World records in Olympics swimming prelims- Impressive or a joke?

Well it is impressive, but it appears that the swimmers know in advance that they are going to break the WR and have such certainty that they are not surprised when when it happens.

I was watching Katie Ledecky destroy the field by a huge margin while going out well above WR pace. My running brain was worried that she might falter in the end and lose the gold medal, as happens pretty frequently to runners who try that. I was wondering why you would risk it when you can get a WR at any meet but an Olympic gold medal in only one. I concluded that swimming performances must be more predictable than running ones. Maybe it is the lower impact nature.

I also thought about how swimmers cannot gain a big tactical edge by drafting or staying at the back or pacing off a key adversary because they are in lanes and cannot see well enough to precisely judge the overall race situation. No looking around, everyone within 1 sec, no visible jumbotron, and tough to hear the coach shouting instructions. It puts a premium on going as fast as you can.

Imagine if you ran a championship 5k and every runner ran separately on his own track all alone with no info about what the other runners were doing and no reliable info about pace or opponents times was available. What would you do? You would even split it at as fast a pace as you possibly could maintain. You would really go for it and if it was the most important race of your life you would likely run a PR or very close to it. The winner would be under 13 min, every time. Swimming is like that.

FINA wrote:

The Men's 100m Athletics WR has been broken 18 times in the last 30 years.

The Men's 100m Freestyle WR has been broken 11 times in the last 30 years.

Just sayin'.

Wow!

It's just a matter of the viewers ignorance. Swimming is a very technical sport,

watch how many strokes (arm strokes) they take across the pool, with Sun Yang in the 400F I counted 12-13, and he's technically one of the most perfect swimmers almost doesn't kick and has an unorthodox kicking method as opposed to the 2beat and 6beat kickers. Yangs form should suit him for Gold in the 1500 meter swim.

Swimming is perception, Janet Evans was truly a loper but she kicked ass because of her style. But swimming WR's do happen in the prelims historically, it's the Gold that counts and seeing times within .09 of a second for the first five places is competitive, when you think about it.

OLD SMTC SOB wrote:

Abdoujaparov wrote:

Next question, why are so many world class swimmers kinda doughy looking? Obviously a lot of them are ripped to pieces but a fair proportion, while clearly super powerful, have full-blown dad-bods.

http://cache3.asset-cache.net/gc/129353836-brazilian-swimmer-felipe-franca-gestures-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=CSIMBv%2FaraCCLNLdbJQvXuKgxuTSWF%2BHu4k13kA8mAju%2FMYipf%2Fl6nQeFgyhygU%2Fze8gIr4n7E1DOaf5TwmSrA%3D%3D

While one sweats while doing hard workouts in the pool, the water is pretty cold and it stimulates appetite.........different mechanism in running. Some swimmers eat too much. I was consulting with the Mission Viejo Natadores (when Mark Schubert was the coach) some years back, had to bring in an RD to establish a stringent dietary plan for a number of their elite swimmers.........they trained like dogs but could not control their bodyweight. They ate constantly.

Also body fat helps with buoyancy. That is one of the key attributes that made the LZR suits so fast. Staying near the surface helps reduce drag (obviously).

Not sinking helps with swimming, interestingly enough. I am a runner with very low body fat and I sink like a stone.

Splistre wrote:

FINA wrote:

The Men's 100m Athletics WR has been broken 18 times in the last 30 years.

The Men's 100m Freestyle WR has been broken 11 times in the last 30 years.

Just sayin'.

Wow!

As someone else pointed out, that isnt quite true (in fact it's just false).

Besides, one would expect the freestyle to be the record that is least broken in swimming.

As I alluded to in previous posts, the other strokes artificially retard the swimmers progress through the water. By changing the technique (and definition) of those strokes they can easily smash world record's all day long. Is it not difficult to swim 100m in 57s for a swimmer. Like actually so easy. It is just the ridiculous stroke that makes it hard.

If all the talent was pushed together in the freestyle competition, getting rid of the other strokes all together, then medals would be far more exclusive and harder to get. And the WRs would stabilise in the next few years.

This is assuming the talent pool remains fixed.

Abdoujaparov wrote:

Next question, why are so many world class swimmers kinda doughy looking? Obviously a lot of them are ripped to pieces but a fair proportion, while clearly super powerful, have full-blown dad-bods.

http://cache3.asset-cache.net/gc/129353836-brazilian-swimmer-felipe-franca-gestures-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=CSIMBv%2FaraCCLNLdbJQvXuKgxuTSWF%2BHu4k13kA8mAju%2FMYipf%2Fl6nQeFgyhygU%2Fze8gIr4n7E1DOaf5TwmSrA%3D%3D

In the picture you posted, the guy's transverse abdominals are quite large. Swimming crawl the right way works them.

They are not dad-bod love handles.

Metric Miler wrote:

Splistre wrote:

Wow!

As someone else pointed out, that isnt quite true (in fact it's just false).

Besides, one would expect the freestyle to be the record that is least broken in swimming.

As I alluded to in previous posts, the other strokes artificially retard the swimmers progress through the water. By changing the technique (and definition) of those strokes they can easily smash world record's all day long. Is it not difficult to swim 100m in 57s for a swimmer. Like actually so easy. It is just the ridiculous stroke that makes it hard.

If all the talent was pushed together in the freestyle competition, getting rid of the other strokes all together, then medals would be far more exclusive and harder to get. And the WRs would stabilise in the next few years.

This is assuming the talent pool remains fixed.

I love it when non swimmers pontificate about things they no nothing about, like "Its not difficult to swim 100 m in 57s, for a swimmer". As a former collegiate swimmer I can an attest to the fact that it was, and at my advanced age now, likely still is.

Watch out, or somebody will make a backwards skipping argument...

Mr. Obvious wrote:

Watch out, or somebody will make a backwards skipping argument...

Thats how i run these days

Right, well I an only go by what I have seen on the professional level, as that is what we are talking about. And I have seen girls easily swimming way under 57 this Olympics.

Metric Miler wrote:

If all the talent was pushed together in the freestyle competition, getting rid of the other strokes all together, then medals would be far more exclusive and harder to get.

You don't say, FMD who'd have thunk it.

You don't say... wrote:

Metric Miler wrote:

If all the talent was pushed together in the freestyle competition, getting rid of the other strokes all together, then medals would be far more exclusive and harder to get.

You don't say, FMD who'd have thunk it.

...like they are in Athletics.

I didn't think I needed to explain that any further...

Forgot I was on Letsrun.

Metric Miler wrote:

You don't say... wrote:

You don't say, FMD who'd have thunk it.

...like they are in Athletics.

I didn't think I needed to explain that any further...

Forgot I was on Letsrun.

Yeah, no differentiation whatsoever in Athletics.

.

Everything I've said, is correct.

Metric Miler wrote:

OLD SMTC SOB wrote:

I love it when non swimmers pontificate about things they no nothing about, like "Its not difficult to swim 100 m in 57s, for a swimmer". As a former collegiate swimmer I can an attest to the fact that it was, and at my advanced age now, likely still is.

Right, well I an only go by what I have seen on the professional level, as that is what we are talking about. And I have seen girls easily swimming way under 57 this Olympics.

In the universe of swimmers there's not that many girls with the ability to swim under 57 s for a 100m freestyle, sorry.

I would say that the fact that most of the track and field finalists are jogging at the end of their semifinals means that the talent level is less deep in track.

The fact that WRs don't come very often in T&F shows that the talent pool is a lot smaller today. Most of the top talent are either not interested in T&F or going into different sports.

OLD SMTC SOB wrote:

I love it when non swimmers pontificate about things they no nothing about, like "Its not difficult to swim 100 m in 57s, for a swimmer". As a former collegiate swimmer I can an attest to the fact that it was, and at my advanced age now, likely still is.

It can't be too hard. Let's look at college results. Last season's college rankings lists a thousand men who are 46 seconds or under in the 100m freestyle. The rankings stop at 46.27. There were a thousand women 52 seconds and under. At the NCAA D3 championship, the absolute worst male competitor swam 46.55, and the worst female was 53.95. And that's D3.