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).
Hackett's 1500M record is stinky? I think it's stood so long because it is arguably one of the best swims the world has ever seen across any distance or stroke. Hackett was, IMHO, always over-shadowed by Thorpe, but one of the best freestylers the world has ever seen.
As for the US, we still produce some good and great distance swimmers, but collegiate formats and points from sprints and relays tend to favor shorter distance specialists. I'm hoping, though, that the addition of OW racing to the Olympic and World Championship programs will result in a resurgence for American distance swimming at the 1500M level.
Now, if only the Olympics could end the disgrace of not having a women's 1500 on the program, we'd be making real progress. I think the Olympics should have both the 800 and 1500 for men and women.
Hackett's 1500M record is stinky? I think it's stood so long because it is arguably one of the best swims the world has ever seen across any distance or stroke. Hackett was, IMHO, always over-shadowed by Thorpe, but one of the best freestylers the world has ever seen.
As for the US, we still produce some good and great distance swimmers, but collegiate formats and points from sprints and relays tend to favor shorter distance specialists. I'm hoping, though, that the addition of OW racing to the Olympic and World Championship programs will result in a resurgence for American distance swimming at the 1500M level.
Now, if only the Olympics could end the disgrace of not having a women's 1500 on the program, we'd be making real progress. I think the Olympics should have both the 800 and 1500 for men and women.
