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.
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.
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.
