Masters' swimmers have been proving it for years and Dara proved it with an exclamation point in Beijing that you can go faster at 40-something than you did at 20-something. As someone 15 days older than Dara, what I wonder is this: At what age will the aging process take over and, despite whatever training you do (& without resorting to drug enhancements), you will slow down?
If you stay injury free I think you can swim real fast up to 40, but physiologically I think peak speed should be much sooner if the training and coaching is correct. More like 20-30.
You may be still fast when you are older but are you a "better" swimmer? Dara is for sure faster now but she focused on the 50 and stayed away from the 100.
I believe younger sprinters (more like 20-30) can hold up against multiple rounds in multiple events better.
Usually as you age you can hang onto aerobic performance better such as Grant Hacket showed.
If you stay injury free I think you can swim real fast up to 40, but physiologically I think peak speed should be much sooner if the training and coaching is correct. More like 20-30.
You may be still fast when you are older but are you a "better" swimmer? Dara is for sure faster now but she focused on the 50 and stayed away from the 100.
I believe younger sprinters (more like 20-30) can hold up against multiple rounds in multiple events better.
Usually as you age you can hang onto aerobic performance better such as Grant Hacket showed.
