It doesn't matter who you are or were, just going out there and giving it your best is admirable.Absolutely. Even if she doesn't make whatever lofty goals people might expect of her, I hope she continues to swim Masters, that she finds the joy in it that many of us do and that that encourages more former super-stars to jump back into the pool. I love going to Nationals and seeing/hearing stories about the guys and gals in the pool who swam in Olympics past and are still going strong. It's incredibly motivating.
Lefty:
I agree that its admirable and no matter what happens it will be big boost to USMS to have Janet be a USMS member and swim in our meets.
There was a drop off between 92 and 96 but there was a bigger drop off from 88/89 to 92 from the WR times that were swam in the 400 Free and 800 Free. Her winning time in the Olympics in 1988 was 4:03.85 compared to the time of 4:07.37 in 1992 for silver. Her 8:17.12 in 1988 and 8:16.22 in 1989 were faster than her winning time 8:25.52 in 1992.
In 1996 she swam a 8:38.91 for a sixth place but I don't believe that year she went under an 8:30 and her time at OT was 8:33.60 and in the 400 Free she was 9th missing the finals by two seconds at 4:13.60 when at the Olympic Trials she went for 4:10 and would have easily qualified for the final with that time. I remember a protest was filed by USA to FINA because Michelle Smith entered a qualifying time past the FINA deadline for submitting a time for this event at the 1996 Olympics and FINA upheld the time and denied the protest otherwise she would have been able to swim the 400 Free final.
I seem to recall that Evans fell off alot from 92 to 96. She will have to be faster than she was in 96 to make the team. It doesn't matter who you are or were, just going out there and giving it your best is admirable.
Therese Alshammar from Sweden is 33 and almost broke the world record in the 100 fly this weekend. Nice to see swimmers shattering the old myth that you had to retire from the sport after college.
I hope Janet does make a comeback. It would be great to see whether it's possible for a distance swimmer to get back to top shape at that age. She looked like she was in great shape when she appeared on Celebrity Circus last year so at least she's not starting from scratch.
Really? Name one besides Dara Torres.
Lars Frolander - Just check the news - yesterday at age 36 he won the 100 fly at the World Cup is Stockholm - 51.26 for 100 meters (sc) fly - that's just off his lifetime best of 50.44 (scm) in 2000 (the year he won the Olympic gold). Swimmers (and others) just keep expanding the perceived age limits for high level human performance.
I'm curious as to how you view high yardage vs lower, targeted yardage? I can tell you I was doing higher volume, 5 days a week as a kid but now I'm doing lower volume 4 days a week in my 40's but I'm beating my HS times. It can be done.
'curious here: What events have you beaten your HS best times in? Were these your focus events in HS? ...and how many years did you go without competing?
'curious here: What events have you beaten your HS best times in? Were these your focus events in HS? ...and how many years did you go without competing?
Let's see, I have my HS record book in front of me. I have beaten my 50 fly, 100 fly, 200 ***, 50 *** (just barely), 100 free, 50 free, 200 IM and 100 IM.
*** was my focus stroke. Mostly the 200 ***. Once my knee went bad, I switched to fly. Now I'm really a distance swimmer but in working on improving my distance events, my sprint events have gotten faster. I am 40 now. I stopped competing for 11 years - from when I was 18 until I was 29. I didn't swim in college.
You swam stroke 50s in HS or are you talking about relay splits? As far as I know the high school order of the events is very standard across the US and includes the stroke 100s, 50-500 free, 200 IM and the 200 medley and 200 (since the early '90s or so) and 400 free relays.
I've definitely gone faster in masters than in HS in the 100 and 200 free. I think those are the only ones. I'm sure I'm faster in the 50, too, but my HS coach was smart enough not to ever put me in that event! :)
'curious here: What events have you beaten your HS best times in? Were these your focus events in HS? ...and how many years did you go without competing?
I have beaten my best HS time in Masters in these events: 200 free, 500 free, 200 IM, 100 fly, 100 back. At my final high school meet, tapered and shaved, I swam the 200 free and 100 back and led off the 400 free relay. I surprised my coach by choosing the 100 back instead of the 100 fly. It's not a high school event, but I've also handily beaten my high-school-era time in the 200 back.
I have NOT beaten my best HS time in Masters in these events: 50 free and 100 free. I've gotten pretty close in the 100 free. If I ever swim the 100 free tapered and shaved in Masters, I should beat my HS time easily.
Although it is a high school event, I don't recall ever swimming the 100 *** in high school, so I haven't listed it in either category. I didn't swim the 200 fly, 400 IM, 1000 free, or 1650 free until college. And I didn't swim the 200 *** until Masters :)
Let's see, I have my HS record book in front of me. I have beaten my 50 fly, 100 fly, 200 ***, 50 *** (just barely), 100 free, 50 free, 200 IM and 100 IM.
It's very impressive that you have taken down your HS times across the board, the 200 *** and 200 IM, especially so.
I didn't compete for 26 years (but swam quite a lot on and off over the years and stayed active). I'm 46 now. In HS my focus events were 500 free & 200 IM, and to a lesser degree 100 back. I haven't even tried the 500 or 200 IM in masters. My best guess based on practice times is that I would be 25-30s off in the 500 and 10s off in the IM. I'm several seconds off from my HS 100 back best. I led-off the 4x100 free relay often in HS and I'm now within 't a HS event, but I am quite certain that I have beaten my age-group best in that event. Based strictly on my experiences, it looks like the lomger the event, the more challenging it is to regain your former speed, as is a theme in this thread. Is this due to some aspect of the aging process, or because I swim 1/3 the yardage that I did in HS? I don't know, and tripling my yardage isn't going to happen any time soon. Perhaps more will respond and provide more data.
