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).
Parents
Former Member
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.
I’ve always felt that Collegiate coaches are going to spend most of recruiting efforts and dollars on sprinters, as they are more valuable in “winning” meets, due to multiple sprint events versus basically one long event. I think a solution would be to give a little greater point value to distance events.
If my memory serves me, there was a time when the USA Swimming was bemoaning the lack of contending distance swimmers in the U.S. and they offered a generous monetary prize for Olympic Gold?
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.
I’ve always felt that Collegiate coaches are going to spend most of recruiting efforts and dollars on sprinters, as they are more valuable in “winning” meets, due to multiple sprint events versus basically one long event. I think a solution would be to give a little greater point value to distance events.
If my memory serves me, there was a time when the USA Swimming was bemoaning the lack of contending distance swimmers in the U.S. and they offered a generous monetary prize for Olympic Gold?
