Is there a limit to how fast we can swim?

Former Member
Former Member
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.
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  • 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.
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  • 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.
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