I know they've been doing semi-finals in international meets (and U.S. Trials) for a couple of years now. Anyone ever heard a good explanation as to why? Trials and finals make sense, because everyone swims in the same pool on the same day, and the top 16 out of 100 or so swim head-to-head at night. But what do semi-finals accomplish? Seems like just another opporunity for the likes of Phelps and Hoff to sandbag, and another opportunity for everyone else to get tired before their race 'counts.'
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Former Member
They made a come back at the 2000 games. The use to have them at major meets sometime through the early 70's, I believe. Then switched to the prelims-finals format.
And yes, it does have to do the FINA and the tv people wanting to add drama to the meet. There were a serious of articles about it in 98-99 about swimemrs having to adapt, how it would bring out the real stars, be good for tv audience and yes...money too.
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Former Member
They made a come back at the 2000 games. The use to have them at major meets sometime through the early 70's, I believe. Then switched to the prelims-finals format.
And yes, it does have to do the FINA and the tv people wanting to add drama to the meet. There were a serious of articles about it in 98-99 about swimemrs having to adapt, how it would bring out the real stars, be good for tv audience and yes...money too.
