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 ....
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Former Member
What do you think? Do you care if you get beat by a person in the lane next to you in a masters event if he is wearing a rubber body condom and you are only wearing jammers?
I have done both - I swam Nationals in a non-rubber suit and probably lost a race beacuse of it and I have "used" the suits to break a few records.
In a strange way, I was happy with both - At Nationals, I wanted an exact comparison to what I did in the previous year .. so you have to wear the same suit. Breaking the records, I am pretty convinced that the people in my age group are wearing the same suits (unless they are older records - and with Mike Ross around there not many of those ...).
I do think the current suits should be allowed in Masters -- I know many people don't think it's a big deal, but I just hate shaving and being able to put on a suit in mid-season to go fast without shaving is really important.
I think the Jaked / Arena suits are about a 2-3% difference up to the 200 distances. I would not be surprised, if nobody actually breaks 48 for the 100 Free until 2012.
I also think, people saying that records don't add to the hype or popularity of a sport are way off base -- I could not tell any women's 200 track champions, but I sure know who is the "man" for the men.
What do you think? Do you care if you get beat by a person in the lane next to you in a masters event if he is wearing a rubber body condom and you are only wearing jammers?
I have done both - I swam Nationals in a non-rubber suit and probably lost a race beacuse of it and I have "used" the suits to break a few records.
In a strange way, I was happy with both - At Nationals, I wanted an exact comparison to what I did in the previous year .. so you have to wear the same suit. Breaking the records, I am pretty convinced that the people in my age group are wearing the same suits (unless they are older records - and with Mike Ross around there not many of those ...).
I do think the current suits should be allowed in Masters -- I know many people don't think it's a big deal, but I just hate shaving and being able to put on a suit in mid-season to go fast without shaving is really important.
I think the Jaked / Arena suits are about a 2-3% difference up to the 200 distances. I would not be surprised, if nobody actually breaks 48 for the 100 Free until 2012.
I also think, people saying that records don't add to the hype or popularity of a sport are way off base -- I could not tell any women's 200 track champions, but I sure know who is the "man" for the men.
