Browsing: Competition

Madsen, who had a long history of coaching in Germany before accepting the DSV offer, is not yet convinced the Speedo suit makes a technical difference but there is no questioning the psychological impact.
“There have been 39 world records, long and short course, this year and 90 percent of them were in Speedo,” Madsen told Reuters during a poolside interview in Berlin, shortly before Australian swimmers set two more women’s records.
“That, or course, does something to the athletes. It’s almost impossible to put yourself in a state of mind where you say it doesn’t matter. Of course it matters.

Source: guardian.co.uk

Drug traffickers risk 5 years in jail and €75,000 fine (7 years and €150,000 if the offence is committed as part of an organised group or against a minor), while the maximum sentence is a year in prison and a €3,750 fine when the offence is committed by a sports person for his personal use. Source: AFP

Gary Hall Jr is pretty adamant about it: “There’s obviously something there besides technology”, “I don’t want it to take the attention away from the performances but there’s doping going on in sports” and “It’s a convenient distraction for the people who dope and those who aren’t cracking down on it”. Source: Reuters

Amaury Leveaux has broken the european men’s 50 free SCM record today with a time of 21.38, well below the 21.50 former record of Alain Bernard that was the world mark one month again, and just one tenth of a second from the 21.28 that is the current world record of Eamon Sullivan. Read here at SwimInfo.

Two world records fell at the Australian Grand Prix yesterday. Libby Trickett broke the 100 butterfly world record with a time of 55.74, beating Felicia Galvez’s time of 55.89 from two weeks ago. And Leisel Jones lowered her own 100 breaststroke world record from 1:03.86 to 1:03.72. Read here and here at SwimInfo.

Try and tell me that if Matt Biondi or Tom Jager wore these suits they wouldn’t have been much faster. Jager’s 21.81 50 free from 1990 with a two percent decrease is a 21.37. All of a sudden Eamon’s 21.28 isn’t that ridiculous. Biondi’s 21.85 (1990) and 48.42 (1988) turn into 21.41 and a “world record” 47.45 respectively.

How about the women? Janet Evans’ 4:03.85 400 free from 1988 turns into a 3:58.97. Mary T’s 2:05.96 200 fly from 1981 turns into a 2:03.44. I could go all day with this, but you get the point.

The truly scary part is that this “two percent” theory applies to the new suits vs. the most recent suits before hand. Compare it to what the older timers above were wearing and you go way past the realm of ridiculous.

Source: SwimNetwork.com

As you can read here on SwimInfo.com, TYR yesterday announced its newest swimsuit called the Tracer Rice at the French Olympic Trials. According to Scott Goldblatt at SwimNetwork.com, one of the novelties of this new suit is that it shifts the center of buoyancy closer to the center of mass, in such a way that the legs now sink less relative to the rest of the body.

Laure Manaudou is having a difficult time at the French Olympic Trials, first finishing only third in the 400 freestyle, and then pulling out of the 200. She holds the world record in both events. Read more about it for instance here on SwimNews and here on iht.com.

Here is the 400 freestyle with Manoudou getting very emotional when questioned by journalists afterwards.

Germanys Britta Steffen set a new European Record at the German Olympic trials today, breaking her own and until recently global standard of 53.30 with the new time of 53.20. This was not in a Speedo LZR Racer, but in an Adidas PowerWeb full body suit. Sources: SwimNews and SwimInfo.

Bernard broke the opposition and softened up the record with the fierce speed of his first length.

“I always went out very fast. If you think before the race that the end will be tiring you’ll never make it,” he said.

He acknowledged there had been a change in approach to the classic 100m race, with the emphasis now on power rather than technique as exemplified by past master Alexander Popov and Van den Hoogenband, who was not well enough to swim the event here.

“Yes, it’s more power, but power always with technique. Without technique it’s very difficult to swim,” Bernard said.

Source: tvnz.co.nz