I’m a competitive swimmer, and have been since 1988. So of course I am crazy interested in the whole Michael Phelps saga (even though I am a Ryan Lochte/Natalie Coughlin fangirl.) I came home from my workout this afternoon to this little nugget of ARE YOU STUPID?:

Lance Berkman doesn’t think Phelps is an athlete; other Lastros agree.

Well, Fat Elvis, I don’t particularly think you’re an athlete. You get paid millions of dollars to stand around like a blob of goo, cracking jokes with people standing at first base with you, and occasionally popping off homers. What’s ironic to me in this is that Michael Phelps has multiple championships, world records, and medals to his name, while Berkman has squat. Ooh, All-Star games and a 2005 sweep by the White Sox. Congratulations?

I seem to have forgotten – Michael Phelps has class, whereas Berkman does not. I can understand where he is coming from (I’m not a complete idiot) but he clearly has no concept of what it takes to be a competitive swimmer. I’m talking eight to twelve hours in a pool every day. Competitions beginning at five in the morning in different cities every week. Swimming events only half an hour to an hour apart from each other. Rivalries. Expenses. Injuries. I’m getting tired of “swimming’s not a sport” and “swimmers aren’t athletes.”

My sport only gets attention during the Olympic years, much like gymnastics. Yet somehow, people who know squat about the sport become experts and feel the need to run their mouths about it. I’d like to see Berkman swim, play football, run track, play golf (well,) etc. He couldn’t do it, and he should probably shut up about one of the most dominating athletes of modern times. Lance Berkman will never be on the same level as Jordan, Woods, Phelps, Patterson, Lewis, or any other American champion.