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The good: You’re an Olympian in the prime of your career, you have a gold medal from ’08 already in hand, you have a handful of sponsors, your training for this year’s U.S. Olympic Trials couldn’t have gone better.
The bad: Only two swimmers qualify for individual events at the Trials, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte are in the 200 freestyle, that’s your best event, they’re two of the best swimmers of all time.
That’s the situation Ricky Berens faced this past Wednesday in Omaha, where he finished third to Phelps and Lochte in the 200 free. While it earned Berens a ticket on the U.S. men’s 4×200 relay and a trip to his second Olympics, it didn’t carry the accomplishment of landing an individual spot. And when Berens came in fourth during Friday’s 100 free, which gave him a second Olympic event – the men’s 4×100 relay – it looked as though his dream of swimming in an individual event at the Olympics was over.That is, until this tweet Monday morning: -
@MichaelPhelps will be removing the individual 200 freestyle from his Olympic program. This will give him a full slate of 7 events.0
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With that tweet, Bob Bowman, Phelps’s coach, broke the news not just to the swim world, but to Berens himself:
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WAIT WHAT!!!! RT @coach_bowman: @MichaelPhelps will be removing the individual 200 freestyle from his Olympic program.0
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Berens spent the past four years training for the London Olympics. All that work came down to a couple swims at the Trials. What separated him from the coveted second individual spot: 0.70 seconds in the 100 free and 0.86 seconds in the 200 free. But then came Bowman’s tweet. It really was one of those “only on Twitter” moments:
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Words can’t describe how I am feeling right now. If Twitter is right, I am swimming the 200 free at the Olympics!!!!! This is nuts!!!0
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Happy Monday!! RT @RickyBerens: Words can’t describe how I am feeling right now. If Twitter is (cont) https://tl.gd/i4oogs0
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Nothing like finding out from Twitter RT @RickyBerens If Twitter is right, I am swimming the 200 free at the Olympics!!!!!0
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A recounting of the best news Ricky Berens ever got via Twitter: https://scottfowlerobs.blogspot.com/2012/07/berens-gets-surprising-good-news-via.html0
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While it didn’t happen the old-fashioned way, the way Berens dreamed of, sometimes the best stories are unscripted.
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Dream come true! RT @SwimmingWorld: @RickyBerens USA Swimming announced it, and Gregg Troy just said it in a press conference.0
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