I think that Johnny Weissmuller was better for his time than Mark Spitz because he was a natural. He workout not that much compared to Spitz who workout several times more yardage. Granted, Spitz did have the ideal olympics that porbably no other swimmer will do again. There is too much competition today compared to 1972 and there are few freestylers who can also won butterfly at the international level these days. This is for fun.
Parents
Former Member
There some truth to what you are saying. I think that back in the 1970's, the golden age of swimming in Southern California with Shirley and Sandra and Brian and Bruce and a Northern California import with John Naber to USC, the rest of the country which had a lot of good swimmers too, increased their programs since then. So swimming has no dominate region now and other foreign countries have also improved their programs making it more competitive than the past. The US Mens squad could not dominate the olympics today like they did in 1976. As for Tom Dolan, some of his health problems are caused by the amount of swimming he has done. Workout induced ashama and fatigue problems. He already has a poor windpipe naturally. But if one wants to win as much as he did and its the olympics, the risk are probably worth it for him. His size also gaves him an advantage. Swimming like Volleyball has become the land of the giants. Only little Diane Munz is a little on the short side 5'4" for a woman. In today's swimming, Munz is considered short.
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Former Member
There some truth to what you are saying. I think that back in the 1970's, the golden age of swimming in Southern California with Shirley and Sandra and Brian and Bruce and a Northern California import with John Naber to USC, the rest of the country which had a lot of good swimmers too, increased their programs since then. So swimming has no dominate region now and other foreign countries have also improved their programs making it more competitive than the past. The US Mens squad could not dominate the olympics today like they did in 1976. As for Tom Dolan, some of his health problems are caused by the amount of swimming he has done. Workout induced ashama and fatigue problems. He already has a poor windpipe naturally. But if one wants to win as much as he did and its the olympics, the risk are probably worth it for him. His size also gaves him an advantage. Swimming like Volleyball has become the land of the giants. Only little Diane Munz is a little on the short side 5'4" for a woman. In today's swimming, Munz is considered short.
