What indeed is up with the Olympic swimmers at Beijing this year? Why have world records been absolutely slaughtered left and right in the Water Cube? And how the hell did Michael Phelps manage to keep his promise of getting 8 gold medals at one event tallying his total to 14 making him the worlds greatest athlete to ever grace the Olympic Games?
I think the question should be is Michael Phelps _actually_ the greatest athlete? Were all his medals deserved? There is no doubt he beat every other swimmer in the Water Cube, which might say he'd beat them in any other pool, but how is it that in something like 5 out of the 8 events he swam in, he smashed the records whether it was in the heats or the finals.
A better question would be were all the RECORDS set at these specific games fairly earned? After looking into the subject about the engineering of the swim suits worn by the record holders, the engineering and of the pool and through interviews with retired swimmers themselves I think I have reason to believe that the majority of the these records should be made void.
Let's start of with the suits shall we? The Tracer Rise suit designed by TYR made it's claim to fame in Athens in 2004. Since then Speedo released a new ultimate swimming suit, the LZR RACER, crafted to utter perfection and at $500US a pop it claimed 33 out of the 36 medals at Beijing. There is no doubt that these new suits are giving swimmers a step up to swim those extra split seconds faster but seriously, how is this allowed? The poor buggers 8 years ago didn't have such a luxury. The good old gruds did a fine job at cracking the times. With the blatant unfair advantage shouldn't these new records be made redundant unless they were swum under the exact same conditions as they were set? What does it say about the previous record holders? If they were given these super-suits would they have done just as well? And what about the poor schmucks who couldn't even afford these suits? It's like giving an old man a second walking stick in an old man race. All the other old men have 1 walking stick and they'd have no chance.
I don't agree at all with the allowance of bigger and better suits at each games. And that brings me to my next point. The fantastically designed, brand spanking new, took 5 years to build Water Cube was a sight for sore eyes. There are dozens of aesthetic features which would evidentially put it on that show "Megastructures" on the discovery channel. But what about the swimming pool itself? The one designed to host the races which will be the decider of not only who the greatest swimmers in the world are but could be the difference in the medal counts for many proud countries.
According to this article, the engineers designed a swimming pool that would hopefully increase the speed the swimmers were able to achieve and maintain. A deeper pool gives waves a chance to die off, avoiding collision. The pool itself is 3 feet deeper and has 2 more lanes than pools previously used at the Olympics and the lane dividers (also known as wave eaters) are there to dissipate the surface turbulence.
Hold on.
What about the other Olympic Pools where competitors struggled for their achievements? They didn't have such advantage.
A veteran of 13 Olympics and an Olympic columnist Christine Brennan says, "You make a deeper and a wider pool, and you ... give all of those waves and all of that splashing and all of that moving water a chance to move away from the swimmers and get out of their way, which makes them go faster. It's as simple as that."
It's not like you can make the running track for the sprinters any faster.
Even swimmers who attended the games and swam in the Water Cube are saying that it's easily the fastest pool they've ever swam in. Former Olympian and U.S. swimming champion John Naber has this [AUDIO] to say about the state of the swimming pool.
Another article suggest that it's just the evolution of the human body, the generations of swimmers passing on genes to create the ultimate aqua-men. Many swimmers just believe that the human race is just reaching the peak of the perfect physical condition. Does this mean that pretty soon records aren't going to keep falling in almost every swimming event? Or does it mean they're just going to have to design even better pools and suits to make up for it?
Now I'm not baggin' on my boy Michael Phelps (even though I'm terribly jealous of his diet), he is definitely the undisputed king of the swimming pool and he would probably still win the majority without these little tools but I'm still in the boat saying no to technological advances when it comes to world records. It's just unfair and it really just shits all over the names of who previously had their heads held high in those records books.
If you would like read more into the opinions of various writers and athletes on this debate feel free to visit my delicious where I've compiled a list of links.
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6 comments:
Hi
Firstly I would like to say how interesting I found your text. You have obviously done your research well and you have a great writing style.
I found your information on the pool size differences thought provoking, as I would have imagined regulations would stipulate all pools would have to be a regulation size, but obviously not, so I agree comparisons between records become difficult.
It makes you think, how exactly are they getting away with this and praising all these new super athletes when their tee has been placed half way up the course?
I haven't really looked too much into some current debate over this subject but I can only imagine (from a spectator's point of view) that the majority would be the same as this.
I agree, and if this is a sign of things to come then it must be mandatory for every swimming pool in the Olympics from here on out must be of Water Cube standard or higher.
Same deal with the suits.
But that raises a question, since the Water Cube is the fastest pool so far, do you have to scale the old world records or what? I reckon it is more of a 'times a changing', look at running shoe technology.
Agreeing with renabrab, I thought regulations run rampant in the Olympics, example being when you go to a pool and its "olympic size".
My two cents.
lol omgs everything i wondered abt is in on your post ! but despite the debates going on, he is a hero there aye
It's really an interesting topic.
Every body was excited when Phelps got 8 gold medals at the Water Cube and I think he deserved it even though the design of the Water Cube may help his record in some ways.
We human beings are getting progress in every area, including use new technologies in sports to help the best record can be achieved. That's the representation of human civilisation.
If the records should be made void because the new technologies applied in swimming suit or running shoes or facilities, does it mean bare feet or wear leaves-like suits are fair enough for every competitor?
Making the records void because of a different pool is one thing, but you can't deny the fact that he did beat everyone and won 8 gold medals. Everyone was in the same pool.
Personally, I would like to see a "Steroid Olympics", an event with NO rules, genetic modification, performance enhancing drugs, it would have it all.
Imagine what the new records would be like.
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