative by having him play 11th dimensional chess to get into the lane next to le Clos.

Phelps is incredible but I still think it’s weird how everyone jumps onto the number of medals, when swimmers have by far the most opportunity to win them. I’d still place Usain Bolt ahead of Phelps - his dominance comes ahead of Phelps’s quantity.

Yes. But then, none of those things in your second paragraph are remotely like this case, right?

As I’ve said many times, cultural appropriation narratives are insulting to people from other cultures, because they presume that only white Westerners have agency. It’s like when people claim that white people doing yoga or eating Chinese food represents cultural appropriation - in both cases, it was in fact members…

My point is he would never try to implement that weird strategy in the Olympics.

God, sports nationalism makes people dumb.

Yeah I’m told that’s the sign of real maturity - never feeling regret for your actions.

I’d say that’s the exact problem with sports writing right now - thinking that the only possibilities are Jason Whitlock or Contrarian Twitter Dickhead.

But how do you feel about going full nuclear Armageddon against a guy whose sins were incredibly minor? Like, do you feel regret beyond not getting something that you wanted?

What would this post look like if everything was the same but the nationalities were flipped?

Reminds me of Star Control II.

First of all, the Jamaican track team has long been rumored to be rife with PEDs.

If anyone thinks that no members of USA swimming are on juice, I have a bridge to sell you.

If a Chinese swimmer did what Ledecky’s doing, wouldn’t the American media insist it was doping?

If Katie Ledecky was Chinese, the American media would accuse her of doping.

Does racing against him and beating him count as “fucking with him”? Do you honestly think he wouldn’t have gone all out if not for this? In the Olympic games?

Of course they are. Ledecky is American. Hosszu is not.