Why are there so many teenagers in Olympic swimming?

vaccinated wrote:

There's no viable professional swimming. Once someone reaches 21 or 22 they have to get a job. Only one or two American swimmers can live off of sponsorship, and it doesn't last long.

I haven't thought of this. Same could almost be said for track, but I have to think there are more sponsorship opportunities for track athletes

hyhjijhhu wrote:

It might be a new trend. You can maybe look at swim technology, mainly women's suits lengths, and line up the younger ages now with the introduction of faster, longer suits.

It seems like this has been a trend for girls/females for a long time. I remember Janet Evans winning a bunch of gold medals in the Olympics and smashing records when she was only 16 or 17.

Dr. DETROIT wrote:

vaccinated wrote:

There's no viable professional swimming. Once someone reaches 21 or 22 they have to get a job. Only one or two American swimmers can live off of sponsorship, and it doesn't last long.

I haven't thought of this. Same could almost be said for track, but I have to think there are more sponsorship opportunities for track athletes

Money and need to make money have nothing to do with it. We have seen the elite swimmers who win Olympic & W.C. medals while in their teens and early twenties, slow down in their mid-twenties even though financially supported by sponsors.

vaccinated wrote:

There's no viable professional swimming. Once someone reaches 21 or 22 they have to get a job. Only one or two American swimmers can live off of sponsorship, and it doesn't last long.

That's true for swimming, gymnastics, almost all Olympic sports, so your point? They are called sports for a reason. The best of the best at Olympic sports don't become that good for the money. It's because they are passionate. Some people are more driven by the desire to compete than by the allure of money.

Also, elite swimmers train for hours a day, something not possible with runners. Because it's not a high impact sport like running, swimming doesn't damage the body like running does. The sport is easier on the body and because of the high training load possible for even young swimmers an athlete can reach their lifetime peak much earlier than their physical prime. In other words, the body can only adapt to training so much. With the amount swimmers train, their bodies maximum adaptation happens earlier than runners. Quite often, especially with female swimmers, they swim their fastest in their teens and never improve regardless how long they stay in the sport. Most swimmers are done by the time they're in their mid-twenties.

Here are some observations from 55+ years in the sport of Swimming. Teenagers were the major factors in swimming from the 60s when HS kids set American and World records on a regular basis and not just from the females. This trend saw a decrease in percentage when post-collegiate swimmers were able to train and compete more significantly due to financial benefits from USA Swimming and various sponsorships, but teenagers on the Olympic Swim Teams were still a common site. Why?

This LetsRun thread includes most of the reasons including Teenagers working as hard or harder than collegiate and post-collegiate swimmers; teenage body type lending itself to certain drag reductions (especially female) advantages; massive numbers of age group swimmers ensuring "cream rising to the top".

When you ask "Why World Records get broken like every year" It is certainly not watered down competition (however, you have to discount every current world swimming record set in 2008-2009 as those were done with enhanced flotation suits, similar to the running shoe enhancements we are dealing with now). In 1972 Mark Spitz won his 7 gold medals in races where his first place times were separated from the 8th place finisher by an average of 2-3 seconds PER 100. Take a look at the Olympic results this week and notice how incredibly close the 8th place time is to the winning time to understand the increased tightness of swimming competition.

Instead, I would posit that a major reason for the continual improvement in competitive swimming is the innovations that take place AND ARE SHARED unhesitatingly with all other swim coaches and swimmers around the country and around the world. Yes, swimming stroke technique has much more variation to work with than does running form and stroke technique improvement contributes significantly to World Record improvements. However, I have to ask how much running training strategies have changed in the past 50 years? I seems to me that the same old models of endurance and sprint training for runners are hyped as "the way to train" now as they were back in the 70s and 80s. Swim Energy System Training now is much more complex now than it was in the 70s and 80s, and is equally as significant in the improvement of World Records as are the stroke techniques that coaching has changed.

It’s this, the general motivation to sustain the absurd training volumes for decades on end, and the lack of money in the sport if you’re not winning Olympic Golds.

Adam Peaty referenced the motivation factor in a recent interview.

ClubRunnah wrote:

vaccinated wrote:

There's no viable professional swimming. Once someone reaches 21 or 22 they have to get a job. Only one or two American swimmers can live off of sponsorship, and it doesn't last long.

I think it has to do with this. Not much opportunity past college.

Don't compare swimming and gymnastics, those are two completely unrelated sports that have very different demands.

This is the reason.

No one trains past college.

Rename the “Woman’s” street skateboarding to “Girl’s” street skateboarding event. Gold age 13, silver age 13, Bronze Age 16.

retired swimming coach wrote:

;.teenage body type lending itself to certain drag reductions (especially female) advantages

Thanks for the insight.

I like how you worded this, 55years gives you wisdom and understanding.

I wonder if smaller hips are a big reason? The chests on all women seem to be equally squashed to nothingness in the technical suits.

Great aerobic preparation to be a runner. But really an upper middle class and above white sport. Cost + Availability keep the talent pool down internationally. Teenagers can absorb so much volume and don't have to make a living. Really good club coaches because you can make a living coaching age-group swimming, given the $ needed to access facilities. Very few full-time age-group running coaches.

bartholomew_maxwell wrote:

Dr. DETROIT wrote:

Obviously not a swimming expert here, but I notice there are always a large number of elite teenagers every olympics. Also it seems that world records get broken like every year. Why is that? Is it just very watered down competition?

Same reason most of the elite gymnasts are teenagers. They start when they're like 2 year's old, so they reach their career peak a lot earlier right when their bodies. Elite gymnasts and swimmers are not like elite runners. One starts at the age of 2, the other around the age of 10 or 11.

Even with "elite" age-group runners who do start super early their abilities usually peak in high school as well. The Garrisons family is a perfect example.

What you say about gymnasts peaking early only holds for women. But if your analysis was correct, then it should also hold for men. (Are there a lot of teenage boys in Olympic swimming?)

Male gymnasts peak at different times depending on discipline. But (from what I understand) guys peak on the rings and the pommel horse closer to 30. It simply takes a long time to build up that level of strength.

Women asymptote in strength more quickly and at an earlier age. This likely has to do with the facts that: (1) they don't get a testosterone boost in puberty and (2) their upper strength limit is lower. Meanwhile, flexibility and body composition gets worse (for gymnastics) as they enter their 20s.

This!

Runners' rate of development is damped by

(a) the slow rate at which bone, tendons, and ligaments adapt to training (which is necessary for injury avoidance);

(b) the setback of injuries when they occur -- since it's so easy to overtrain given (a).

Generally, runners can't train as hard as their aerobic system and muscles are capable of. (At least not until they've trained for many years.)

Every swimmer that came out for the high school cross country team I coached was always incredibly fit aerobically but always injured. Their cardiovascular system was above and beyond developed due to time in the pool but the rest of the body could not keep up.

T&F club dad and S&D club dad wrote:

Current elite swimmers went from swimming lessons while still in diapers or soon after then to swim club in early elementary school years. Since swimmers do not fight gravity as do jumpers, runners, sprinters and throwers, swimmers are capable of withstanding higher volume of training than can be tolerated by runners at an early age. Swimmers, especially female swimmers often suffer extreme wear & tear on shoulders. Often teenage female swimmers have or will have significant shoulder injuries. I will leave it to others to speculate about psychological burnout for swimmers. Shoulder injuries contribute to swimmers peaking early.

I think this is an important point. I swam in summer leagues with kids who went on to be state/national class, and don't think any of them made it through college without shoulder surgery.

Swimming may not be a lot of wear and tear in general, but OTOH your shoulders are not meant for swimming 4+ hours a day.

I find this thread interesting because for a long time I've thought that a heavy athletic workload prior to puberty stunts your growth, and I used Olympic gymnasts as evidence for that. But hearing the heavy swimmer workload at such a young age, and noting that some of these guys are freaking monsters, maybe I need to re-think this theory.

Any thoughts?

lllllajko wrote:

I find this thread interesting because for a long time I've thought that a heavy athletic workload prior to puberty stunts your growth, and I used Olympic gymnasts as evidence for that. But hearing the heavy swimmer workload at such a young age, and noting that some of these guys are freaking monsters, maybe I need to re-think this theory.

Any thoughts?

Less gravity in the water bro so your limbs get really stretchy. Bro science 101

Swimming should be swimming, just like running is running. Swim the way you can, that is best/fastest for you.

This stroke stuff is ridiculous. Everything but "freestyle" is the racewalking of swimming.

Runner10287 wrote:

Every swimmer that came out for the high school cross country team I coached was always incredibly fit aerobically but always injured. Their cardiovascular system was above and beyond developed due to time in the pool but the rest of the body could not keep up.

This ^

Swimming is non-impact. If you swim AND run a decent volume (Lukas), you can do this. Otherwise, no chance.