Finest swim of all time

How about Ian Thorpe's 800 free swim in the Aussie World Trials in Hobart in 2001? Perkins held the existing record with his 7:46.0 from Victoria in 1994, but this time was a split from his excellent 14:41.66 1500 swim (which Hackett finally bettered by .01 in 2002). With Thorpe and Hackett both in the race it seemed like a record that was in serious jeopardy. Thorpe had only swum this race a couple times previously, so he more or less just kept pace with Hackett for the first 700 meters. That's when Thorpe exploded. He split a 53.7 :eek: on his final 100 to finish in 7:41.59 to Hackett's 7:44.57. Thorpe would lower the world record to 7:39.16 at Worlds later that year, but to me, the way he destroyed the best distance swimmer in the world in the final 100 meters of the Hobart race was astounding.

Originally posted by hofffam Let's add Fred Bousquet's 18.74 50 SCY swim last year at the NCAA championships. Not exactly on the same world stage as an Olympic or World Championship, but Bousquet's time schocked the world as the first under 19 and smashed the previous record (19.05) by over three tenths - in a 50 yd. race. Not sure why USA Swimming still doesn't show it as a US Open record. Hoffam: You must mean American Record because they show it as a US Open and a NCAA Record in the Meet Records section of the USA Swimming website. And you know why he can hold an American Record.

Originally posted by knelson How about Ian Thorpe's 800 free swim in the Aussie World Trials in Hobart in 2001? Perkins held the existing record with his 7:46.0 from Victoria in 1994, but this time was a split from his excellent 14:41.66 1500 swim (which Hackett finally bettered by .01 in 2002). With Thorpe and Hackett both in the race it seemed like a record that was in serious jeopardy. Thorpe had only swum this race a couple times previously, so he more or less just kept pace with Hackett for the first 700 meters. That's when Thorpe exploded. He split a 53.7 :eek: on his final 100 to finish in 7:41.59 to Hackett's 7:44.57. Thorpe would lower the world record to 7:39.16 at Worlds later that year, but to me, the way he destroyed the best distance swimmer in the world in the final 100 meters of the Hobart race was astounding. Kirk: Are you sure Hobart was the meet of that :53.7 split? It seemed to me that this was the same thing that happened to Grant Hackett again in Fukuoka at the 2001 Worlds. Hackett was even with Thorpe at the 700 and then Ian out sprinted Hackett on the last 100 to get that 7:39.16 to Grant Hackett's 7:40.34 and both swimmers were under the old World Record. I recall reading that Hackett was ready for Ian to do this and he responded and sprinted the last 100 also but was not as fast. But you will notice the defict was 1 second as opposted to almost 4 seconds. Hackett was swimming very well at this meet as witnessed by his World Record in the 1500 Free of 14:34.56 and smashing Pierkins record of 14:41.66 by 9 seconds. He also wasn't to shabby in the 400 Free going 3:42.51, which was the 7th fastest time in history at that time and only Ian six swims were faster. But he was still overshadowed by Ian Thorpe at that meet with his 6 Gold medals and 4 World Records. However Grant Hackett rebounded in less than a month after Worlds at the Aussie Short Course Championships. He set 3 Short Course World Records and they are still standing today. He went a 7:25.68 for the 800 Free and smashed Pierkins old World Record by 9.62 seconds. He also set the the 1500 Free World Record at 14:10.10 and what's significant about that swim is that he got mixed up by the counting and thought he had 50 meters to go so that was a foot touch World Record. He might have gone something like 14:07 if he knew where he was. He also set the 400 Meter World Record of 3:34.85, which still stands today. Also both Grant Hackett and Ian Thorpe along with both Michael Klim and Bill Kirby set a SCM World Record of 6:56.41 in the 800 Free Relay breaking a World Record that was held by the USA by 5 seconds. To appreciate Grant Hackett's swims one must compare his Short Course Meter World Records with the American Records now. The American Record for the 400 Free is by Josh Davis at 3:40.66, the 800 Free is by Chad Carvin at 7:43.06, and the 1500 Free by Erik Vendt at 14:31.02. With those comparisons Grant Hackett's SCM along with Ian Thorpe's swims from Fukuoka have to be considered as some of the greatest swims.

Now my prediction for the finest swim of the future: Michael Phelps breaking 4 minutes in the 400 IM. Hey, he's already 5 seconds under the previous World Record holder, Tom "The King" Dolan. Matt: Not trying to be picky, but you are 70% correct about the 400 IM World Record by Michael Phelps. He actually broke Tom Dolan's record by 3.5 seconds (4:08.26 vs 4:11.76) not by 5 seconds. Now if he or anybody else were to lower the record by 8.27 seconds at the 2008 Olympics or after then Yes that would be the swim of the future. The only person that I would compare this to would be Gary Hall's records in the 400 IM when he was young. In 1968, at the Olympic Trials he set the WR at 4:43.4 as a Jr. in High School. He lost the WR to Charlie Hickox at the 1968 Olympics but got it back the next year in 1969 at 4:38.7 and lowered it several times in 3 years to 4:30.81 at the 1972 Olympic Trials. So he dropped his time by almost 7 seconds but he had more time to chop off than what the guys today have to do. So if someone goes beyond like 8.27 seconds to maybe 10 seconds then yes that would be the swim of the future. They would be saying it would be like the Roger Bannister's breakthough of the 4 minute barrier, much like Rick Demont's 400 Meter Free swim was at the 1973 World Championships.

Originally posted by Matt S The South African Men's 400 Free Relay World Record in 2004. The Springboks took down the two big boys looking for a rematch of their race from Sydney (coming from a smaller swimming nation like South Africa, that is already pretty impressive). They also broke the previous Australian World Record, which was itself nearly unimaginable. SO, the U.S. Record is now only the 3rd fastest swim of all time, in an event the Americans had never lost prior to 2000. Of course we all know where they train. By the way, not to take anything away from Hackett, but he didn't have a chest injury, he was recovering from pneumonia. The media misreported the story, saying he had a collapsed lung. In reality he had what's called atelectasis, which is compression/underexpansion of lung tissue (in this case due to the infection) detected on an X-ray. Larsen Jensen's swim was very impressive, too--he split the race exactly as planned (within tenths of a second) and nearly caught Hackett.

Originally posted by Frank Thompson But you will notice the defict was 1 second as opposted to almost 4 seconds. Right. That second showdown Grant was determined not to let the same thing happen twice. He held on better, but still couldn't keep up with Thorpe in a sprint off. With that unbelievable kick Thorpe has he's very difficult to hang with when he puts it into top gear!

Let's add Fred Bousquet's 18.74 50 SCY swim last year at the NCAA championships. Not exactly on the same world stage as an Olympic or World Championship, but Bousquet's time shocked the world as the first under 19 and smashed the previous record (19.05) by over three tenths - in a 50 yd. race. Not sure why USA Swimming still doesn't show it as a US Open record.

Alex: I would agree with you. I think his 50 Free from 2000 might be his best swim but I think it sometimes doesn't get the respect it deserves because it was done at a time trial and not in a competitive meet. There have been other swims at Time Trials and as long as FINA and USA Swimming allow them, then its ok my me. This was discussed at length on another thread. Recently Tara Kirk broke the Women's American Record in the 200 Yard *** in a time trial and there were no complaints. The only major competition from 1992 Olympics to the 2000 Olympics that Alex Popov lost was the 50 Meter Free in the 1998 World Championships to Bill Pilczuk who did a time of :22.29 to Popov's :22.43 so he was undefeated in the 50 Free and 100 Free with that exception for 8 years. Also when you talk about Alex Popov, you have to talk about his predecessor, Matt Biondi. Matt was undefeated in the 100 Free in both Short Course and Long Course for 8 years. He was not in the 50 Free because both he and Tom Jager went back and forth in the 50 Free for those 8 years. Both of Matt's records in the 100 Yard Free and the 200 Yard Free have to be considered also. He set the 100 Yard Free record in 1985 at :41.87 and lowered it to :41.80 in 1987 and owned the American Record for 17 years until 2002. The record today is :41.49 so its only been improved by .23 seconds in 18 years. His 200 Yard Free of 1:33.03 was an American Record for 18 years and he owed that Record for almost 20 years originally setting the record in 1985 at 1:33.22 and his NCAA Meet Record of the same time was broken this year making him the holder of that record for 20 years. Also in 1985 he set the LCM American Record in the 100 Meter Free and improved it to :48.42 in 1988 and that record lasted 16 years until 2001. He and Alex Popov both had the World Record in that event for about 6 years with Popov's record being broken by Hoggie, who is now the current World Record holder. Also you have to put Hoggie in this class also. He has had the WR since the 2000 Olympics at :47.84 and that is going on 6 years. He can match Dawn Fraser and be the first man to win the 100 Meter Free in 3 Olympic games if he can duplicate his efforts in 2000 and 2004. If he does he could be considered the greatest because he would be making history.

Matt: What I meant to say was the % of time drop that Michael would have to do compared to Gary Hall way back when. I believe as you get lower in minutes and seconds that time drops of like 8 to 10 seconds are much more impressive and harder because you are going lower and there is not that much time left in comparrison to the total time. An example is if someone went 3:33.00 or 3:30 or under in the 400 Meter Free breaking Ian Thorpe's record by 10 seconds or under that would be incredible and similar to what your saying about the 400 IM. If you look at the history of the 400 Meter Free World Record there has not been a drop like that since Johnny Weissmuller from the 1920's. Tim Shaw dropped 5 seconds from the record in the 1970's and that is the biggest drop in that event in a long time. I think has records get harder in the future big time drops will be harder to get and if they come they will be more impressive that the drops done in the past. That is why this year at the 2066 NCAA Championships everyone was impressed by Simon Burnett's time in the 200 Free of 1:31 because he broke the record by a full second and no one has done that in a long time and the % is greater because it has a base of 92 seconds.

To read about Manadou breaking Janet Evans's 400m free record, try this link: www.olympics.com.au/news.cfm And yes, Evans's swim is remarkable nonetheless.