As a math guy, this is something I've been pondering for a while. Is there a limit to how fast we can swim. For instance, I remember a discussion point a while back was that there was no physical way a human could run the 100m in less than 9 seconds, that the forces you would create within your body in order to run that fast would cause you muscles to tear and bones to shatter.
In swimming we're seeing a HUGE leap forward in technology as it pertains both to how we train and what we put on our bodies. For instance, how fast could Matt Biondi swum a 50 or 100 if he had access to the wealth of information we have now just 15 years later in regards to training, nutrition and suits.
Could he possibly 20 47 low in the 100 if he were in his 20's/early 30's right now?
And to my point, imagine the 50 free. How fast is "impossible"? We just say Bousquet take 1/4 second of the 50 free WR. What's the limit? You'd think at some point someone's going to set a WR that will never be broken.
It's hard to believe we are close to that limit in swimming. As much as I would like to believe that Michael Phelps and company represent something of a zenith in human swimming potential, the truth is that the world's greatest athletes, by and large, do not go into swimming. Ask yourself this: if you could be the best the world has ever known in a given sport, would you pick swimming?
Wouldn't you be at least tempted to pick basketball, football, track, tennis, or even golf--something where your greatness would A) be celebrated widely, and B) pay a fortune?
Imagine if Kevin Garnett, instead of growing up playing basketball, had spent his entire youth training to sprint freestyle. It's hard to imagine he wouldn't be able to make toast out of Frederick Bousquet--a dive, two strokes, a tremendous push off, three strokes, done.
Former Member
You'd think at some point someone's going to set a WR that will never be broken.
That is guaranteed to happen.
Former Member
Yes, the limit to swimming a 50m is ~0.00000016678204759908 seconds.
Former Member
That's a hell of a reaction time.
Former Member
The human species continues to evolve and mutate. Imagine when future generations can run atop the water surface, leap over the backstroke flags on the start.
I suggest "Childhood's End" (Arthur C. Clarke) for your light reading pleasure.
Former Member
Every human is unique and there's no way to prove that even exist physical size limit so you can prove nothing about absolute time limit for definition .
So It's simply, there's no way to prove that there's a time limit other that it exist and it's greater that 0 just because nothing can move at infinite speed.
400 years ago nodody thought that a day a Man will walk on the moon...
Former Member
Here's an explanation that is based on the Law Of Conversation Of Energy.
The limit on the speed of a given swimmer is when the maximum power available (the amount of energy that he/she can physically generate per unit of time multiplied by the factor of propulsion efficency) is equal to the power required to move that person's body through the water (against drag forces) at that given speed.
Mathematically stated, the maximum speed (S) that a given person can swim is equal to that person’s power to drag ratio (S= Power/Drag).
Dolphin 2
I don't think it is possible to extrapolate a rough fastest time as the suit issue has broken any curve there is.In 1975 I read an article on athletic performance improvement curves that said the curve for the swimming 1500 M was the smoothest and they predicted a victory time of about 16:45 as I remember(this was not as swimming publication.)As the world record then was about 16:20 at the time I figured they were not likely accurate.They hadn't taken in to account that distance swimmers had fairly quickly upped there yardage to 20000M/day(thanks in no small part to goggles) since the 72 Olympics.Rule changes,technique changes,suit changes etc.prevent accurate predictions.
Former Member
I (vaguely) remember Johnny Weissmuller when he broke the minute in the 100 LCM free being asked if records (his and/or others') would reach a point where they couldn't be bettered and his reply was (more or less), "Whatever one human can do, there'll come another human who can do it just a wee bit better........."
It could very well be that for a few years (decades?) FINA (and maybe other sports) will have to resort to using those 1/1000ths of a second that the (pad) timers record and that they're not using today..........:chug:
