I am curious as to the majority view on who is the " Fastest human in the water ? ".
More specifically on what criteria do we base it on ? I followed Ion's link to www.swimclub.co.uk and started posting on their discussion forum. I have received a very hostile reaction there.
In the UK, Mark Foster bills himself as " The fastest Human in the water ". His basis for claiming this, is that he holds the world record in the 50m Short Course freestyle event. I felt that this was not fair to Popov and Hoogie as he had never beaten them head to head in any event and that they held the World Records for 50m and 100m Freestyle.
The angry response was that Foster was the fastest as his short course 50m is faster than the 50m LC record. I feel that this is a ridiculous comparison.
Do you agree with me ? Should we base that claim on the 50m Free or the 100m Free event, LC or SC ?
I am not welcome on their site, after only 4 posts, is that a record ?
I think, after living in North America for 12 years that I now have more in common with the mindset of Canadians and Americans than the British who IMHO don't seem to want to "be the best by learning from the best !".
BTW the standard of posts and discussion is much higher over here on the USMS site.
Former Member
Just a comment about water polo. Having used to play this game in the 1970s in the UK, the starting sprint to get to the ball was generally, not a precise art - certainly not when you compare it alongside 'normal' swimming rules.
There were times when I used to have the benefit of pushing from a wall ... at other times, you might well start from a floating position. Again, the ball used to be dropped or lightly thrown into the water at the midpoint between each goal. Consequently, given the potential room for error I would say that it would be extremely difficult to compare such swim times alongside gala times with electronic timing etc.
Ion - you do like banging on about your start at age 25 don't you? I thought this whole debate had been 'done to death' months ago.
We have an expression in the UK which goes 'empty vessels make the most noise.' Wonder if you're familiar with this?
Alex,
It is true about what you said in regards to water polo starts, but slowly the sport has become more universal / uniform starting with international and slowly trickling down to college, then to High school. In the 80's (when Biondi played for Cal) all the PAC10 schools and most of the west coast schools were playing their games in full polo tanks - meaning all deep water and no walls. While coaching High School in the early nineties I noticed a progression where games were arranged to be played in pools other than the host school if the host school had a shallow end or maybe the pool wasn't big enough. I think fewer and fewer games are being played in pools were players get the wall to start their sprints because of this trickling down of uniformity in the sport. Swimming has seen the same thing in regards to starts and turns, I remember not to long ago the backstroke flip turn was ground for disqualifying in HIgh School but was acceptable in USA swimming.
Originally posted by alexknibbs
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Ion - you do like banging on about your start at age 25 don't you? I thought this whole debate had been 'done to death' months ago.
We have an expression in the UK which goes 'empty vessels make the most noise.' Wonder if you're familiar with this?
No.
Not when it is an achievement.
Compared to what I see.
The achievement makes me:
not an anybody.
