So in fairness to the Chinese 400IM winner-how do you explain Ledecky's win?I thought for sure-as did the announcers-that she was going to burn out by the 300,400,at the very least the 500 mark.
I'd love to see her splits compared to Adlington/Friis/Garcia.
I think is should be pointed out that Ryan Lochte went the slowest 100 split in history in relation to other Olympic winners and in a % of the total 400 IM race.
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.
Phelps split a :56.79 in 2008 and I believe that is the fastest split ever compared to the 58.6 split by Lochte. 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
I think is should be pointed out that Ryan Lochte went the slowest 100 split in history in relation to other Olympic winners and in a % of the total 400 IM race.
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.
Phelps split a :56.79 in 2008 and I believe that is the fastest split ever compared to the 58.6 split by Lochte. 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
