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
Well - Cielo's record is 46.9 - that's probably as fast or faster than Lezak.
As far as sub 19 in the 50 -- I don't think it's going to happen. Bousquet was under in 2005 - Cielo was under in 08, no LZR I believe, but both in full body suits.
We can just put the American record back to Tom Jager and go from there ...
The French swims were mentioned in swimming news - but it did not say if it was short-course or long course. I went to the French federation website and checked it out. They also have the results from the same meet last year - Bousquet was at 21.1 at that time ....
I don't think sub 19 is going to happen either. If I were to set a line for the fastest time of the year I would put it at 19.15.
I cannot believe the difference in times for Bousquet. 22.3 in SCM? I would have thought he could do that in practice in a practice suit. Didn't you go 23 low in practice with a Jaked?
American record backto Jager??? Nah, Hall beat it by a wide margin in a FS1 jammer.
Well - Cielo's record is 46.9 - that's probably as fast or faster than Lezak.
As far as sub 19 in the 50 -- I don't think it's going to happen. Bousquet was under in 2005 - Cielo was under in 08, no LZR I believe, but both in full body suits.
We can just put the American record back to Tom Jager and go from there ...
The French swims were mentioned in swimming news - but it did not say if it was short-course or long course. I went to the French federation website and checked it out. They also have the results from the same meet last year - Bousquet was at 21.1 at that time ....
I don't think sub 19 is going to happen either. If I were to set a line for the fastest time of the year I would put it at 19.15.
I cannot believe the difference in times for Bousquet. 22.3 in SCM? I would have thought he could do that in practice in a practice suit. Didn't you go 23 low in practice with a Jaked?
American record backto Jager??? Nah, Hall beat it by a wide margin in a FS1 jammer.
