How long will some of the records stand ???

About Popov's swim -- not sure what his second fastest swim ever was, but I don't think he was ever within 2/10th of the time -- open lanes next to you, maybe a favorable starter do seem to make a difference. I disagree with your assessment about a favorable starter because I saw no evidence on the video which I linked here where this happened. I especially don't think he got that much of an advantage on the start compared to Rowdy Gaines's start in the 100 meter Free at the 1984 Olympic where I disagree with you also because he studied the starter and took advantage of that opportunity and none of the other swimmers who could have done that, did not. YouTube - Alexander Popov 50m Freestyle World Record forums.usms.org/showthread.php 21.64 - U.S. Masters Swimming Discussion Forums I also provided links to a discussion we had about this time trial and other time trials. Alex Popov was the first swimmer to go under :22.00 in a competitive meet and he went :21.91 in the 50 meter free at the 1992 Olympics. Tom Jager went :21.81 and Matt Biondi went :21.85 and they did those times swimming a lane apart in a time trial setting in the Nashville Sprint made for TV prize money races in March 1990. The best times that Tom Jager and Matt Biondi did outside those swims in competition were Biondi at the 1992 Olympics at :22.09 and Jager at :22.12 from the 1989 Pan Pac meet in Tokyo and that time was the WR before the Nashville swims. If we analyze these time trial swims of Popov, Biondi, and Jager the differences are very close and not out of the ordinary. Popov at .27 (:21.91 to :21.64), Biondi at .24 (:22.09 to :21.85) and Jager at .31 (:22.12 to :21.81). Popov pointed out in an interview with Kelvin Juba many years ago that he had 4 other swimmers in the pool when he swam his time trial (and video evidence proves this) and Jager and Biondi had no one but themselves swimming one lane apart in the Nashville 50 free final. So from this analysis above I see no reason for you to question the 2/10 of a second because these other swimmers had the same variance in exact like conditions. So I believe he did this as a legit swim in a time trial. It took 8 years for swimmers to go under :22.00 seconds in a competitive meet and in 2000 about 2 months after Popov did this famous swim, Hall and Erving went :21.76 and :21.80 at the 2000 OLY Trials in Indy to get kind of close to the record. In 2005, Roland Schoeman went :21.68 at the 2005 Worlds in Montreal to be real close to the record. Then after that it was the world records of the tech suit era.

About Popov's swim -- not sure what his second fastest swim ever was, but I don't think he was ever within 2/10th of the time -- open lanes next to you, maybe a favorable starter do seem to make a difference. I disagree with your assessment about a favorable starter because I saw no evidence on the video which I linked here where this happened. I especially don't think he got that much of an advantage on the start compared to Rowdy Gaines's start in the 100 meter Free at the 1984 Olympic where I disagree with you also because he studied the starter and took advantage of that opportunity and none of the other swimmers who could have done that, did not. YouTube - Alexander Popov 50m Freestyle World Record forums.usms.org/showthread.php 21.64 - U.S. Masters Swimming Discussion Forums I also provided links to a discussion we had about this time trial and other time trials. Alex Popov was the first swimmer to go under :22.00 in a competitive meet and he went :21.91 in the 50 meter free at the 1992 Olympics. Tom Jager went :21.81 and Matt Biondi went :21.85 and they did those times swimming a lane apart in a time trial setting in the Nashville Sprint made for TV prize money races in March 1990. The best times that Tom Jager and Matt Biondi did outside those swims in competition were Biondi at the 1992 Olympics at :22.09 and Jager at :22.12 from the 1989 Pan Pac meet in Tokyo and that time was the WR before the Nashville swims. If we analyze these time trial swims of Popov, Biondi, and Jager the differences are very close and not out of the ordinary. Popov at .27 (:21.91 to :21.64), Biondi at .24 (:22.09 to :21.85) and Jager at .31 (:22.12 to :21.81). Popov pointed out in an interview with Kelvin Juba many years ago that he had 4 other swimmers in the pool when he swam his time trial (and video evidence proves this) and Jager and Biondi had no one but themselves swimming one lane apart in the Nashville 50 free final. So from this analysis above I see no reason for you to question the 2/10 of a second because these other swimmers had the same variance in exact like conditions. So I believe he did this as a legit swim in a time trial. It took 8 years for swimmers to go under :22.00 seconds in a competitive meet and in 2000 about 2 months after Popov did this famous swim, Hall and Erving went :21.76 and :21.80 at the 2000 OLY Trials in Indy to get kind of close to the record. In 2005, Roland Schoeman went :21.68 at the 2005 Worlds in Montreal to be real close to the record. Then after that it was the world records of the tech suit era.