NCAA Swimming (off topic)

[The King]

I know that it's not Track & Field, but for those who take even a mild interest in Swimming, something must be said about the performances within the NCAA Division 1 Swimming champs. They are off the hook! World records, NCAA record, Collegiate record, etc. have just been smashed into oblivion. Is the pool super-fast or is it just the talent of the swimmers prevailing in this highly-important Olympic year???

Results:

http://www.ncaasports.com/swimming/mens/results/divi

[Pego]

Re: NCAA Swimming (off topic)

Some of these times boggle the mind. 100 fly on the verge of breaking 49. Wow!

[misterp]

Re: NCAA Swimming (off topic)

T&F fans feel that the mass media ignore their sport, and that their stars receive less respect than perhaps lesser athletes in more mainstream sports. These complaints are accurate. But T&F is pro football compared to swimming.

The results at this year's NCAAs are out-of-this-world. Ian Cocker - from Texas - broke the 10-year-old 100m world record by 1/2 second. He also smashed the world record in the 100 fly.

I've seen nothing at all about the meet in the NY or LA Times, or on ESPN. T&F gets dissed, but at least the media takes note of a world record.

[MJD]

Re: NCAA Swimming (off topic)

>"The swimmers were competing in a 25-meter pool, as opposed to 50-meter
>lengths they would swim in Olympic competition."

Shorter pool means more
>turns and thus more pushoffs and faster times. Still great performances, but
>mitigated by the short pool.

I saw that but wouldn't many of the records they were breaking have been set in the same length of pool?

[hj197steve]

Re: NCAA Swimming (off topic)

25 meter pools are MUCH, repeat MUCH, faster than 50 meter pools.... 2 totally different sets of records, with only 50 meter pool records being official. If any of us "track experts" were sitting at a swim meet and said aloud the things that have been stated in this thread, all the swimming aficianados that overheard would roll their eyes and whisper what a bunch of idiots we were.... just like we have all done mucho times at a track meet when we overheard idiotic remarks regarding track and field.

[MJD]

Re: NCAA Swimming (off topic)

>25 meter pools are MUCH, repeat MUCH, faster than 50 meter pools.... 2 totally
>different sets of records, with only 50 meter pool records being official. If
>any of us "track experts" were sitting at a swim meet and said aloud the
>things that have been stated in this thread, all the swimming aficianados that
>overheard would roll their eyes and whisper what a bunch of idiots we were....
>just like we have all done mucho times at a track meet when we overheard
>idiotic remarks regarding track and field.


So what you are saying is that the first post is wrong and they aren't world records? They either are or they aren't. Many seem to think that they are:

http://news.google.ca/news?hl=en&ie=UTF ... &scoring=d

[asu]

Re: NCAA Swimming (off topic)

This was in the article.
In all, seven short course world records fell during the three-day event.
It appears there are short course and long course records.

[MJD]

Re: NCAA Swimming (off topic)

But the thing is that a lot of swimmers swim close to half of their races in 25 meter pools. So, it is all relative. This isn't analogous to getting all excited about, say, the women's 3000 meter steeplechase and pole vault records 10 years ago. These are reasonably frequently contested events contested by the most of the best swimmers in the world. So, if someone sets a world record in a 25 meter pool, it is something and to refer to it as a world record is not displaying any ignorance. And, by the way, any idiot knows that a 25 meter pool is much faster than a 50 meter pool and the fact that you think that you have to explain that to this board shows that you underestimate the sporting knowledge of most of the people that frequent this board.

Here is the world swimming records site:

http://www.fina.org/recordshome.html

Case closed.

[Powell]

Re: NCAA Swimming (off topic)

Short-course world records are more or less analogous to the indoor WRs in T&F. There is a separate short-course season (in the winter), short-course world champs, and a separate set of records. And, like indoor competition, it's not considered as prestigious, but the WRs are still tough. The difference, of course, is that in T&F running on shorter tracks makes you slower, while in swimming, short courses are faster.

[misterp]

Re: NCAA Swimming (off topic)

This discussion is like what you'd expect if a bunch of swimming nuts sat around discussing T&F. Yes - there are long course records, set in a 50 meter pool. There are short course meters records, set in a 25 meter pool. There are even short course yards records, set in a 25 yard pool. A 50 yard short course record is faster than a 50 meter short course record - of course, it's shorter. And a 50 meter short course record is faster than a 50 meter long course record, because you get turns in short course.

So what? A college kid - Ian Crocker - crushed the ten-year-old 50 meter short course record set by the great Alexander Popov. Popov has set sprint records in every kind of pool and will be among the favorites in the sprints in Athens. Could Crocker swim the same time in a 50 meter pool? Of course not, but who cares? Michael Johnson never ran 19.36 indoors, either. It's a different event.

Suffice it to say, this year's NCAA swim championship was extraordinary.

On a related, unrelated subject, at Australia's Olympic Trials the world's best middle distance swimmer, Ian Thorpe, was disqualified in the finals of his best event, the 400 IM, when he fell off the blocks before the gun. He will not swim that event in Athens. On several swimming sites, you'll find fans in heated discussion over swimming's one-false-start-and-you're-out rule. Familiar?

[MJD]

Re: NCAA Swimming (off topic)

There
>are even short course yards records, set in a 25 yard pool.

Guess what country is pretty well the only country that competes at these events?

[Jon]

Re: NCAA Swimming (off topic)

>Guess
>what country is pretty well the only country that competes at these events?



Madagascar?
Lichtenstein?
Sri Lanka?
Turkmenistan?



Am I getting warm...?

;-)

[Mel]

Re: NCAA Swimming (off topic)

"If any of us "track experts" were sitting at a swim meet and said aloud the things that have been stated in this thread, all the swimming aficianados that overheard would roll their eyes and whisper what a bunch of idiots we were."

No kidding.

[MJD]

Re: NCAA Swimming (off topic)

>"If any of us "track experts" were sitting at a swim meet and said aloud the
>things that have been stated in this thread, all the swimming aficianados that
>overheard would roll their eyes and whisper what a bunch of idiots we
>were."

>No kidding.

What specifically are you and hj197steve talking about?

[Per Andersen]

Re: NCAA Swimming (off topic)

Why are we discussing short-course swimming records all of a sudden? There is no comparison.
They have two sets of records in swimming.
As far as I know Popov still has the short-course 100 Free record 46.74 and the Dutch guy has the 100 long-course record with high 47.