Been to lots of swim meets wrote:
This is true, dead time between heats at swim meets is very close to 0. Sometime even negative - at some of my daughter's meets they have chase starts, where the kids start from both ends of the pool. As the kids from heat N are finishing at the right end of the pool, they know they better get their ass out in a hurry or get caught by the kids who started heat N-1 from the left end.
Right here. I've personally experienced both swim meets and track meets. Summer league swim meets are insanely long, but they would be even longer if the dead time between races was longer. They start these races while the kids are still in the pool from the previous race (not swimming, but just standing at the wall). Once the next race starts the kids from the prior race get out of the pool. It's like constant swimming almost. Track meets are the opposite. WAAAAAAAAY too much time between races. As soon as one finishes the next should be ready to go. Boom.
Just do the math if you can shave x minutes between races and you have x total races in an entire meet. It adds up big time.