Finest swim of all time

Bearing in mind that "finest swim" is a slippery concept, that can be defined any number of ways, and each different definition will generate a different answer... Here is my list of swims that are worth mentioning: - Mark Spitz' last swim at the 72 Olympics, because it was his seventh event, his seventh Olympic Championship, and most impressive of all, his seventh World Record, all in the same meet. The only person who has ever come close to such a dominating performance at one meet was Michael Phelps at the 2003 World Championships. - Mary T. Meagher's 200 fly World Record at Browndear WI. A record that was so far ahead of the rest of the world, including the steroid enhanced East Germans, that no one broke it for 20 years. Her 100 fly World Record at the same meet lasted almost as long, and runs a close second in this category. - Vladimir Salnikov's sub-15 minute 1500m. Most of us (experienced competitive swimmers) would consider any race swum at 100m in less than 1 minute a sprint. Salnikov's performance officially turned swimming's "endurance" event into a 15 minute sprint. - The Australian Men's 400 Free Relay World Record at the 2000 Olympics. They didn't just break the Record, they broke it by 2 seconds, in a race that normally sees its Record broken by hundreths of a second. AND, they needed every hundreth to beat the U.S. because the Americans were also 2 seconds under the old Record. This was one of the best relay races in Olympic history. Gary Hall famously declared that he and his relay-mates would smash the Aussies like guitars. He probably had a good faith reason to say that because he likely knew from their practice sessions the relay would be something special. He did not know the Aussie team would be all that, and a little bit more. - Janet Evans' 800 & 1500 World Records. They are approaching 18 years old and rivaling Mary T's Records for longevity. - Michael Phelps' 100 Fly World Record in the Semi-Finals of the 2003 World Championships. That was his second World Record of the same session. He had earlier broken the World Record in the Finals of the 200 IM. No one else has ever broken two World Records in the same session of a swim meet. BTW, if Ian Crocker hadn't had an unconscious swim in the 100 Fly finals the following night, in turn breaking Phelps' new Record, Michael would have had 4 individual Championships and 4 World Records in that meet. Given that his events were longer than Spitz' at Munich, and that he had to do 3 swims instead of 2 for every event except the 400 IM, Michael's performance at 2003 Worlds is pretty darn close to Mark Spitz' at the 1972 Olympics. - Inge de Bruin's 50 free in the 2004 Olympics. She has so thoroughly dominating women's sprinting at the last two Olympics that one of her American rivals sarcastically called Inge a man after Inge beat her. - Amanda Beard's 200 IM Silver Medal at the 2004 Olympics. Only in her early 20s and already she's won Medals in three Olympic Games. As she gets older, she keeps breaking *** stroke World Records, and gets prettier, and her repetoire adds events, as you can see from this finish in an "off" event for her. - Gary Hall's defense of his 50 free Olympic title in the 2004 Olympics. It's not only the fact that as an "older" swimmer he repeated as Olympic Champion. He did so as an insulin dependent diabetic, AND created new training techniques and methods that differed from conventional methods for training sprinters, AND formed a new swim club who used these methods, leading to one other Olympic finalist from his club. We're talking Lance Armstrong territory in terms of recovering from a serious medical condition and creative new training techniques. - The U.S. Women's 800 Free World Record at the 2004 Olympics. It erased the last steroid tainted, East German World Record; 'nuff said. - Grant Hackett's defense of his 1500 Title in the 2004 Olympics. It's not only that he's dominated the 1500, winning every major title and lowering the World Record substantially from his predecessor Kieren Perkins, who was all that and more taking over from the first man under 15 minutes. At Athens, he held off the fastest 1500 every swam by an American (the other swimming superpower), with an injury, to his chest!! - Johnny Weismuller's first sub-minute 100m free. This started the X00 under X minutes benchmark for excellence in sprinting. - 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. WOW! - I'm sure there is also a swim from Alexandre Popov that belongs in this category, but I am not knowledgable enough about his career to name the signature swim ('course, it could be his 50 Free World Record from 2000 that still stands, duh!) 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

Bearing in mind that "finest swim" is a slippery concept, that can be defined any number of ways, and each different definition will generate a different answer... Here is my list of swims that are worth mentioning: - Mark Spitz' last swim at the 72 Olympics, because it was his seventh event, his seventh Olympic Championship, and most impressive of all, his seventh World Record, all in the same meet. The only person who has ever come close to such a dominating performance at one meet was Michael Phelps at the 2003 World Championships. - Mary T. Meagher's 200 fly World Record at Browndear WI. A record that was so far ahead of the rest of the world, including the steroid enhanced East Germans, that no one broke it for 20 years. Her 100 fly World Record at the same meet lasted almost as long, and runs a close second in this category. - Vladimir Salnikov's sub-15 minute 1500m. Most of us (experienced competitive swimmers) would consider any race swum at 100m in less than 1 minute a sprint. Salnikov's performance officially turned swimming's "endurance" event into a 15 minute sprint. - The Australian Men's 400 Free Relay World Record at the 2000 Olympics. They didn't just break the Record, they broke it by 2 seconds, in a race that normally sees its Record broken by hundreths of a second. AND, they needed every hundreth to beat the U.S. because the Americans were also 2 seconds under the old Record. This was one of the best relay races in Olympic history. Gary Hall famously declared that he and his relay-mates would smash the Aussies like guitars. He probably had a good faith reason to say that because he likely knew from their practice sessions the relay would be something special. He did not know the Aussie team would be all that, and a little bit more. - Janet Evans' 800 & 1500 World Records. They are approaching 18 years old and rivaling Mary T's Records for longevity. - Michael Phelps' 100 Fly World Record in the Semi-Finals of the 2003 World Championships. That was his second World Record of the same session. He had earlier broken the World Record in the Finals of the 200 IM. No one else has ever broken two World Records in the same session of a swim meet. BTW, if Ian Crocker hadn't had an unconscious swim in the 100 Fly finals the following night, in turn breaking Phelps' new Record, Michael would have had 4 individual Championships and 4 World Records in that meet. Given that his events were longer than Spitz' at Munich, and that he had to do 3 swims instead of 2 for every event except the 400 IM, Michael's performance at 2003 Worlds is pretty darn close to Mark Spitz' at the 1972 Olympics. - Inge de Bruin's 50 free in the 2004 Olympics. She has so thoroughly dominating women's sprinting at the last two Olympics that one of her American rivals sarcastically called Inge a man after Inge beat her. - Amanda Beard's 200 IM Silver Medal at the 2004 Olympics. Only in her early 20s and already she's won Medals in three Olympic Games. As she gets older, she keeps breaking *** stroke World Records, and gets prettier, and her repetoire adds events, as you can see from this finish in an "off" event for her. - Gary Hall's defense of his 50 free Olympic title in the 2004 Olympics. It's not only the fact that as an "older" swimmer he repeated as Olympic Champion. He did so as an insulin dependent diabetic, AND created new training techniques and methods that differed from conventional methods for training sprinters, AND formed a new swim club who used these methods, leading to one other Olympic finalist from his club. We're talking Lance Armstrong territory in terms of recovering from a serious medical condition and creative new training techniques. - The U.S. Women's 800 Free World Record at the 2004 Olympics. It erased the last steroid tainted, East German World Record; 'nuff said. - Grant Hackett's defense of his 1500 Title in the 2004 Olympics. It's not only that he's dominated the 1500, winning every major title and lowering the World Record substantially from his predecessor Kieren Perkins, who was all that and more taking over from the first man under 15 minutes. At Athens, he held off the fastest 1500 every swam by an American (the other swimming superpower), with an injury, to his chest!! - Johnny Weismuller's first sub-minute 100m free. This started the X00 under X minutes benchmark for excellence in sprinting. - 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. WOW! - I'm sure there is also a swim from Alexandre Popov that belongs in this category, but I am not knowledgable enough about his career to name the signature swim ('course, it could be his 50 Free World Record from 2000 that still stands, duh!) 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