Finest swim of all time

Originally posted by geochuck there is a best swim around the corner every day. PROPHETIC!! Nicely summarized. Mark

Sydney - I remember reading something about Manadou's swim but it isn't yet on the Fina site. ANY of Janet Evans' record swims are candidates for best swims ever.....

I would add these two: Misty Hyman's 200 fly in Sydney Tom Dolan's 500 free at NCAAs in March 1995 (4:08.75)

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

Grany Hackett's 14:34 for the mile is really an amazing achievement. Basically he's traveling at just over 58 seconds flat ~ per hundred meters. (That translates to 100 yards repeats at roughly 50+ seconds each.) And he looks like he's in slow motion while doing it. ...Tom Dolan's 500 free was quite a show too. (Out in 47 sec. on the first 100...and :49 for the remaining four. ) Wow.

David, Which of Biondi's meets are you comparing to Spitz' 72 Olympics? I'm not looking for an argument; I'm not as familiar with Biondi's career, and I am curious as to what you think was his best meet. Matt

I would recommended Melvin Stewart's 200 fly from the 1991 NCAA Championships. He went 1:41.78, which is still the meet record. For backstroke, David Berkoff's 54.95 at the 1988 Olympic Trials. That changed the backstroke. Short Couse, Neil Walker's 1997 swim at the NCAA's of 44.92. This was simply an super swim to watch. Freestyle, short course, I am split between Biondi's 1:33.03 and Simon Burnett's 1:31.20. I saw Burnett's swim in person and the tv coverage certainly didn't do it justice. For the I.M, both short and long course go to Tom Dolan. His swim at the 2000 games was amazging, esp. after most everyone wrote him off. Then the 1995 NCAA's, the 400 IM was breath taking. His whole meet was breath taking that year. My $.02 cents worth

Originally posted by thewookiee Freestyle, short course, I am split between Biondi's 1:33.03 and Simon Burnett's 1:31.20. I saw Burnett's swim in person and the tv coverage certainly didn't do it justice. Just wondering if Burnett came out of the turns with dolphin kicks or flutter? I don't recall Biondi ever doing any dolphins off the walls....but in all likelihood...that's exactly how Phelps broke the 1:33 barrier. It seems like many of the long standing records are being broken by superior turns....aside from the swimming performance. Jim Montgomery's 49 second hundred free had the same tempo as Hoogie's world record 47. Except Jim swam with a drag suit...had no goggles...and did a torpedo launch start rather than a single hole entry.

Which of Biondi's meets are you comparing to Spitz' 72 Olympics? I'm not looking for an argument Matt Biondi's performance of five golds and four world records at the 1988 Seoul Olympics .He was touched out in the 100fly which makes the performance debatable ....against Spitz effort in 72. Duncan Armstrong in the 200m free was a freak swim. I'm one of those ones who think the late 80’s were just a different world to the early 70's in competition. Pound for pound I think Spitz is a better swimmer. Argue away....it's all very debatable stuff..... I'm not as familiar with Phelps’s overall meet performances? Anyone know his best so far???

Two swims by Ian Crocker -- 100 LCM fly at the 2003 World's in Barcelona. He just out-touched Phelps for the third world record set in that event in 2 days! 100 SCM free at the 2004 NCAA championships. He set a world record from an outside lane (fourth seed, I think). The announcers had barely mentioned his name until the last 25. The camera was never on him!