14.34.56 1500 free, Grant Hackett, in Japan, 2001!
14.26.62 1650 free, Chris Thompson, in the US of A, 2001!
I know who Hackett is, Thompson is only vaguely familiar. Fact is, their records are nearly a decade old. Does anyone else find this as impressive and striking as I do? Did Hackett set such an out-of-reach record that more swimmers are cowed rather than motivated to break it? Or have male swimmers just collectively lost a lot of interest in the mile? All of the other men's records are newborns. In fact, Phelps's 400 IM from Beijing is the second-oldest, and it's still not even two years old (it survived the climax of the suits, though, so that's impressive).
I think CT's record holding up so long is a bit of a fluke. Vendt, Rouault and Jensen have all been under 14:27, but all fell just short of breaking the record.
Hackett's record has lasted so long for a couple reasons. One, it's an impressive record. Two, competition is very fierce now in the event. So, no, swimmers have not lost interest in the event. On the contrary, it's gotten very difficult to final in the 1500 in major meets now. In the "old days" top swimmers like Hackett could hold back somewhat in prelims and still make finals easily. Not anymore. At both Beijing and Rome it took very strong prelims swims to make finals. I think the fatigue of swimming this event all out twice has made it very difficult to break the WR.
I think CT's record holding up so long is a bit of a fluke. Vendt, Rouault and Jensen have all been under 14:27, but all fell just short of breaking the record.
Hackett's record has lasted so long for a couple reasons. One, it's an impressive record. Two, competition is very fierce now in the event. So, no, swimmers have not lost interest in the event. On the contrary, it's gotten very difficult to final in the 1500 in major meets now. In the "old days" top swimmers like Hackett could hold back somewhat in prelims and still make finals easily. Not anymore. At both Beijing and Rome it took very strong prelims swims to make finals. I think the fatigue of swimming this event all out twice has made it very difficult to break the WR.
