Hoff Sees an Olympic Pool Lined With Gold - NYTimes.com

Hoff Sees an Olympic Pool Lined With Gold - NYTimes.com Photo by Don Mirale, Getty Images

Finally getting some national press on fine women swimmers as well as the usual one eye adulation on a "hero motif" -- in this sport Michael Phelps.

There are so many fine athletes in the water-- you can understand the reporter's interest in stuttering Phelps Hoff Phelps Hoff.

But a nuanced niche swim preliminary reporting would look at all the fine swimmers within a few seconds of the media stars.

How did they get there? What kind of work outs do they do?

How are they going to manage the difficult taper and peak in time for the Olympics in China?

And as great as the swimmers are -- how about the Chinese human rights record-- what do these young people have to say about oppression in the Olympic host country or our own?

Exercise pattern, taper, politics would bring these people to life in a way that few people get these days.

best fishes,

Timothy