Monday 11 January 2010

Percentage Changes By Event Pre/Post Polyurethane suits

One area of the swimming world which I believe has been overlooked is a statistical analysis of the effect Polyurethane suits had on the sport. We hear about how many WRs we've seen since they were introduced but that is where the figures stop. I've chosen to look closer at the impact of the suits on WRs. By publishing these figures I hope to show which events moved on faster than others since the introduction of Polyurethane suits. This should give us some insight into which events we may see new WRs in the next few years. If you take a slight leap of faith - the lower the percentage change, the less impact the suit had on the pre-Polyurethane WR and the more likely they could be broken in 2010 suits.


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Pre-Poly WRPost-Poly WR%age Change

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50m Freestyle21.64Alexander Popov20.91Cesar Cielo3.373%

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100m Freestyle47.84P. v.d Hoogenband 46.91Cesar Cielo1.944%

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200m Freestyle1:43.86Michael Phelps1:42.00Paul Biedermann1.791%

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400m Freestyle3:40.08Ian Thorpe 3:40.07Paul Biedermann0.005%

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800m Freestyle7:38.65Grant Hackett 7:32.12Zhang Lin1.424%

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1500m Freestyle14:34.56Grant Hackett 14:34.56Grant Hackett 0%

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50m Backstroke24.8Thomas Rupprath 24.04Liam Tancock3.065%

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100m Backstroke52.98Aaron Peirsol 51.94Aaron Peirsol1.963%

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200m Backstroke1:54.30Ryan Lochte 1:51.92Aaron Peirsol2.082%

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50m Breaststroke27.18Oleg Lisogor 26.67van der Burgh1.876%

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100m Breaststroke59.13Brendan Hansen 58.58Brenton Rickard0.93%

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200m Breaststroke2:08.50Brendan Hansen 2:07.31Christian Sprenger0.926%

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50m Butterfly22.96Roland Schoeman 22.43Rafael Munoz2.308%

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100m Butterfly50.4Ian Crocker 49.82Michael Phelps1.151%

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200m Butterfly1:52.09Michael Phelps 1:51.51Michael Phelps0.517%

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200m Individual Medley1:54.98Michael Phelps 1:54.10Ryan Lochte0.765%

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400m Individual Medley4:06.22Michael Phelps 4:03.84Michael Phelps0.967%

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4 x 100m Freestyle3:12.46USA3:08.24USA2.193%

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4 x 100m Medley3:30.68USA3:27.28USA1.614%

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4 x 200m Freestyle7:03.24USA6:58.55USA1.108%

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Pre-Poly WRPost-Poly WR%age Change

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50m Freestyle24.13Inge de Bruijn23.73Britta Steffen1.658%

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100m Freestyle53.3Britta Steffen 52.07Britta Steffen2.308%

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200m Freestyle1:55.52Laure Manaudou1:52.98Federica Pellegrini2.199%

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400m Freestyle4:02.13Laure Manaudou3:59.15Federica Pellegrini1.231%

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800m Freestyle8:16.22Janet Evans 8:14.10Rebecca Adlington0.427%

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1500m Freestyle15:42.54Kate Ziegler15:42.54Kate Ziegler0%

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50m Backstroke28.09Li Yang 27.06Zhao Jing3.667%

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100m Backstroke59.44Natalie Coughlin 58.12Gemma Spofforth2.221%

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200m Backstroke2:06.62Krisztina Egerszegi2:05.24Kirsty Coventry1.09%

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50m Breaststroke30.31Jade Edmistone 29.8Jessica Hardy1.683%

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100m Breaststroke1:05.09Leisel Jones 1:04.45Jessica Hardy0.983%

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200m Breaststroke02:20.5Leisel Jones 2:20.12Annamay Pierse0.299%

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50m Butterfly25.33A Kammerling25.07Therese Alshammar1.026%

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100m Butterfly56.61Inge de Bruijn 56.06Sarah Sjöström0.972%

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200m Butterfly2:05.40Jessicah Schipper 2:01.81Liu Zige2.863%

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200m Individual Medley2:09.72Yanyan Wu 2:06.15Ariana Kukors2.752%

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400m Individual Medley4:32.89Katie Hoff 4:29.45Stephanie Rice1.261%

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4 x 100m Freestyle3:35.22GER3:31.72NET1.626%

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4 x 100m Medley3:55.74AUS3:52.19CHI1.506%

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4 x 200m Freestyle7:50.09USA7:44.31AUS1.23%



If we break this down by stroke, we find some interesting results. I've taken the percentage changes from the WRs of 50s, 100s and 200s of all 4 strokes and compared the total effect.

Mens

Freestyle - 7.108% (50 - 3.373%, 100 - 1.944%, 200 - 1.791%)
Backstroke - 7.110% (50 - 3.065%, 100 - 1.963%, 200 - 2.082%)
Breaststroke - 3.733% (50 - 1.876, 100 - 0.930%, 200 - 0.926%)
Butterfly - 3.977% - (50 - 2.308%, 100 - 1.151%, 200 - 0.517%)

Womens

Freestyle - 6.164% (50 - 1.658%, 100 - 2.308%,200 - 2.199%
Backstroke - 6.977% (50 - 3.677%, 100 - 2.221%, 200 - 1.090%)
Breaststroke - 2.965% (50 - 1.683%, 100 - 0.983%, 200 - 0.299%)
Butterfly - 4.861% (50 - 1.026%, 100 - 0.972%, 200 - 2.863%)

From these figures it appears that, in terms of WRs being broken, the suits benefited male and female Backstrokers and Freestylers significantly more than they did male and female Breaststroke and Fly swimmers. I predict that the WRs in the Women's Breaststroke events especially could be at risk in 2010 suits sooner than many would expect.

I predict the first 5 Individual WRs to be broken in the near(ish) future

Women's 1500m Freestyle - 15:42.54 - Kate Ziegler set her mark in a non Polyurethane suit and so this has to be the favourite for the first WR to go with 2010 suits.
Women's 200m Breaststroke - 2:20.12 - Annamay Pierse was only 0.299% (0.38 secs) under Leisel Jones non-Poly mark. With Jones, Soni and Pierse driving each other on, this WR is a definite possibility.
Women's 800m Freestyle - 8:14.10 - Rebecca Adlington was just 0.427% (2.12 secs) under Janet Evans' 1989 mark. Judging by Adlington's sub 4:00 SC time at Duel in the Pool in a 2010 suit I think her current WR in this event under threat.
Men's 200m Butterfly - 1:51.51 - Michael Phelps only bettered his non-Poly WR by 0.517% (0.58 secs). Who would put it past Phelps to be the first swimmer to break a Polyurethane WR in a 2010 suit? Not me.
Men's 1500m Freestyle - 14:34.56 - One of the truly historic WRs in world swimming. Grant Hackett's ridiculous mark from 2001 was one of only 2 WRs to survive the Polyurethane onslaught. Some have predicted that this mark will remain well into this decade, but with the chasing pack including Mellouli, Cochrane, Park, Zhang and Prilukov this will be a record they will be desperate to beat.

1 comment:

  1. The way I think of it, if the athletes couldn't get a record in a full polyurethane suit, what chance do they have without one? I think the 1,500 records will survive for quite some time, especially the men's. The women's record might fall if some younger swimmer (maybe even Sutton) improves rapidly or Kate Ziegler makes a good return or Adlington swims this one.

    I agree that the men's 200 fly and women's 200 breast records are very vunerable, and I think Adlington can get back to where she was in 2008 without a LZR and challenger her own record.

    I think the women's 400 IM record could be vunerable. The swimmers at Worlds were tired from a long week of swimming, and I think Rice (who was not in her best shape in Rome) and Coventry and possibly Hoff and a few younger swimmers can get back to that record by London 2012, if not sooner.

    Also look for the 200 IM record to fall, as neither Phelps nor Lochte wore anything more than a LZR to set that record (Phelps wore legs only, Lochte the full suit), and I think those two can push each other under 1:54 in the next few years.

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