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Featured Replies

8 minutes ago, Shut up Lou Holtz said:

Good article from swimswam today:

 

https://swimswam.com/other-facts-to-consider-when-looking-at-slow-times-in-paris/

 

This Olympics is slow!!!!! Slowest men’s 100 breaststroke since 2004. Among many others. It’s been bothering me watching these swims as something just seems off. I can’t figure it out. But I’m reaching out to some coaching buddies to pick their brains. 

The pool is shallow.  

13 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

The pool is shallow.  

This is true. Australian trials pools is even more shallow yet had better times. Women’s 200free as the example. It is part of the equation for sure but my gut is saying something else is off too

17 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

The pool is shallow.  

I noticed that today.

Normally, fast pools are at least 9' (if my memory is correct) and watching the back strokers jumping in today, no way that pool is 9'.

The US generally churns out dominant male swimmers, but the rest of the world has clearly caught up. There's a non-zero chance the US leaves Paris without an individual gold medal by a male swimmer. I don't think that has happened in my lifetime.

Edited by perfectchaos007

12 minutes ago, BillyGoatHill said:

I noticed that today.

Normally, fast pools are at least 9' (if my memory is correct) and watching the back strokers jumping in today, no way that pool is 9'.

3m

 

Here is an article

https://sports.yahoo.com/paris-olympics-2024-is-a-slow-swimming-pool-impeding-world-records-133347713.html

Edited by BurntOrange&White

Many years ago, I had some swimmers qualifying for junior nationals at aggy’s natatorium. A few college swimmers were trying to get their NC cuts and they did a laser measurement of the pool. Turns out aggy screwed up their measurements with the bulkhead! The jokes just write themselves for those goofballs 

22 minutes ago, perfectchaos007 said:

The US generally churns out dominant male swimmers, but the rest of the world has clearly caught up. There's a non-zero chance the US leaves Paris without an individual gold medal by a male swimmer. I don't think that has happened in my lifetime.

European men have one every individual event so far. Dressel maybe? We will see how things shake out 

Ledecky is such a freak. She won her heat in the 1500m freestyle by 18 seconds 

3 minutes ago, DigglerontheHoof said:

You would think there would be dimension standards for Olympic/World Championship events.  This is very aggy. 

They built It from scratch in an arena that does not normally host swimming events.  They had a video of them breaking down the arena after a Taylor Swift concert and building the pool on the arena floor.   If I had to guess, maybe there was an issue with sight lines?

6 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

They built It from scratch in an arena that does not normally host swimming events.  They had a video of them breaking down the arena after a Taylor Swift concert and building the pool on the arena floor.   If I had to guess, maybe there was an issue with sight lines?

So did the US for trials (in an NFL stadium). Our pool was only 2.5 meters deep.

12 hours ago, perfectchaos007 said:

The US generally churns out dominant male swimmers, but the rest of the world has clearly caught up. There's a non-zero chance the US leaves Paris without an individual gold medal by a male swimmer. I don't think that has happened in my lifetime.

Dressel, Alexy, and Finke all have a great shot at gold in their events. 

  • Author
11 hours ago, Shut up Lou Holtz said:

European men have one every individual event so far. Dressel maybe? We will see how things shake out 

A lot of the European men train the United States with US coaches (a lot are at Texas now that Bob Bowman is there).  Will be interesting to see what happens going forward. 

Just now, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

A lot of the European men train the United States with US coaches (a lot are at Texas now that Bob Bowman is there).  Will be interesting to see what happens going forward. 

buddy of mine who was a swim coach described it as "swimming for flags" since they all train and live in the US.

  • Author
Just now, The Dog said:

buddy of mine who was a swim coach described it as "swimming for flags" since they all train and live in the US.

Yep.  You heard in the prelims that a lot of the swimmers attend college in the US. The college swimming and diving teams are like minor leagues for swimming. 

I will say this, swimming, as a competitive sport, is not cheap. And I wonder if there are things that can be done at the rec league/kids club level to allow more kids to participate. It would be a shame if the next Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecky never fulfill their potential due to lack of money. I thought USA Swimming used to do a lot to help with that, but I wonder if, like other administrative bodies, it has become bloated and self important.  I would hope after this Olympics, they go back and take a hard look at what they need to do to prep for 2028.

3 minutes ago, The Dog said:

buddy of mine who was a swim coach described it as "swimming for flags" since they all train and live in the US.

Bingo. This is the truth. While I was with the Texas women’s swim program, one of our swimmers swam for her flag but lived and trained her whole life here in the states. 
 

Another fun story, while working with that young lady training for the Olympics I stopped her practice completely to work on streamline because she literally did not streamline ever. The head women’s coach at the time saw that I was correcting her and changing her practice so she fucking reamed me on the pool deck in front of the team. She was very possessive of “her” Olympian so when the assistant (me) attempted to help she fucking lost it. Fast forward to the finals at the Olympics later that year. Guess who didn’t streamline on their last turn and lost the gold medal? I guess that dumbass assistant might have known something after all 

16 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

A lot of the European men train the United States with US coaches (a lot are at Texas now that Bob Bowman is there).  Will be interesting to see what happens going forward. 

Well hopefully they come to Texas and we churn out natty after natty

5 minutes ago, Shut up Lou Holtz said:

Bingo. This is the truth. While I was with the Texas women’s swim program, one of our swimmers swam for her flag but lived and trained her whole life here in the states. 
 

Another fun story, while working with that young lady training for the Olympics I stopped her practice completely to work on streamline because she literally did not streamline ever. The head women’s coach at the time saw that I was correcting her and changing her practice so she fucking reamed me on the pool deck in front of the team. She was very possessive of “her” Olympian so when the assistant (me) attempted to help she fucking lost it. Fast forward to the finals at the Olympics later that year. Guess who didn’t streamline on their last turn and lost the gold medal? I guess that dumbass assistant might have known something after all 

Coach Dumbass Assistant*

13 hours ago, Shut up Lou Holtz said:

Many years ago, I had some swimmers qualifying for junior nationals at aggy’s natatorium. A few college swimmers were trying to get their NC cuts and they did a laser measurement of the pool. Turns out aggy screwed up their measurements with the bulkhead! The jokes just write themselves for those goofballs 


shocked no way GIF

1 hour ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Yep.  You heard in the prelims that a lot of the swimmers attend college in the US. The college swimming and diving teams are like minor leagues for swimming. 

I will say this, swimming, as a competitive sport, is not cheap. And I wonder if there are things that can be done at the rec league/kids club level to allow more kids to participate. It would be a shame if the next Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecky never fulfill their potential due to lack of money. I thought USA Swimming used to do a lot to help with that, but I wonder if, like other administrative bodies, it has become bloated and self important.  I would hope after this Olympics, they go back and take a hard look at what they need to do to prep for 2028.

I'll start by saying my information is dated by ~3 decades when I was in HS, so things may well be different, but I suspect not completely.

I swam for Skyine HS is Dallas, we shared the pool with Bryan Adam HS. Skyline coach had been an Olympic qualifier. That's to say, for a poorer inner city school Skyline was in great shape. 

Dallas Carter, Kimble and similar schools were in our division. This is not me mocking at ALL. There were competitors that sometimes struggled to finish a 100 free. By struggling i mean, some walked parts or just got out of the pool. It was clear that some had barely been in a pool, ever, much less practiced regularly. I was a 16-17 y/o complete asshole and I felt truly bad for them. Let that shit sink in.

So, I'm absolutely certain there are entire cities worth of amazing athletes that will go unknown for their swimming. Truth is, this isn't limited to swimming, but it's exacerbated by the fact that I don't think a lot even have access to a swimming facility. That's not to even speak of swimming coach/gear etc. The fuck you gonna buy swim goggles in da hood and Phelps ain't driving to South Dallas to coach. (No knock on Phelps, I ain't either)

swimmers have underachieved a bit today. 

that said, this is a very young US men's team outside of a couple of dudes. they'll all be back in LA ready to rock.

23 hours ago, perfectchaos007 said:

The US generally churns out dominant male swimmers, but the rest of the world has clearly caught up. There's a non-zero chance the US leaves Paris without an individual gold medal by a male swimmer. I don't think that has happened in my lifetime.

I haven't wanted to bitch, but this is not a good swimming showing for team USA. Thank god for Women's 7.

Any Ausie fuck-wad gives you shit about swimming, just toss a rugby reference right up their dumpa. 

liked the Olympic swimming coach wearing Longhorn gear on his taped piece 🤘

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