I just wanted to start this thread to share different interesting or unusual things you noticed about swimmers during Olympics(technique, swimwear, etc.).Here are some of mine:
1)Andriy Sedinov of Ukraine, bronze in 100m. had the excess strings hanging down from the goggles all the way to his chin. what is up with that?talk about extra drag...well, maybe he did not pack scissors with him to Athens,lol
2)Natalie Coughlin had two swim caps with goggles straps between them - she was probably thinking WORLD RECORD and was concerned the new speed would flush one cap away or something - so she put on two for reassurance, haha.But seriously - does she always do that and what is the purpose of that?
3)Wu Peng of China, 5th in 200m fly had some crazy kicking technique I have never seen before.It looks like he does 3 kicks, there is just CONSTANT kicking there.Take a look if you have a video from Athens, it looks bizarre!
4)Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, 200m backstroke gold medal and more wore something resembling a World War II helmet rather than a swim cap.I have no clue what on earth that was.Again I suggest you see that.
5)Eva Risztov of Hungary amazed me by "breaking" one of the first rules you learn in backstroke - still head position.Watch her 400 IM final race - her head is jerking all over the place like she is sightseeing or something.I don't know, maybe it doe something beneficial to the flow of her stroke.
6)Stanislava Komarova of Russia, silver in 200m backstroke swims her races with NO goggles.I guess it is not that bad in backstroke, though...
Any other interesting observations?
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Former Member
here's another interesting thing I noticed about Coughlin's performances in Athens.In semi-final she swam with 30 strokes there and 31 strokes home with very nice underwater dolphins coming to the surface right by the 15 m. mark... and setting a new Olympic record of 1:00.17.It looked like she was not even trying, she was very smooth and efficient.And then it was the final, where she still had her signature underwaters, but she popped out a little farther from the 15m. mark both times and she kinda rushed her stroke more than in the semi, having made 32 strokes there and 33 strokes back.Well, that brought her gold, so I am sure she was happy, but the interesting fact is that she swam that race slower than the semi (1:00.37) taking 2 more strokes on each 50.I am sure she spent more energy in the final, too.Was she just making sure she was not past the 15 m. line and going the safe way?I wonder why she cranked it up in stroke rate in the final.Didn't she know herself well enough to be sure that the semi-final type of swim is what gives her the faster time?
here's another interesting thing I noticed about Coughlin's performances in Athens.In semi-final she swam with 30 strokes there and 31 strokes home with very nice underwater dolphins coming to the surface right by the 15 m. mark... and setting a new Olympic record of 1:00.17.It looked like she was not even trying, she was very smooth and efficient.And then it was the final, where she still had her signature underwaters, but she popped out a little farther from the 15m. mark both times and she kinda rushed her stroke more than in the semi, having made 32 strokes there and 33 strokes back.Well, that brought her gold, so I am sure she was happy, but the interesting fact is that she swam that race slower than the semi (1:00.37) taking 2 more strokes on each 50.I am sure she spent more energy in the final, too.Was she just making sure she was not past the 15 m. line and going the safe way?I wonder why she cranked it up in stroke rate in the final.Didn't she know herself well enough to be sure that the semi-final type of swim is what gives her the faster time?
