what is your height?

Tom, it was the mention of your artificial hip that lured me into posting here. Having received a new hip in 1999, I thought we could have two artificial hip data points. (BTW, trying to stick to the subject of the thread, my new hip did not affect my height even though I could have used an extra 6” or so). Since the 100 is really just the shortest long distance event, I will give my times for Sidewinder’s research based on the 50 (the real man’s sprint) The fact that I die at 60m/yds has nothing to do with it. Even though it is embarrassing to have to admit, given that any decent swimmer between 13 and 53 can do better today, I submit my 1962 time for LC 50 meters of 24.9 at 6’0” for historical interest. (hundredths of a second didn’t exist then – ok, for the picky, they existed but we didn’t measure them) For those who think in yards, this translates into 21.66 according to the swiminfo.com conversion program. Aside: Knowing that my turns in the SC 50 have always been an adventure, this conversion program may produce an optimistic SC yards time. (but I’ll take it) In any case, this time may no longer even qualify as a sprint today; it is probably a good 50 split in Ian Thorpe’s 1500 or Jim McConica’s 200. The latest data point is 39 years later, at Federal Way last year at age 60 where the LC 50meters was 27.87, converting to 24.24. No exact height measurement was taken on this occasion but according to my wife, I am shrinking daily, so I might have been lucky to be 5 ft. Aside II: Although the swiminfo.com program may be optimistic, the ‘aging forecast’ program at n3times.com/swimtimes, which has come up before in the old forum, seems pessimistic. According to this program, my 24.9 at 21 predicts that I should only be doing 29.2 now. Considering that I did not swim a stroke for pretty well all those years between data points – this program is way off. (but good for the ego)

Tom, it was the mention of your artificial hip that lured me into posting here. Having received a new hip in 1999, I thought we could have two artificial hip data points. (BTW, trying to stick to the subject of the thread, my new hip did not affect my height even though I could have used an extra 6” or so). Since the 100 is really just the shortest long distance event, I will give my times for Sidewinder’s research based on the 50 (the real man’s sprint) The fact that I die at 60m/yds has nothing to do with it. Even though it is embarrassing to have to admit, given that any decent swimmer between 13 and 53 can do better today, I submit my 1962 time for LC 50 meters of 24.9 at 6’0” for historical interest. (hundredths of a second didn’t exist then – ok, for the picky, they existed but we didn’t measure them) For those who think in yards, this translates into 21.66 according to the swiminfo.com conversion program. Aside: Knowing that my turns in the SC 50 have always been an adventure, this conversion program may produce an optimistic SC yards time. (but I’ll take it) In any case, this time may no longer even qualify as a sprint today; it is probably a good 50 split in Ian Thorpe’s 1500 or Jim McConica’s 200. The latest data point is 39 years later, at Federal Way last year at age 60 where the LC 50meters was 27.87, converting to 24.24. No exact height measurement was taken on this occasion but according to my wife, I am shrinking daily, so I might have been lucky to be 5 ft. Aside II: Although the swiminfo.com program may be optimistic, the ‘aging forecast’ program at n3times.com/swimtimes, which has come up before in the old forum, seems pessimistic. According to this program, my 24.9 at 21 predicts that I should only be doing 29.2 now. Considering that I did not swim a stroke for pretty well all those years between data points – this program is way off. (but good for the ego)