This is something I have been thinking about since the Olympics... at what point will it not be possible for human beings to swim or run any faster. There has to be a point where the human body just can't go any faster, no matter how much you train, what kind of things you put into your body (legal or not), etc.
I mean it isn't possible to swim a 400 IM, for example, in 2 seconds (at least I don't think it ever will be) so where does it end? And when will that happen?
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Former Member
And while "fastest humanly possible time" is a wonderful cocktail party or discussion forum topic, it presupposes the event of a genetically perfectly individual, perfectly trained from birth (or earlier), at the peak of their career, with perfect technique maintained for every nanosecond of the race, with a perfect taper, a perfectly timed start, in an absolutely perfect pool with a perfectly fast suit, expending every ounce of energy, etc. It also presupposes that no one will be able to learn from this person and figure out a better way. Based on these presuppositions, I would agree there is a fastest humanly possible time, but without more sophisticated modeling there is no way to exactly peg this time. I remember back in the day, when the experts stated absolutely that 15:00 was the absolute fastest time for the 1500M. Well, they missed that one. originally posted by Rob Copeland
Hey I TOTALLY agree with you on this one o.k.....that's why I was very careful in my prior postings to say ""IF" you believe in the speculation that was given by others on this thread" (followed by my personal disbelief in it) ...whenever I addressed this issue....So for example, (in response to something else you said in an earlier posting)...when you said that I am more likely to be struck by lightening than see a dead heat in the 50 meter freestyle (to within 0.01 seconds).....I want you to know that I am not claiming the contrary.....What I said there was "IF" you believe that over the years (and that may mean " A LOT" of years here) that the fastest times posted by the "elite" swimmers in a particular event are approaching some "mythical" limit "asymptotically" (and the word "asymptotically" is very important here).....then in some far distant future (where elite swimmers are very unlikely to make any "significant" mistakes in a 50 meter freestyle that would account for a time loss of more than 0.001 seconds) that the probability of a dead heat occuring in the 50 meter freestyle at the Olympics (where the timing system works on a 0.01 second scale) may be around 0.999!!..........But then again I don't believe in the whole asymptotic approach over time to a limit of some kind.......In math you base your conclusions on your assumptions....if the assumptions are absurd, then the conclusions can be even more absurd!!
newmastersswimmer
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Former Member
And while "fastest humanly possible time" is a wonderful cocktail party or discussion forum topic, it presupposes the event of a genetically perfectly individual, perfectly trained from birth (or earlier), at the peak of their career, with perfect technique maintained for every nanosecond of the race, with a perfect taper, a perfectly timed start, in an absolutely perfect pool with a perfectly fast suit, expending every ounce of energy, etc. It also presupposes that no one will be able to learn from this person and figure out a better way. Based on these presuppositions, I would agree there is a fastest humanly possible time, but without more sophisticated modeling there is no way to exactly peg this time. I remember back in the day, when the experts stated absolutely that 15:00 was the absolute fastest time for the 1500M. Well, they missed that one. originally posted by Rob Copeland
Hey I TOTALLY agree with you on this one o.k.....that's why I was very careful in my prior postings to say ""IF" you believe in the speculation that was given by others on this thread" (followed by my personal disbelief in it) ...whenever I addressed this issue....So for example, (in response to something else you said in an earlier posting)...when you said that I am more likely to be struck by lightening than see a dead heat in the 50 meter freestyle (to within 0.01 seconds).....I want you to know that I am not claiming the contrary.....What I said there was "IF" you believe that over the years (and that may mean " A LOT" of years here) that the fastest times posted by the "elite" swimmers in a particular event are approaching some "mythical" limit "asymptotically" (and the word "asymptotically" is very important here).....then in some far distant future (where elite swimmers are very unlikely to make any "significant" mistakes in a 50 meter freestyle that would account for a time loss of more than 0.001 seconds) that the probability of a dead heat occuring in the 50 meter freestyle at the Olympics (where the timing system works on a 0.01 second scale) may be around 0.999!!..........But then again I don't believe in the whole asymptotic approach over time to a limit of some kind.......In math you base your conclusions on your assumptions....if the assumptions are absurd, then the conclusions can be even more absurd!!
newmastersswimmer
