Cant remember where I read it, but I heard that someone is petitioning to have Popov's 50 LCM Free world record expunged since it was done in a time trial.
I disagree. If it was done legally, it should stand as a WR.
Meets are there to crown champions and award medals etc under race circumstances, but the pool and the clock are there all the time, taking on all comers.
Steve
Kirk:
I agree with you that the 50 LC Meter Free would be the event least likely to benefit from a time trial but only if certain stipulations were met. If you had the pools that the Olympics, World Championships, and NCAA swim at and the type of competitors that swim in these type of championships, then your arguement might stick. These types of pools are deep and no shallower than 7 feet. They also have superior gutter designs where there will be minimal wave action and surface turbulence. Without this you will have choppy water creating a surface that will be slow affecting a swimmers progress rather than a nice calm pool of the same type not creating these difficulities. Also if you did not have adequate lane lines and have swimmers with different abilities like a lot of Masters meets, then a swimmer will be fighting backwash of the leading swimmers.
I think a lot of the time trial debate has to do with the psychology of the swim. What Tom Jager said 20 years ago is that if you are all alone swimming a 50 Free with no psychological pressure you get in a competitive meet situation, then you will have an advantage over someone swimming in competition with 8 people. Don Schollander said in 1964, that even leading off a relay to comparing someone in a competetive swimming situation you will have a competitive advantage because of the psychological pressure. Two different swimmers, 20 years apart and same response.
It would be interesting for someone like say, Gary Hall Jr. to analyze this because he swims in a lot of situations like this with the fastest swimmers in the world and see if he feels there is a difference than swimming alone in a time trial. The reason he would be good is I am sure he has been timed in a trial and he would be able to assess the situation better with the factors I discussed. He has also come close to the World Record but that was in a competitive swimming situation. Would he have gone faster than :21.76 back in 2000 if he swam all by himself in the center of the pool at IUPUI and break the World Record of :21.64
Kirk:
I agree with you that the 50 LC Meter Free would be the event least likely to benefit from a time trial but only if certain stipulations were met. If you had the pools that the Olympics, World Championships, and NCAA swim at and the type of competitors that swim in these type of championships, then your arguement might stick. These types of pools are deep and no shallower than 7 feet. They also have superior gutter designs where there will be minimal wave action and surface turbulence. Without this you will have choppy water creating a surface that will be slow affecting a swimmers progress rather than a nice calm pool of the same type not creating these difficulities. Also if you did not have adequate lane lines and have swimmers with different abilities like a lot of Masters meets, then a swimmer will be fighting backwash of the leading swimmers.
I think a lot of the time trial debate has to do with the psychology of the swim. What Tom Jager said 20 years ago is that if you are all alone swimming a 50 Free with no psychological pressure you get in a competitive meet situation, then you will have an advantage over someone swimming in competition with 8 people. Don Schollander said in 1964, that even leading off a relay to comparing someone in a competetive swimming situation you will have a competitive advantage because of the psychological pressure. Two different swimmers, 20 years apart and same response.
It would be interesting for someone like say, Gary Hall Jr. to analyze this because he swims in a lot of situations like this with the fastest swimmers in the world and see if he feels there is a difference than swimming alone in a time trial. The reason he would be good is I am sure he has been timed in a trial and he would be able to assess the situation better with the factors I discussed. He has also come close to the World Record but that was in a competitive swimming situation. Would he have gone faster than :21.76 back in 2000 if he swam all by himself in the center of the pool at IUPUI and break the World Record of :21.64
