If you watched the olympics you saw almost EVERY event that a WR was being set, in running, not so much... Why?
If you watched the olympics you saw almost EVERY event that a WR was being set, in running, not so much... Why?
There was a good thread on this a while back, shortly after the olympics...not sure how far back
well there we go, beat me to it
mnjgyfcvguhk wrote:
well there we go, beat me to it
lol yeah, I remembered it right away for some reason.
Well one of the reasons is because there are still technique improvements. When the speedsuit came and was later banned, many thought that the records would never be broken, however Phelps broke them all almost immediately. This is because Phelps started diving further down in the pool during his flipturns and perfected the dolphin swim. This allowed him to gain a few meters on length. Here you can see how far down and how long he is under water. Compare this to his competitors and you will see that he is under water longer than anyone else.
That's one problem with swimming, 33% of the race is under water.
Bazooka wrote:
That's one problem with swimming, 33% of the race is under water.
They should toss in some icebergs. Aren't most of them underwater?
Why would that be a problem?
SeriousQuestion wrote:If you watched the olympics you saw almost EVERY event that a WR was being set, in running, not so much... Why?
wind wrecks races
in addition, the pacing for virtually every race apart from monaco meet is rubbish
further, the emphasis is much more nowdays on winning on the circuit than chasing the clock
Well nobody pay for WR in Olympic but in Zurich you can get rich for that achievement.
But in reality elite runners are ALL dirty, swimmers probably not so much (much less money involved and we all love - money) - so they can improve, but even in whole glory of dirtiness those before them in late 90's were black holes of dirtiness as well as testosterone filled 80's so we just need some more powerful chemicals and records will be broken it is simple just like that.
No more powerful chemicals as before, but now we have males competing as women so there will be some in the future.
Runners do not normally run heats in competition. Heats can really beat up runners especially when they have to run a later heat that gets tactical with a very hard finish. By the final, no one wants to push the pace.
Swimmers are used to heats and actually like to do them to get warmed up and used to the pool conditions. Swimmers also have a hard time seeing beyond a lane or two. So they cannot have a tactical race. They just go for it all out.
Basically no such thing as a "tactical race" in swimming. The only "tactic" is knowing how to put out the fastest time you can (there will be swimmers who naturally start faster or slower and swim the same time). But there is really no jockeying or basing "moves" on what anyone else does. Other than going even MORE balls out if you see you're being challenged!
Everyone flat-out, every final, every meet. That's how you get WRs. Why do you think the running sprint WRs actually improve while distance WRs stagnate?
SeriousQuestion wrote:
If you watched the olympics you saw almost EVERY event that a WR was being set, in running, not so much... Why?
Swimming: 7 in 32 events.
Athletics: 3 in 47 events
A better question is why are there so many athletics events?
Water is getting faster, but they are making tracks slower these days.
If 800m t&f were a four turn stagger race; if 800m t&f athletes wore goggles, everyone would race all out in heats. Swimmers cannot see their competitors, there is no reason for swimmers to give partial effort in heats.
All running events should be strictly time trials.
Then you's see records breaking.
There aren't that many WRs in swimming anymore. Rio was nothing like Beijing where there was WR after WR in every event. The depth is still expanding especially on the women's side where most of the WRs were set. Contrast it to track and field where most of the women's WR as well as men's throwing WRs are untouchable testosterone fueled marks from the 80's. The answer really has not much to do with tactics since that only applies to a few distance events, and "tactics" or not, nobody is going to run 12:37 right now.
OPs question was stated in a bit of an exaggeration but lack of tactics in swimming is a huge factor. Swimmers do go all out in heats. In t&f sprints, 100 & 200, one often looks around with about 25m to go; 400m with 50m to go. In swimming, goggles usually fog up and sometimes goggles fill with water. You do have to agree swimmers go all out in heats and track athletes often do not go all out in heats.
In swimming, every race is a time trial.
Also, there are way more events because of the different stroke types. More races = more opportunities to set world records.