If they go back to true regular suits and Jammers, we may never see the times of the last 2 years again - well at least not until they change the rules again.... I went back to look at the World Rankings for 10th Place and 25th place for the last 7 Olympic years. The Olympic years have always been the fastest years (except of course for 2009 - thanks to you know what). I used the 10th and 25th spot to avoid the "freak" factor and good a good average rate of improvement. Also - I used Freestyle to avoid the impact of rule changes and the emergence of dlphin kicks.
1984 50.36 50.93
1988 50.13 50.54
1992 49.83 50.43
1996 49.74 50.27
2000 49.15 49.67
2004 49.08 49.45
2008 47.83 48.5
2009 47.77 48.27
A couple of things jump out:
- rate of progress has slowed down to maybe 1 to 2 tenth per Olympic cycle
- Big drop in 2000 with arrival of Fastskin suits - about half a second ! and of course a full second and more in 2008.
- In a 1996 suit, I would guess the current times to be just a little slower than the 2000 times.
They are going to have trials next year for the 2011 Worlds - I am guessing a 49.7 or 49.8 will make the US team in the 100 Free ....
Parents
Former Member
One thing that intrigues me is that swimming was able to surpass the world records set by dopers, but women's track hasn't been able to break many of the doping records from the 80s.
I think there are 2 reasons - technique and pure force --- the technique in track is not moving forward. Running technique seems to be very well established and it's not too complicated. Swimming technique still seems to be changing and improving - although most likely at a decreasing rate.
The pure strength and power needed for track is just much bigger - and the impact on the body is much bigger. Obviously more power is really important for a 100 runner carrying their own body weight (where a swimmer gets the "floating assist".
One thing that intrigues me is that swimming was able to surpass the world records set by dopers, but women's track hasn't been able to break many of the doping records from the 80s.
I think there are 2 reasons - technique and pure force --- the technique in track is not moving forward. Running technique seems to be very well established and it's not too complicated. Swimming technique still seems to be changing and improving - although most likely at a decreasing rate.
The pure strength and power needed for track is just much bigger - and the impact on the body is much bigger. Obviously more power is really important for a 100 runner carrying their own body weight (where a swimmer gets the "floating assist".
