We're not about to get a mural of your face tattooed on our backs but just know we HEART you and hope your birthday is FULL of beer pong with good friends and fun. <3333

Labels: Ryan Lochte

We're still alive... we apologize for the lack of updates. We have all been extremely busy thanks to Christmas and the New Year. We'll be back tomorrow with our featured swimmers for January and a special feature for the month, so please stay tuned! We really do appreciate everyone sticking with us.

On to something that has us wanting to scream and BITCH SLAP Peter Carlisle so relentlessly that he will stop his insane desire to have MP sign endorsements with random companies that have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH SWIMMING OR RAISING THE BAR FOR THE SPORT. -What about the Michael Phelps Foundation? We know you've already got a bank account the size of Texas to support it...

Phelps has signed with Mazda and will be in Beijing this coming week to film commercials, print ads and make a few public appearances. (See the article here.) Personally, we think Phelpsie should get his "fat" ass back into the pool because Nationals will be here in SIX months. S-I-X! Hopefully Coach Bobbie isn't having an anurism. Michael's swim break has lasted far longer than we expected. Some of our other swimmers are already looking mighty firece COUGHlochteCOUGH. Hopefully MP gets his act together because honestly, we're getting nervous.

Labels: Beijing Nationals, Mazda, Michael Phelps, Octagon, Peter Carlisle, Ryan Lochte

2008 is coming to an end and we must reflect on the amazing-ness that was the Beijing Olympics.

The Associated Press has named Michael Phelps the male athlete of the year and selected his winningnest (HAHA) eight gold medals at the Beijing Games the top sports story of the year. How can we disagree with them? Phelps Phever has swept the nation. Yes, Michael’s performance was amazing but we feel the need to discuss some other races that had us on the edge of our seats, screaming at the top of our lungs well into the night scaring the neighbors and waking anyone within a mile radius of our homes.

Jason Lezak’s heroic come back in the 4x100 free won’t be forgotten for a while, he set off trailing French swimmer Alain Bernard (affectionately dubbed horse face) by almost a body length, and by the turn he looked to be pulling away from the US veteran Olympian however, a tactical error on Bernard’s part allowed The King of France to rein him in the last 15M pulling off the greatest relay finish of all time. ALL HAIL KING LEZAK!

Dara Torres the oldest member of the Women’s Swim Team, at the young age of 41 won silver behind German swimmer Britta Steffen with a new American record, losing the gold by only 0.01 of a second. She now has an Olympic career spanning 24 years, and has tied the record for most Olympic medals won by a Female Swimmer with Jenny Thompson. Not to mention her great sportsmanship, when a competitors suit tore right before the race she asked officials to delay the start so that her competitor could get a new one. Talk about honorable, Dara truly embodies the definition of amazing.

Ryan Lochte also created some tidal waves of his own in the Water Cube. He beat out Mr. Backstroke himself, Aaron Peirsol in the 200M back earning himself his first individual gold medal and in a world record time of 1:53.94, not too shabby if we say so ourselves. Lochte, affectionately dubbed Reezy by many left the 2008 games with 4 medals total. (Other include- 2 bronze in the 200M and 400M IM, 1 gold in the 4X200 M Freestyle Relay). His laid back attitude outside of the pool is a sharp contrast to his fierce competitive drive he shows each and every time he’s on the pool deck. Fierce competitor or laid back lover, the lady killer has our hearts.

Natalie Coughlin was awarded Female Athlete of the Year at the 5th annual USA Swimming Foundation's Golden Goggle Awards. The Beijing Olympics was Coughlin's second trip to the Olympics where she brought home 6 medals (1 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze). In winning 6 medals at the most recent Games, she became the first woman to ever win a 100 M Backstroke gold in two consecutive Olympics and the first American female swimmer in modern Olympic history to win six medals in a single Olympics. Her performance raised her total medal count to 11 total (3 gold, 4 silver, and 4 bronze). Her smile and bubbly personality is one that everyone who has watched any of her races or interviews remembers. She is one of the bright shining stars of the US Swim Team and will continue to be for a long time.

Competing in her first international swim meet at the young age of 15 was Elizabeth Beisel. She qualified for the US Olympic Team in the 400m IM and the 200M backstroke. She posted the best time in the prelims for the 400M IM and finished fourth in the final. In the 200M backstroke, she posted the second fastest time in the semis and finished fifth in the final. Although she didn't win a medal, she swam amazing races and proved that she had every right in competing at the Beijing Olympic Games. Her races will only get better as the years go by and now that she's got the first international event under her belt, the first meet nerves are gone and the gloves are on.

Following the in footsteps as her teammate and hometown friend, Michael Phelps, Katie Hoff appeared in her second Olympics at the age of 19. With more knowledge under belt of international meets, she came to compete. Her schedule had the media dubbing her "the female Michael Phelps" because she would have had 6 medal races in 7 days. Although she didn't have the performance she had hoped, she did come away with 3 medals (1 silver and 2 bronze). She also finished fourth in 2 events and in 200M freestyle, she set an American record. She put out the best she could and didn’t stop fighting until her hand was on the wall. Watch out for her in the upcoming years because we see her becoming an more fierce competitor than we have seen from her first trip to the Olympics in 2004.

The 2008 Olympic medal count for the US Swim Team was three more than that of the 2004 Olympic games. The US Olympic Swim team brought home a respectable 31 medals! They also broke 11 world records which is 3 more than in Athens. Some of those records were broken numerous times during the games including in heats, and prelim swims. The Men's team won 17 medals which is 1 less than in Athens, but 10 of those medals were gold, which is the most since 1976 (Phelps bringing home 8 of his own!). The Women's team brought home 14 which is 4 four more than in Athens, 2 of which were gold. These Olympic Games were definitely the fastest and most amazing Games to watch.

We here at the DCC can’t wait for 2009 (INDY HERE WE COME!!!!!!!!!!!) but are sad to see the 2008 Olympic games officially behind us. We are looking forward to seeing NEW world records being set and times lowered continuing into the new year and even beyond....all the way to Roma and even London 2012. (Yes we are looking that far ahead!) Wishing everyone Happy Holidays and a WONDERFUL NEW YEAR!

(Note: there are tons of swimmers we didn't mention but we still HEART them and want them to know we APPRECIATE AND RESPECT THEM IMMENSELY! MUCH LOVE FOR TEAM USA)

Labels: Dara Torres, Elizabeth Beisel, Jason Lezak, Katie Hoff, Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin, Ryan Lochte

Yet another swimmer has left Octagon! According to Gold Medal Mel, Megan Jendrick has left Octagon- Peter Carlisle had also been her long time agent.

(check out goldmedalmel.com for all the info...)

Personally, we're wondering if Mr. Carlisle has dropped the ball. First Reezy, and now Megan. Is he spending too much time finding sponsorship deals for his biggest client, Michael Phelps? Or was it just time for the two swimmers to move on to bigger and better things? We'll let you be the judge, but we think something smells a little fishy.

Labels: gold medal mel, Megan Jendrick, Octagon, Peter Carlisle, Ryan Lochte

We're reading MP's new book in between final projects, papers and classes so we can't comment on the entire thing yet but there are a few passages that make us very happy girls.

PHLOCHTE LIVES!

We absolutely HEART the passage where MP discusses "Doggy" and their differences. So freakin' cute.

In our sick twisted minds we want Phlochte to live forever. As much as we love Chocolochte we will forever be Phlochte girls at heart. With that said, we wanted to blog about a particular chapter in No Limits- The Will To Succeed where Mr. Phelps discusses Lochte being his personal shaving partner. The mental image of that is far too much for us to process. LITERALLY NO WORDS. Seriously, the thought of them listening to Weezy and shaving each other is far too indecent.

To be a fly on the wall in their Olympic Village Suite...

Labels: Beijing, doggy, Michael Phelps, phlochte, Ryan Lochte, shaving

Ryan S. Lochte has officially been declared a health hazard to women! After watching the v-blog GMM posted the ladies of DCC are finding it hard to function. We thought Mr. Phelps had our hearts but after a Lochte filled past few days we are seriously questioning our loyalty. *GASP*


In other new, MAD PROPS to Dagny Knutson who broke the American Record in the 400IM Friday night with a time of 4:00:62. The previous AR was held by Ms. Katie Hoff.(4.00.66)

Has anyone seen the ESPN magazine with Phelpsie on the cover? FINALLY a magazine cover done right! Fierce look- CHECK! Interesting concept- CHECK! MINIMAL WATER- CHECK! Maybe the photographers at SI need to take some lessons... we love the concept behind the photo. It took us a few glances but we realized he had water flowing through his veins instead of blood.


We can't wait for TUESDAY! MP's new book drops and Phelps Phever will once again commence. Here's a listing of his crazy schedule for those of you who are interested:

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9TH:

• The Today Show- NBC Studios 7:00am EST/6:00am CST
• New York book signing, Barnes & Noble 12:30pm
• Access Hollywood- NBC (or check local listings) 7:00pm EST/6:00pm CST

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10TH:

• Smiley Show- PBS 12:00am EST/Tuesday Dec 9th 11:00pm CST
• Morning- CNN 6:00am EST/5:00am CST
• Los Angeles book signing, Borders 1:00pm
• Tonight Show w/Jay Leno- NBC 11:30pm EST/10:30pm CST

THURSAY, DECEMBER 11TH:

• Rome is Burning- ESPN 4:30pm EST/3:30pm CST
• Hannity & Colmes- FOX News Channel 9:00pm EST/8:00pm CST
• Colbert Report- Comedy Central 11:30pm EST/10:30pm CST

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12TH:

• Live with Regis & Kelly- NBC or(Check local listings for affiliate & time)

Looks like DVR's and Tivos will be working overtime across America this coming week.. Beijing 2.0?

Labels: 400IM, Beijing, Dagny Knutson, ESPN, GMM, Katie Hoff, Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte

Here are some of the results from short course...

200IM:
Final A- Reezy aka Ryan Lochte's time was 1.40.89 TAKING FIRST! He held the lead from 15M out.
2nd-Eric Shanteau- 142.59

Final B- Alex Vanderkaay took 4th w/ 1.47.05 (500Y Free- Baby VDK came in 6th w/ 4.23.60)

Lochte is lookin good... However we must comment on the Ed Hardy shirt he was wearing earlier in the day... for serious Lochte? There are no words, except WHYYYYYYY? We can't even begin to say how wrong that is...

He's only been back training for 10 days and has put on some weight since Beijing but he's still got it... can't wait to see his times once he is training hard. We were excited to hear he's going to be training in Australia for 3 weeks in January.

Lochte swam about 2 minutes after the 200IM in the 50 Free against Grevers.

In Final A- Our friendly giant out touched Lochte w/ a time of 18.95 taking first. Lochte came in @ 19.39 placing 7th.

In Final B- Garret Weber Gale came in 4th w/ 19.87.

4X100 Relay- Grevers led the race and his team came in 1st! Time of 3.07.03- SMASHING the competition w/ a body length lead!!!!! YAY!!!! DO WORK SON!

Labels: Alex Vanderkaay, Australia, BB VDK, friendly giant, Garret Weber Gale, GWG, Matt Grevers, Reezy, Ryan Lochte, Short Course Natls