Well -- the numbers are in -- it's pretty close to the "Schubert number" of 2%. I took prelim times from the last 4 years as a baseline -- picked places 4-13 for the Men -- they have to go all out. I just took the average time for those 10 swims for each of the events (500 Free / 50 Free / 200 IM). There is a very small drop in times - from 2005 - 2008, as one would expect.
This year -- the 500 Free times down 1% -- the 200 IM 1.9% -- the 50 Free 1.7%.
For example - average time for 50 Free places 4-13:
2005 19.45
2006 19.44
2007 19.40
2008 19.50
2009 19.12
