Notes on the U.S. Olympic Trials

1) The new Speedo LZR swimsuits (above and below) may be superfast but they're also super ugly — dull grey and black with crazy duct tape-like stripes running helter skelter in every direction. Let's hope the Olympics iteration is tarted up and far more eye candy-ish.

2) Why is it that seemingly every swimming race is a potential world record breaker? Are the new suits that fast? Are the records that soft? I just don't get it.

3) In the past we've heard about how "fast" a pool was when world records fell by the handful. Then how is it that the pool in Omaha, erected in two weeks inside the Qwest arena and scheduled to be dismantled after the trials and moved across the country to a permanent location, is the scene of WR after WR? How can a great pool be thrown up and taken down that easily? Is the party line about fast pools just another urban legend?

4) Why is it that there is so little Olympic Trials programming on TV? An hour of swimming and an hour of track and field max daily just doesn't cut it for me. What with hundreds of channels on both satellite and cable, you'd think one or two could be devoted to just the trials so that sports junkies like me could watch to our hearts' content.

Yeah, the announcers are always telling us to log on to NBCOlympics.com for more coverage but it isn't nearly the same on a computer screen as on a giant flatscreen HDTV.

Maybe in 2012 they'll figure it out, and stream everything to any screen we like, whether it be our iPhone Gen X or our home holographic 3DTV.

5) The track and field announcing and camera work is sensational, tons of up close slo-mo and knowledgeable commentators and analysts. Swimming is horrible, with boring commentary and terrible video, mostly a big camera looking down from the middle of the pool and following all the swimmers back and forth.

What happened to those cameras that move along with the swimmers along the pool, bringing them right into our faces larger than life?

Maybe by Beijing NBC'll figure it out.