CALL ME SNAKE

Michael Phelps is one amazing swimmer. (To paraphrase Walter Dix: “That man can swim.”) And Mark Spitz was one amazing swimmer–in his time. So if you put the two of them together, you should have some TV magic, right? Wrong. I sat through the painful conversation between Phelps and Spitz televised during last night’s Olympics coverage. Both those guys are/were phenomenal swimmers but they didn’t have anything to say to each other, and it was painful to watch them try. As a general matter, it seems, Phelps does not have much to say on camera. Except when he’s swimming. Then his unbelievable performances speak for themselves.