Women's 400 IM

I just watched the video she has the best swimming technique I have ever seen. Test and test but her technique is far better any one else including what I saw from any of the men.

It is surprising how good you feel after coming first and how tired you feel when you lose. I was at a kids meet this weekend and saw a young lady crying. I asked her what was wrong she said she bettered her best time by 2 seconds but could not catch the winner. Exhibit A-Barcelona 1992 As an avid 400 IMer, it just seems that even a 16 year old doesn't have that much energy at the end of the 400 IM. The rest of the field seems to be hanging on for dear life. Of course, the testing doesn't keep up with the latest doping methods. If she is clean as a whistle, I need to know how she has road runner speed at the end of a freaking 400 IM.

Not a fair comparison.Lochte put it all into the first 3 legs and was dying at the end. I agree with this statement and Lochte's split was not that good in comparison to the other 3 legs of the race. Here are two point to prove this. His first 300 meters was the best in swimming history. He was 3:06.5 at the 300 mark and was .55 seconds ahead of the WR by Phelps and his split at the 300 mark was 3:07.15 and if he would have swam his 2008 race he would have ran down Lochte on the final 50. I remember seeing the line go away from Lochte on the last 50. I am not trying to downgrade the swim because I don't know what his strategy was but I know that it was by far the fastest he ever has swam for the first 300 and maybe he wanted to get so far ahead that he would demoralize the field. He might have been shutting down or just plain died but still won by the largest margin and it was all in that first 300. Phelps split a :56.79 and I believe that is the fastest split ever compared to the 58.6 split by Lochte. Now this is where it gets interesting. Tamas Darnyi swam a 57.60 24 years ago at the 1992 Olympics for his last 100 split and he was 3:16.63 at the 300 mark and swam a time of 4:14.23 and that time is 9 seconds slower than what Lochte did. Another example is Tom Dolan at the 1994 World Championships. He swam a 57.66 for his last 100 split and he was 3:14.86 at the 300 mark and swam at time of 4:12.30 and that is 7 seconds slower than what Lochte did. I remembered Darnyi's swim because he would have out split half of the field in the 400 Free and this was talked about a lot back 20 years ago so this is not that unusual. Lochte is by far the best 300 IM mark swimmer of all time and this includes tech suits. However, he did not get the WR because of that last 100. In 1984, Alex Baumann swam a 58.28 on his last 100 of the 400 IM at the 1984 Olympics in a WR time of 4:17.53 and that is still faster than what Lochte did and that was 28 years ago. The point in this is you can't compare splits because everyone swims this event differently. Because I was interested in this I found that almost half of the 100 free splits in the 400 IM at past World Championships and Olympic Games were faster than 58.6

interesting commentary... Day 4 Olympic Swimming Prelims – U.S. Continues to Roll; Chinese Drug Issue? BY Steve Beideck | 6:29 am, Tuesday, Jul. 31 | POSTED IN Sports Blog Red flags are being waved about the gold medal swim of China’s Ye Shiwen in the 400 individual medley. She denies taking performance-enhancing drugs, but according to the BBC, U.S. coach John Leonard classified the 16-year-old’s finals swim as “disturbing.” The most “disturbing” part – her final 50 meter split was faster than the winner of the men’s 400 IM. Stay tuned, because if Ye is stripped of her title, Elizabeth Beisel of the U.S. would move up to the gold medal. Tonight’s finals are in the women’s 200 free with Allison Schmitt and Missy Franklin (that quick double last night by Franklin already has earned her icon status), Michael Phelps searching for his first London gold medal in his signature event – the 200 butterfly, and the women’s 200 IM weith Ye and two U.S. swimmers – Caitlin Leverenz and Ariana Kukors – who are sitting 3-4 after the semifinals.

Can doping actually make THAT much difference? I mean if it's completely unbelievable and out of the question that she swam the last 50 faster than Lochte, how believable is it on drugs?

Doping does help if they were to get away with it. No US swimmers, track and field or cyclists have ever used doping to do well. (tongue in cheek). They can tell if they are loading up on blood. I am sure they are not using rectal air injection like the east germans did in the past. Can doping actually make THAT much difference? I mean if it's completely unbelievable and out of the question that she swam the last 50 faster than Lochte, how believable is it on drugs?

She's also too young and has very little international experience, if any, to have that biological passport that busted those athletes last week, convenient. I wear a tin foil hat also, btw. If Ye Shiwen is too young and has very little international experience, so is/does Missy Franklin. Ye had competed at the same world-level meets (2010 World SC and 2011 World LC) as Franklin prior to this Olympics, in addition to the 2010 Asian Games at age 14. I have no problem with believing a woman can beat a man but, c'mon, swimming faster than Lochte because, according to the Chinese media, she had big hands at age 5 and was referred to a swim coach? How much different is this from US media attributing Franklin's unusually large feet (size 13 uh?) to her swimming prowess?

Or Phelps's breathing every stroke in the 200 fly explaining his closing speed. Or Sun Yang breathing two consecutive strokes into the wall AND three consecutive strokes out of the wall. I guess there are indeed different "strokes" for different folks.

Is that a serious question? I dunno, ask Ben Johnson and Michelle Smith for further info. The question wasn't if doping makes a difference? The question was if it makes such an enormous difference that it would make her being faster than Lochte totally believable or if it is still hard to believe even if she was all doped up. Btw, I'll ask Lance when I see him:D

I am sure they are not using rectal air injection like the east germans did in the past. They experimented with that, but it never worked. There were issues with, um, sudden loss of buoyancy.