There is a fascinating article in today's Wall Street Journal about Cal Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin's kick. I don't have access to the article online, but I do get a hard copy. There is a mechanical and aerospace engineering professor at George Washington University developing a program on a supercomputer financed by the Navy that maps out Natalie's underwater (dolphin) kick. It is said that her the motion of her kick is the closest as humanly possible to the motion of a fish swimming. If you get a chance to see in underwater, you'll know what that means. Apparantly, the Navy is interested in building an aquatic vessel or robot that moves in a similar way. Funny - I never imagined that swimming would be used in such a way for the military. I mean, sure, you should probably know how to swim if you're in the military, and especially if you're in the Navy. But this is kind of amazing.

I've been swimming since I was five, and I always feel a surge of excitement when the Olympics roll around. Like, "Yay! Finally! The media's actually showing a sport I know, and that I'm involved in." So here's hoping Michael Phelps breaks some records. Maybe he really *will* change how the sport is viewed. That kid, by the way, is a fucking mutant. I have no idea how he can swim that fast.