Aaron Peirsol flips Spitz the bird
August 21st, 2008
Right after the medely relay where the US olympic swim team headed by Michael Phelps won the gold, NBC interviewed all 4 swimmers to get their take on the events that just transpired.
Michael Phelps was last to talk and just as the interview came to a close, his teammate who spoke first, Aaron Peirsol, jumped back into the conversation and stated something to the effect of… “They used to call great olympic achievements Spitzian Feats, but now were are going to have to change that term and call them Phelpsian Feats.”
What made this statement interesting was that the whole time he was saying it, he was clearly flipping off someone. After rewinding and reviewing that portion of the interview several times, he clearly had NO irritation in his eye at all. But then suddenly, right as he chimed in, he pretended to have something in his eye, and was trying to rub it out with his middle finger.
While doing this, he gazed over to Michael Phelps with a shit eating grin as if to say… see, I told you I’d do this. And Phelps laughed and clearly displayed the look of, Oh dude, I can’t believe you are doing that. And meanwhile, Aaron kept on fake rubbing his eye with his middle finger, which was clearly just a long exaggerated flipping the bird at someone.
The only question in my mind is…. who? Spitz? Thorpe? or the French?
Mark Spitz was who he was specifically referencing at the time of flipping the bird. And many olympians hate spitz, saying he’s as arrogant as Muhammad Ali but without the sense of humor.
However, the French also stated before the race that they would “Smash” the Americans, so it’s possible the bird was meant to the French team.
Or perhaps the middle finger was meant for Ian Thorpe, who they talked about earlier as saying Phelps would never do it.
All this in and of itself isn’t so interesting. At least, it’s not worth my time to write a blog post about. But what I find incredibly facinating, is the fact that… millions of people saw this same interview when I saw it, and continue to watch it on reposted video clips online… and yet, nobody appears to have caught the flipping of the bird.
I did a vast search of the subject on google and youtube, and found NO results that anyone caught this subtle gesture. Is it possible that I’m the only one who caught it?
http://completelyunorthodox.blogspot.com/2008/08/phelpsian-feat.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/16/AR2008081602696_pf.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/21/AR2008082100052.html
