Does being tall give you an advantage?

someone actually posted a funny post about if someone is 25 ft tall, they'd touch the end of the pool right away... :P That does remind me though, since swimming (let's say freestyle) is a totally "horizontal" sport, doesn't taller swimmer get that few inches of advantage (esp in short 50 sprint)? Might not be much, but when the diff in time is usually in hundreds of seconds...hmm...makes you wonder... Of course, the skill has to be so perfect so that this few inch would come into play...

yes, I've noticed that breaststrokers comes in all sizes and forms, and it seemed that's why some view breaststroke as the most "technically interesting", as in, different, stroke of them all, because genetics has less of a part to play in it...(unfortunately my less than adequate underwater breaststroke does not provide me the experience stated above.. :P) I think that the longer the distance a freestyle swim is, the less the height thing has an effect. With "perfect technique", the height thing only comes into play during the peak velocity of a short sprint, which is not really reached in distance swim...in sprint swim yes, but then sprint is only a small part of the events available...

I always think of backstrokers and free-sprinters as thin and tall, with butterfly and distance swimmers being about medium tall and any body shape, while breaststrokers tend to be a bit shorter and stockier but still very powerful! Not a scientific observation...and not the case every time....just my general impression.

If height doesn't matter, why do we try to maximize distance per stroke? With sailboats, hull speed increases with the length of the waterline.

Actually, the shorest swimmers are distance freestylers. Diana Munz is the shortest on the national team and Mr Eric Vendt is the shortest male. On the other hand, the Aussie men are tall for distance freestylers. And their are tall breaststrokers, Kristy Kowal comes to mind.

Under the nothing new under the sun category, Napoleon Bonaparte actually had something to say that applies to this discussion: On the one hand, "God is on the side of the big battalions." On the other, "The moral is to the physical as three is to one." I think the answer is that both statements are true, up to a point, and the interesting part is when these factors cut in opposite directions. That is when we get to see the really interesting races. Of course, it is best to be tall AND highly motivated... Matt

I would say being tall gives you a potential advantage. Especially at the highest levels of competition where each swimmer is highly trained and fine tuned. In masters swimming I'd say the playing field is more level and the potential advantage can be more easily negated.

Tim Duncan (7 foot tall power forward for the San Antonio Spurs) was a middle distance swimmer on St. Croix before a hurricane destroyed the pool, at which point he switched to basketball. I believe he had competed at the Junior Olympics. However, he's unusually well coordinated for a big man in the NBA.

one body length per second? That'll be, like, 6'5'' per second for the top swimmers! Yikes, 8 second 50 ft swim eh? :P Yes yes I know it's the theoretically maximum... However nobody gets even CLOSE to that speed, so there must be other factors (again, taller swimmers with bigger body parts used in propulsion?) :)

I agree with the potential advantage point of view... I mean, sometimes it sickens me (not really, but awes me beyond disbelief) how big some guys can get, and how strong they can get, with no weight training whatsoever... I bet all the mr. strongman competition ppl started out much bigger and stronger than an average joe, and then they worked on it to get even stronger... Sometimes mother nature can be.... helpful... :)