Olympic pool swimmers and open-water swimming?

I found another video of Davies but this time in a pool, take a look at it and compare. www.olympic.org/swimming-1500m-freestyle-men Thanks for posting. It is great to watch both races. HAs anyone come across a good interview with David Davies where he discusses and compares the two races. The open water race just seems so much more dynamic and packed with strategy. There are so many variables and the swimmer needs to constantly adapt.

Continuing with the videos... This is probably the best footage of open-water racing I've ever seen. It's from the 1-mile British Gas Great Salford Swim, which took place on May 25. www.greatswim.org/.../Default.aspx The link first shows the men's race (won by Olympic bronze-medalist Thomas Lurz). There's no separate link for the women's race (won by Olympic silver-medalist Keri-Anne Payne), but you can view it by clicking the arrow at the right-hand corner of the video screen.

When a race is wetsuit legal (no separate division), and you plan on racing, then for me a wetsuit is the logical choice. The water temp was 14.4C (57.9F) with mid-50s air temp - pretty cold even for those guys. At those temps, wetsuits don't just make them a bit faster; it becomes a completely different race.

It may make it a different race, but not a different sport. ... I would think that swimming as hard as they were, keeping warm would not be a significant issue. I should have clarified: I don't have a (big) problem with wetsuit-legal races, esp. at those temps. They may not have been in danger of hypothermia w/o wetsuits (they were in the water less than 20 mins). However at sub-15F a not-insignificant portion of their energy is being diverted to keeping warm - energy they can't use for propulsion. Presumably there are individual differences in this factor, and some will be relatively advantaged/disadvantaged.

Continuing with the videos... This is probably the best footage of open-water racing I've ever seen. It's from the 1-mile British Gas Great Salford Swim, which took place on May 25. www.greatswim.org/.../Default.aspx The link first shows the men's race (won by Olympic bronze-medalist Thomas Lurz). There's no separate link for the women's race (won by Olympic silver-medalist Keri-Anne Payne), but you can view it by clicking the arrow at the right-hand corner of the video screen. Great coverage; great race. An impressive field including Lurz, Davies & Stoychev (sub 7 hour EC) all wearing wetsuits. When a race is wetsuit legal (no separate division), and you plan on racing, then for me a wetsuit is the logical choice. I think everyone can decide for themselves, but I think it's time to recognize racing in wetsuits on equal par with going naked.

The water temp was 14.4C (57.9F) with mid-50s air temp - pretty cold even for those guys. At those temps, wetsuits don't just make them a bit faster; it becomes a completely different race. It may make it a different race, but not a different sport. I don't think that the crowd could have been any more excited than they were. I'm not a cold water swimmer, but I did about an hour in the SF Bay at 53° this year with a bunch of people (sans wetsuit) that love it cold. I would think that swimming as hard as they were, keeping warm would not be a significant issue. Particularly for Stoychev who was in the Channel for 7 hours at similar temperatures.

Wouldn't it be interesting to have open water races for each individual style breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly? People certainly do solo channel swims all four strokes, but I can see some practical difficulties with actual races: Back: How do you know where you're going? Fly: clashing arms ***: clashing legs (can you imagine a frog kick to the face with swedish goggles on?)

Where's the problem? You can put them all into one race at the same time. It would be a great spectator sport Oh, like aqua-gladiators. Awesome. Maybe Richard Branson will sponsor it.

This is probably the best footage of open-water racing I've ever seen. It's from the 1-mile British Gas Great Salford Swim, which took place on May 25. www.greatswim.org/.../Default.aspx That is a great video! Ditto the best footage of open-water racing I have seen. Thanks for the link! Wouldn't it be interesting to have open water races for each individual style breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly?

I'm still waiting for reply to my post in this thread--some crossed the English Channel in backstroke. Escort boat + peripheral vision, I would assume. Tina Neill is quite alive and well in (I think) Minnesota; perhaps someone can ask her.