I know this isn't news, and that both of these guys are just looking for attention, but there's something so lame about this video that it intrigues me. TMZ (Via With Leather) caught Michael Phelps and Warren Sapp, horsing around at a pool in South Beach, and decided that a video of said event was necessary to share with the world....

Oh man! You see that?!?! He gave him a half a lap pool lead....AND HE STILL BEAT THAT AZZ! That right there is talent my friends. My irrational hate for Michael Phelps aside though, is there anything lamer than trying to impress people with your talent, and no one there really even gives a crap? I mean even chicks are giving him "pity applause" at this point.

Attention Whores Whore For Attention (With Leather)
Warren Sapp Races Michael Phelps (TMZ)

Hop on that back with 0.2% body fat, grab onto those giant condor-like wings arms and ride....RIDE....young Michael Phelps to ratings gold, NBC! The Peacock has issued a press release today telling the world that they have signed on to air next year's Swimming World Championships. Oh, and next year's U.S. National Championship.

Wait.....there's more? My fault. Make that the National Championships for the next three years!

On the heels of the most memorable Olympic swimming competition in history, in which Michael Phelps won an unprecedented eight gold medals, NBC Sports, in cooperation with USA Swimming, today announced an agreement for the most significant U.S. television package in the history of the sport. NBC Sports and Universal Sports will broadcast the 2009 World Swimming Championships from Rome and the 2009 USA Swimming National Championships (which will serve to qualify the U.S. team for the 2009 Worlds), as well as the National Championships in 2010 and 2011. The agreement is the first major announcement for the sport of swimming since the remarkable Beijing Olympic swimming competition that saw 20 new world records in the 32 morning finals. NBC already holds the broadcast rights to the 2012 U.S. Olympics Swimming Trials and 2012 London Olympic Games. The announcement was made today by Dick Ebersol, Chairman, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics and Chuck Wielgus, Executive Director, USA Swimming.

Michael Phelps, who has long stated a goal of getting more exposure for the sport of swimming, said: "I've said for a long time that my most important goal was to leave swimming better than I found it and this move to network coverage on NBC of our major championships is a dream come true and a big step in that direction."

Again, I don't know how a Sport that doesn't really have a "season" can succeed in something other than a record breaking Olympics, but I guess anything is possible. The one benefit that the Championships have though, is that they take place in the barren Sports months of July and August.

Update: Ooooh lookie what else NBC has made available to you Swimfans. Via Sports Business Daily....

"Michael Phelps: Greatest Olympic Champion … The Inside Story" and a general Beijing Games highlight DVD, each for $19.99, and an Opening Ceremony two-volume DVD for $29.99 (NBCU). NBC's "Today" show promoted the Phelps DVD heavily earlier in the week, airing spots for it heading into and out of commercial breaks

(Via NBC PR)

I'm still not sure exactly how NBC is tabulating these ratings, but either way, they were huge for Phelps' run at eight on Saturday night. Not only did it crush any other Sport the network has aired, it was the highest Saturday rating since Empty Nest debuted back in 1990. Via Yahoo....

The telecast averaged 31.1 million U.S. viewers, NBC's biggest audience for a Saturday night program since an episode of "The Golden Girls" spinoff "Empty Nest" drew 31.4 million viewers in February 1990, according to Nielsen Media Research data cited by the network.

It was the culmination of an especially dramatic day of Olympic competition, which also saw Phelps' U.S. teammate Dara Torres, 41, lose the women's 50-meter freestyle by a 1/100th of a second to 24-year-old Britta Steffen of Germany. Torres, the oldest U.S. swimmer, ended up with three silver medals.

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt grabbed gold in the 100-meter dash after the reigning world champion Tyson Gay of the United States, who suffered a hamstring injury six weeks ago, was eliminated in the semi-finals.

But the dramatic story arc of Phelps, who came away with gold medals in all eight events he competed in, has been the biggest draw for NBC's Olympic coverage.

The network has averaged 30 million viewers in prime time -- on par with the numbers tuning in for "American Idol" -- since the games opened on August 15, and Saturday night's audience peaked at 40 million viewers in the half hour during which the men's 400-meter medley was held.

Through nine days, 191 million viewers have tuned in to at least one six-minute bloc of the Beijing Games on NBC and its various sister cable networks -- 14 million more than for the Athens Games and 5 million more than the Atlanta Games over the same period, NBC said.

First of all, that's just an insanely large amount of people. To put things into comparison, last year's Super Bowl pulled a 43.2 and the only American Idol to ever beat that figure was the Season Two finale (Ruben Studdard won).

Second, 31.4 million people watched Empty Nest?!?! I never knew the Golden Girls spinoff was that popular. RIP Estelle Getty.

Phelps' Olympic feat lifts NBC to 18-year record (Yahoo)

I think Michael Phelps owes Jason Lezak his career after the relay performances he put in for Team USA. Just an amazing performance by all four members of the team and with it, Michael Phelps sets the record for most gold medals in one Olympics with a grand total of eight. Let's relive the moment....

I really tried to hate Swimming about halfway through all of the events. People were setting records almost every single race and the events just seemed to drag on. But in the end, when you have competitors finishing within one one hundredth of each other, and a record that seemed impossible to match and surpass, it was just an awesome week or so for the Sport and the Olympics.

I'm happy to have witnessed history and the way the history went down is truly amazing. More videos to come.

(+1,000 to NBC for using the band Muse during the intro. I was ready to punch a wall when "Assassins" "Knights....." came on.)

Should have caught this yesterday, but I was a little bogged down with the Sports Center stuff. Olympic Swimming announcer Dan Hicks was pulled aside by NBC for a conference call the day after the amazing 4x100 Freestyle Relay and I wanted to share some highlights....

"Without a doubt it's the great Olympic moment I've ever experienced or called, head and shoulder above anything, and we have done some pretty good things. It's just one of those rare moments that you get in this business to be a part of something like that, and the fact that it now has a chance to continue, one of the greatest Olympic stories ever in Michael Phelps, just makes it an even bigger moment.

It was something out of a Hollywood script. It had everything. It had the guys that did the trash talking in the French, it had the 32-year-old swimmer in Jason Lezak who has not had successful Olympic swims in the past trying to catch the world record holder in the 100m, and doing it when it looked like he had no chance at all. It was a crazy, crazy moment. I know Rowdy, in his eyes, agrees with me that it was simply the greatest Olympic relay race he has ever seen.

That race is why we get into the business of sports broadcasting. It was just absolute excitement, shock, and the utmost of wattage. It was just so unexpected. It was so clear that Bernard was going to win this race and in those last meters, it was like a switch was flipped and all of a sudden Lezak pulled it out. I think it has been clear throughout the Games that we are certainly not rooting for the Americans. The excitement that we had was just simply about an unbelievable piece of drama in the pool."

I don't know about the whole "not rooting for the Amercians" thing, but I thoroughly enjoyed the "utmost of wattage" line. While Rowdy Gaines is busy turning into Swimming's version of Doug Collins ("When I played/swam, I was ____."), Hicks is really making a name for himself. I personally didn't think he was impressive during Tiger's U.S. Open overtime win, but I'm definitely enjoying him during these Olympics.

It's tough to make a name for yourself in a Sports that people only care about every four years, but if he can pull it off.....more power to him. Hey, and just because I like to challenge the man....let's watch it again!



(P.S.- Listening to Doug Collins call Olympic Basketball games is a personal hell for me. If I have to hear the, "I made two free throws, and if they hadn't put more time back on the clock," story one more time I'm going to lose it. We get it...the U.S. was screwed and you were awesome, but we've been hearing it for the last 36 years.)

Man, now I'm into the Olympics! What a finish to the 4x100 Meter Free Relay last night. Watch as Jason Lezak slowly catches up to France swimmer, Alain Bernard on the anchor leg of the relay and leads the U.S. to the upset victory over the French....

That was just awesome. I wasn't really into the Olympics but after seeing Team USA beat Yao Ming earlier in the day, and now this stunning comeback....I'm fully on board. And who said swimming wasn't exciting? Oh that's right...me. Ummm, I take it back.

Also, great call by Gus Johnson, err Dan Hicks at the end there. Too much fun.

Lezak storms back as U.S. wins relay (NBC Olympics)