Popov says quit whining about the LZR

I have been wondering.... Is it really that unusual for so many records to fall? How many records have been broken by the same people? And how many without the new suit? Could there be other influences than the new suit? Your questions can be answered to some degree by someone (not me) willing to invest some time. Records fall all the time of course, but -- without examining the historical data -- I would guess that they tend to happen in clusters to some degree. Whether this lastest batch is unusual, I don't know; it certainly seems that way. Of course there are other influences, such as the "Olympic year effect"; even the most ardent technophile should admit to that. So the question is to what degree the suit helps independent of those things. The best way to answer would be with controlled expts (several of them, at least) but I would guess that isn't going to happen. In the absence of that, the next best thing is probably to look at the progression of time improvements, like the authors of this paper did for WRs in a variety of sports, including pre-LZR swimming: (warning: not for the math-phobic, but an interesting paper) www.plosone.org/.../journal.pone.0001552 But, unless the samples are chosen carefully -- which may not be possible -- such a study will be subject to confounding variables (other significant factors that also changed and also affected results). I don't believe that such studies have been done either yet; too early, really. In the absence of this, we are left with guesstimates such as Schubert's 1-2%, which will undoubtedly (and unfortunately) be quoted as authoritative for quite some time. Another interesting article www.usatoday.com/.../2008-04-15-chicago-notebook_N.htm

I have been wondering.... Is it really that unusual for so many records to fall? How many records have been broken by the same people? And how many without the new suit? Could there be other influences than the new suit? Your questions can be answered to some degree by someone (not me) willing to invest some time. Records fall all the time of course, but -- without examining the historical data -- I would guess that they tend to happen in clusters to some degree. Whether this lastest batch is unusual, I don't know; it certainly seems that way. Of course there are other influences, such as the "Olympic year effect"; even the most ardent technophile should admit to that. So the question is to what degree the suit helps independent of those things. The best way to answer would be with controlled expts (several of them, at least) but I would guess that isn't going to happen. In the absence of that, the next best thing is probably to look at the progression of time improvements, like the authors of this paper did for WRs in a variety of sports, including pre-LZR swimming: (warning: not for the math-phobic, but an interesting paper) www.plosone.org/.../journal.pone.0001552 But, unless the samples are chosen carefully -- which may not be possible -- such a study will be subject to confounding variables (other significant factors that also changed and also affected results). I don't believe that such studies have been done either yet; too early, really. In the absence of this, we are left with guesstimates such as Schubert's 1-2%, which will undoubtedly (and unfortunately) be quoted as authoritative for quite some time. Another interesting article www.usatoday.com/.../2008-04-15-chicago-notebook_N.htm