First up is the Men's 100 free, why the 100 free? It is relatively short and it was easiest to find videos of the races. The WRs are:
Cielo 40.92 SCY
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Cesar Cielo 46.91 LCM
Leveaux 44.94 SCM
All of these records are impressive on their own level and all three break barriers (41, 47 and 45). When breaking down the races, it came down to a great underwater and 2nd half swimmer, Leveaux, and a powerful, complete racer of Auburn, Cielo. Leveaux's percent difference for his 2nd 50 was only 6.4% slower than his first 50 compared to Cielo's 6.95% slower 2nd 50 in SCY and 10.39% slower 2nd 50 in LCM (LCM should be slower, because it's easier to maintain speed on turns). In Leveaux's 2nd 25 he saves his arms by kicking underwater for 4.8 seconds! Cesar only went half of that time under water and Cesar took 2 more strokes (12 to 10) a huge difference considering we're comparing SCY to SCM. Cielo's first 50 LCM (22.17) converts to a 19.07 SCY (maybe the swimming world converter has a few flaws, that seems a little too quick)! This is more than .5 seconds faster than his first 50 split in his 50 SCY record. However, Leveaux's second 50 converts to a unreal 20.81 SCY time! This back half speed is equally if not more impressive.
Now to pick a most impressive WR. Once again these are all impressive WRs, but if only one must be chosen then I'm going to go with......The Frenchman Amaury Leveaux!!!! I know I'm going to catch some heat on this pick, but objectively it is the best pick and I'll explain why. When he broke the WR in Croatia, he beat the field by .9 seconds and is currently .52 faster than anyone else ever in the event. One may argue, well not everyone swims SCM or they don't taper for these meets, but his times also convert (46.28 LCM and 40.27 SCY) to faster times than either of Cielo's WRs. It was hard not to pick Cielo's 100 LCM record (that was a great race within the field) but this one goes to the lanky 6'7" Frenchman who will be singing La Marseillaise all day long.
What do you all think??? If anyone has better videos or statistics, share them or if anyone has conflicting data.
GJohn
Sorry dude, i don´t buy it!
ReplyDeleteWhen Cielo made his 40.92y free record(wearing a FSPro), he was a 48.3LCM racer(Ok, after Olympics he become a 47.67).If you should put 100free time from Leveaux more impressible, OK.But i think it´s much more harder to beat Cielo´s 46.9LCM times than Leveaux short curse time.Remember:Nor Cielo,Bernard or Sullivan has swam a good short course race.
Mr. Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI like your arguments and appreciate your skepticism, but your argument that Cielo, Bernard and Sullivan had poor showings in SCM is helping my argument, I could equally argue that Leveaux has also had poor LCM and more importantly has never swam a SCY meet. Like you said, the article is the most impressive WR not the hardest to beat.
What?! If it's not the hardest to beat what is so impressive on that? Makes no sense at all. Back to the article, I don't Know what's more impressive, but logically speaking Cielo is faster now than he was at the of SCY's record and he proves to be faster than Leveaux, so the 100free LC record is more impressive. That looking only the time itself not taking in consideration who, when or how is was done.
ReplyDeleteThat is a fair opinion, Cielo's LC record is quite impressive and possibly the toughest to beat, but that is unmeasurable. All I can do is back my argument with the objective data in the post, but you are entitled to your opinion.
ReplyDeleteYou gotta admit there's no logic saying a record is more impressive if it's not the hardest to beat. You can think whatever record is more impressive but this one had to be the toughest, in your opinion. Another thing is take in consideration other thing but the time itself, for example what's more impressive swim 100 free in 48s or 50s? And what's more impressive michael phelps swim 100 free in 48s and Popov, today, swim it in 50s (without any super suit)?
ReplyDeleteI agree that there are more things to take into consideration, some variables I considered were: the age of the record, the amount the record is ahead of the second fastest swimmer in history, how much the swimmer won the race in which the WR was set (I didn't take into account the suit worn with the WR, because this is too hard to factor). Leveax's record is .52 faster than anyone else in the event, it was done in the same year as Cielo's SCY WR. These are some of the objective measure's taken into my account of the most impressive WR and like you said it is an opinion to select the toughest to beat and that is not my goal.
ReplyDeleteGood debate!
I think Leveaux's was more impressive, and both were wearing tech suits' - I believe Leveaux's strong finish indicates he will do well without a 'techsuit'
ReplyDeleteJohn, don't feel any obligation to link to me. I linked to you because your site is pretty amazing and would have linked to you despite your affiliation with SCAQ or as a quid pro quo exchange for a link.
hi next week the french shortcourse national will take place with the new fina swimsuit rule . it will be interesting to see the difference of time .
ReplyDeleteSheesh, back to the dark ages.
ReplyDeleteSometimes you can have the right intentions, both the moral and ethical high ground, even the correct data and still get the wrong result.
Swimming will contract.
Maly, I am also interested in the results. Tony I can't believe the suits are headed backwards either...seems counter intuitive of evolution to retract an attribute that made swimmers better
ReplyDeletethe french national will be on eurosport for the 2n year ,i will try to get videos of the races next weekend .
ReplyDeletei have a youtube channel with plenty of races :
http://www.youtube.com/dublincat
You so rule, Maly! I can't wait to hear what John thinks? :-)
ReplyDeleteVery cool- interesting stuff here.
ReplyDeleteMaly, sounds great we need more videos of swimming available. I can't wait to compare some of the times.
ReplyDeleteTony are you swimming regionals next weekend?
Anyone have any videos of women's ncaa?
I am swimming next weekend at SCM Championships and I do not expect to do well. I have been either sick or injured since August and pool time has been spotty. I think there are some womens NCAA swim videos hidden at blip.tv
ReplyDeletethis weekend frederick bousquet was swimming his first LC meet in eindoven under the new fina rule . he did well : his time winning the 50 fly was 23"67 only 0"13 slower than his pb done in a lzr (june 2008). his time in the 50 free was 22"10 against his WR swam in a jaked : 20"94. in an interview he said the only difference between the jammer and the full suit is that the leg hurts more .
ReplyDeleteThanks Tony, I guess I'll see you at SCM championships. Maly, that is a great Bousquet quote. Those times are pretty good, we'll see how he does at French nationals.
ReplyDeletei have posted on you tube some of the final of today at the french sc national . i wasn't able to get the 50 free video because i arrived too late from work . the links to the videos is http://www.youtube.com/user/dublincat
ReplyDeleteThank you Maly, this will definitely help.
ReplyDeleteIf Cielo had a LZR Racer or an X-Glide for the NCAA Nationals, I feel he would have gone a 39.xx in the 100 yd. Free.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to say what he would have gone, but I think 39.xx is a little quick. Too bad it's unlikely we'll ever see it
ReplyDeleteJohn, you left out Bernard's 100 Free from the French Nationals for discussion. He was the first man to go under 47 seconds in the LCM 100 Free. Granted the X-Glide wasn't approved at the time, but neither was Bousquet's Jaked01 when he set the 50 Free record. But Bernard's swim is very impressive. He went out in 22.35 and came back with a 24.59! His first 50 was slightly slower than Cielo's first at the world championships, but his second 50 was faster by .15! That's a lot for a sprint race. It could determine first from fourth these days.
ReplyDeleteThat is true, I forgot about that since since they determined it was in an "illegal" suit. Do you have a link to the video, I'd love to analyze it.
ReplyDeleteJohn, here is the link to Bernard's 100m Free 46.94
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P4cXzDmvIM
Leveaux used TWO hi-tech suits, which was not allowed by FINA afterwards. So, it isn't a fair comparation.
ReplyDelete