What's your opinion on best swim of all time ?
It probably won’t be a swim prior to the 70's.
I use to think that the best swim of all time would be a medley however I'm starting to change my tune on this.
For me now I think the truly finest swim would be a freestyle event...i.e Freestyle is more important than the strokes because it's unique.
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.
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.
