It depends upon the swimmer. Male swimmers are usually able to hold the times better than women in their 50's. The top female swimmers in the 55 to 59 and 60 to 64 are swimming really good in a 100 yard breaststroke if they swim under 1:20. Some of these women as kids swam 1:10 to 1:13 when they were young. None do that in their age group since the record I think for 55 to 59 year old women is 1:13.
I'd hate to make this assumption purely based on the results from a single event, but the 100 *** in the 55-59 age group does support your claim. I compared the #1 and #10 swims in the 2016 SCY USMS Top Ten listing with the American Record for the event in 1981 (when someone who was 55 in 2016 would have been 20). For the women the #1 time was 24% slower than the 1981 record and the #10 time was 32% slower. For men, #1 was 14% slower, and #10 was 25% slower.
The 1981 American records were 52.93 by Steve Lundquist and 1:01.13 by Tracy Caulkins, by the way.
It depends upon the swimmer. Male swimmers are usually able to hold the times better than women in their 50's. The top female swimmers in the 55 to 59 and 60 to 64 are swimming really good in a 100 yard breaststroke if they swim under 1:20. Some of these women as kids swam 1:10 to 1:13 when they were young. None do that in their age group since the record I think for 55 to 59 year old women is 1:13.
I'd hate to make this assumption purely based on the results from a single event, but the 100 *** in the 55-59 age group does support your claim. I compared the #1 and #10 swims in the 2016 SCY USMS Top Ten listing with the American Record for the event in 1981 (when someone who was 55 in 2016 would have been 20). For the women the #1 time was 24% slower than the 1981 record and the #10 time was 32% slower. For men, #1 was 14% slower, and #10 was 25% slower.
The 1981 American records were 52.93 by Steve Lundquist and 1:01.13 by Tracy Caulkins, by the way.
