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.
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Former Member
Skip,
I tip my cap to your comments. Very good points, and I enthusiastically support your comments about Grant Hackett. For all the recognition he does receive, he is still the most underated Olympic Champion of recent history. Think about it, without Ian Thorpe, Hackett would have dominated the 400 free, and be right there with Hoogie and Michael Phelps in the 200. The way people train for world class 1500 racing, especially the Aussies, you just don't see 1500 swimmers able to do that well in the shorter races. Hackett is just amazing; Phelps and Thorpe are the only two other people in his league.
I'm not sure I agree that Michael Phelps has less time left to develope now than Gary Hall did when he broke the WR in high school. Fer cryin' out loud, Michael is still a college student. He's not an NCAA scholarship athlete, but he's still the same age as those folks. He is still improving by leaps and bounds in some of his events; indeed, he is still adding events to his schedule. And most important of all, the economics of swimming have changed such that he can continue to make a good living, and still perform at a World Class level through his 20s. Seeing him compete in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics would not be a stretch at all, and if he keeps working his strokes, especially the *** stroke where World Class *** strokers can really make up time in the IMs, I think 3:59 is possible.
Skip,
I tip my cap to your comments. Very good points, and I enthusiastically support your comments about Grant Hackett. For all the recognition he does receive, he is still the most underated Olympic Champion of recent history. Think about it, without Ian Thorpe, Hackett would have dominated the 400 free, and be right there with Hoogie and Michael Phelps in the 200. The way people train for world class 1500 racing, especially the Aussies, you just don't see 1500 swimmers able to do that well in the shorter races. Hackett is just amazing; Phelps and Thorpe are the only two other people in his league.
I'm not sure I agree that Michael Phelps has less time left to develope now than Gary Hall did when he broke the WR in high school. Fer cryin' out loud, Michael is still a college student. He's not an NCAA scholarship athlete, but he's still the same age as those folks. He is still improving by leaps and bounds in some of his events; indeed, he is still adding events to his schedule. And most important of all, the economics of swimming have changed such that he can continue to make a good living, and still perform at a World Class level through his 20s. Seeing him compete in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics would not be a stretch at all, and if he keeps working his strokes, especially the *** stroke where World Class *** strokers can really make up time in the IMs, I think 3:59 is possible.
