It's Stat Time Again

Incase you didn't know, in the early stages of this blog's existence, I posted a number of statistics-driven articles looking at the tech suits and their effect on the sport. Here's an example of one of those posts:-

Percentage Changes By Event Pre/Post Polyurethane suits - This was a look at how the World Records progressed in each stroke. At the end there is a prediction of which World Records are most likely to go first with the new suit rules. (My predictions of Men's & Women's 1500m Free, Women's 200m Breaststroke Women's 800m Free and Men's 200m Butterfly, made back in January 2010, are still looking pretty good).

This site has continued to evolve since then, but I've heard the calling... I am going to return to my roots for a series of articles, and this is the reason:-

"Statistically one year out from an Olympics, medals always come from those within the top 10 and gold within the top three"

- Nick Gillingham, Two-time Olympic Medalist.

Really? Let's see about that...

Poll Result - Who Will Win The Men's 200m Free at the World Championships?

The votes are in and the swimming world has spoken. Michael Phelps will win the 200m Free at Worlds this year. With the collective swimming knowledge of this blog's readership, you can mark that down as fact.

In the most popular vote hosted on this blog so far, close to 500 people gave their opinion. Here are the results of the most intriguing event in world swimming.

Top Tier

Michael Phelps - 207 votes (42.6%) - Reports are that Phelps is training well again after an off-year in 2010. If he gets back to his very best, then I agree with the voters on this one.
Ryan Lochte - 161 votes (33.1%) - World short-course champion and ranked second in the world long-course in 2010. The event schedule is friendly in Shanghai with the 200m Free the first event on Day Three.

Chasing Pack

Paul Biedermann - 33 votes (6.8%) - Third in the vote but a long way behind the American duo. Suit or no suit, the last time the world got together over 200m Free long-course, Biedermann was victorious.
Park Tae-Hwan - 29 votes (6.0%) - Bit of a surprise that the fastest man over 200m in 2010 only received 6% of the vote. I see Park winning in Shanghai as a very real possibility.
Yannick Agnel - 25 votes (5.1%) - The French youngster has hit the ground running in 2011 already posting a blazing 1:46.55 untapered. The scary thing about Agnel, he is only going to get faster.

Need to find something extra to challenge

Sebastiaan Verschuren - 12 votes (2.5%) - In the shadow of his European rivals, 22-year-old Verschuren continues to improve. Will need to drop a substantial amount of time to win in Shanghai though.
Oussama Mellouli - 6 votes (1.2%) - He's a 1500m swimmer right? Not if the Missouri Grand Prix is anything to go by, Mellouli won every Freestyle event 100 right through to 1500. His 200m Free time was a seriously impressive 1:47.03.
Danila Izotov - 6 votes (1.2%) - Had we taken this poll last year Izotov would have pulled in many more votes, however after a lackluster long-course season last year his stock has fallen. His performance in Dubai, a silver medal in the 200m Free behind Lochte, shows signs that he is returning to his exceptional best.
Sun Yang - 5 votes (1.0%) - His 1500 was voted the top performance of 2010, but he hasn't convinced enough people that he can acheive the same standard over 200m. Here's some food for thought - he swam 1:46.25 long-course last year, has just turned 19-years-old, is improving rapidly and will be swimming at home. He is my wild-card to take gold at Worlds.
Nikita Lobintsev - 2 votes (0.4%) - Shown no love from the voters, the European long-course silver medalist had the fastest last 50m of that race. No mean feat in a field that contained three of the men above him on this list.

Pal Joensen - Pure Inspiration

I first saw this on the excellent svimjing last month, but for some reason didn't post here. Well, time to correct my mistake. Just a great way to spend 3:36 of your life.




For more on Pal Joensen's incredible rise to the elite level, check out Chris De Santis' blogs here and here, just don't expect to see him swimming for his homeland in 2012. The Faroe Islands are not recognised by the IOC, as a result Joensen will be swimming for Denmark.

Behind The Scenes With Fred Bousquet In Auburn

A good video showing a glimpse of Fred Bousquet's life in Auburn.... No sign of Laure Manaudou though.

Enquête du 20h : Auburn, l'usine à champions Vidéo jt_tf1_20h sélectionnée dans Actualité

2012 Olympic Schedule Announced

The schedule for London 2012 has just been announced.

Schedule For All Sports (Warning: The file is 28mb so might take a little while to download)
Swimming Only Schedule

Heats start at 10am, Finals start at 7:30pm and are set to go on until 9:35pm most nights. With drug testing and media duties its going to mean some late nights, especially noteworthy for those with heavy schedules. Having a 10am start (presumably warm-up at 9am) should give swimmers a chance to get a decent amount of sleep before the morning session.

The schedule will mirror both the 2004 and 2008 games.

Swimming Venue: Olympic Park – Aquatics Centre 28-Jul 10:00–13:00 M 400m Individual Medley: heats W 100m Butterfly: heats M 400m Freestyle: heats W 400m Individual Medley: heats M 100m Breaststroke: heats  W 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay: heats 19:30–21:35 M 400m Individual Medley: final, victory ceremony W 100m Butterfly: semi-finals M 400m Freestyle: final, victory ceremony W 400m Individual Medley: final, victory ceremony M 100m Breaststroke: semi-finals W 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay: final, victory ceremony 29-Jul 10:00–12:50 W 100m Backstroke: heats  M 200m Freestyle: heats W 100m Breaststroke: heats M 100m Backstroke: heats  W 400m Freestyle: heats M 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay: heats 19:30–21:35 W 100m Backstroke: semi-finals M 200m Freestyle: semi-finals W 100m Butterfly: final, victory ceremony M 100m Breaststroke: final, victory ceremony W 100m Breaststroke: semi-finals M 100m Backstroke: semi-finals W 400m Freestyle: final, victory ceremony M 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay: final, victory ceremony 30-Jul 10:00–11:40 W 200m Freestyle: heats M 200m Butterfly: heats W 200m Individual Medley: heats 19:30–21:15 W 200m Freestyle: semi-finals M 200m Freestyle: final, victory ceremony W 100m Backstroke: final, victory ceremony M 100m Backstroke: final, victory ceremony W 100m Breaststroke: final, victory ceremony M 200m Butterfly: semi-finals W 200m Individual Medley: semi-finals 31-Jul 10:00–12:15 M 100m Freestyle: heats  W 200m Butterfly: heats M 200m Breaststroke: heats M 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay: heats 19:30–21:20 M 100m Freestyle: semi-finals W 200m Freestyle: final, victory ceremony M 200m Butterfly: final, victory ceremony W 200m Butterfly: semi-finals M 200m Breaststroke: semi-finals W 200m Individual Medley: final, victory ceremony M 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay: final, victory ceremony 01-Aug 10:00–13:05 W 100m Freestyle: heats M 200m Backstroke: heats W 200m Breaststroke: heats M 200m Individual Medley: heats W 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay: heats 19:30–21:35 M 200m Breaststroke: final, victory ceremony W 100m Freestyle: semi-finals M 200m Backstroke: semi-finals W 200m Butterfly: final, victory ceremony M 100m Freestyle: final, victory ceremony W 200m Breaststroke: semi-finals M 200m Individual Medley: semi-finals W 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay: final, victory ceremony 02-Aug 10:00–12:10 M 50m Freestyle: heats W 800m Freestyle: heats M 100m Butterfly: heats W 200m Backstroke: heats 19:30–21:05 M 50m Freestyle: semi-finals W 200m Breaststroke: final, victory ceremony M 200m Backstroke: final, victory ceremony W 200m Backstroke: semi-finals M 200m Individual Medley: final, victory ceremony W 100m Freestyle: final, victory ceremony M 100m Butterfly: semi-finals 03-Aug 10:00–12:50 W 50m Freestyle: heats M 1500m Freestyle: heats W 4 x 100m Medley Relay: heats M 4 x 100m Medley Relay: heats 19:30–20:50 W 200m Backstroke: final, victory ceremony M 100m Butterfly: final, victory ceremony W 800m Freestyle: final, victory ceremony M 50m Freestyle: final, victory ceremony W 50m Freestyle: semi-finals 4 Aug 19:30–21:00 W 50m Freestyle: final, victory ceremony M 1500m Freestyle: final, victory ceremony W 4 x 100m Medley Relay: final, victory ceremony M 4 x 100m Medley Relay: final, victory ceremony Swimming - Marathon Venue: Hyde Park 9 Aug 12:00–15:00 W Marathon Swimming 10km, victory ceremony 10 Aug 12:00–15:00 M Marathon Swimming 10km, victory ceremony

Michael Klim Is Coming Back

The news coming out of Australia is that Michael Klim is about to announce his comeback. (story here)

I guess Australia were looking at how to beat the USA in relays and just decided to get the team that has done it before back together. Three of the four members of the 2000 Olympic 4 x 100m Free team are now back competing (Ashley Callus, Ian Thorpe & Michael Klim). All that is left is for Chris Fydler, 38, to make his comeback announcement.

This Weekend's Racing

Another good weekend of racing coming up as many swimmers compete in their final competition before their national championships.

British University Championships - Feb 11-13 - (LC) - Psych Sheet - Results

British Swimming are sending the big guns to compete alongside the students.

UPDATE - Rebecca Adlington just swam 8:23.85. Moves to the top of the world rankings and just 2.6 seconds down on last year's best effort. Splits of 2:04.48 / 4:12.63 /  6:18.66 / 8:23.85 (negative split). In a mixed race Adlington beat 6 men and just finished shy of Stirling's Josh Walsh (8:23.36). Shows what a racer she is.

(Feat. Rebecca Adlington, Fran Halsall, Joanne Jackson, Elizabeth Simmonds, Gemma Spofforth, Amelia Maughan, Steph Proud, Stacey Tadd, Liam Tancock, Ross Davenport, Robert Bale, Laurent Carnol, Antony James, Joe Roebuck, Michael Jamieson, Kris Gilchrist, Chris Walker-Hebborn, Roberto Pavoni)

New South Wales State Championships - Feb 11-13 - (LC) - Result 

Britain's Ellen Gandy was hugely impressive beating both Steph Rice and Therese Alshammar comfortably in the 100m Fly. Gandy's time of 58.23 vaults her to the top of the early world rankings.

(Feat. Stephanie Rice, Leisel Jones, Therese Alshammar, Marieke Guehrer, Ellen Gandy, Belinda Hocking, Megan Nay, Katie Goldman, Ryan Cochrane, Andrew Lauterstein, Ryan Napoleon, Kyle Richardson, Matt Targett, Kenneth To, James Magnussen, Thomas Fraser-Holmes, Ashley Delaney, Hayden Stoeckel)

Swedish Grand Prix - Feb 12-13 - (LC) - Start List - Results

Marleen Veldhuis (25.13) held off Ranomi Kromowidjojo (25.30) in the 50m Free. Sarah Sjöström won the 100m Fly in an impressive time of 58.47 (just shy of Gandy's time from the other side of the world).

(Feat. Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Sarah Sjöström, Marleen Veldhuis, Sharon van Rouwendaal, Jennie Johansson, Petra Granlund, Gabriella Fagundez, Stefan Nystrand, Simon Sjödin, Petter Stymne)

Meeting National Nice (LC) - Feb 11-13 - Results (Thanks to Dublincat for the tip)

(Feat. Yannick Agnel, Alain Bernard, Danila Izotov, Stanislav Donets, Boris Steimitz, Camille Muffat, Coralie Balmy, Ophelie-Cyrille Etienne, Alexandra Putra)

Incredible times from Camille Muffat (1:56.63 200m Free, 8:2655 800m Free) and Yannick Agnel (1:46.55 200m Free), strengthening their claims as serious contenders for Shanghai later this year. Also featuring a 1:04.91 100m Breast from none other than Alain Bernard... how about a switch to IM? He can swim 200m Free and 100m Breast... Just saying.

Aaron Peirsol Retires

The news broke last week that Aaron Peirsol had retired, but here is the greatest ever Backstroker explaining his decision.

A year ago I named Peirsol as the 6th best swimmer of the 2000s. After watching his interview I feel like I might have short-changed him a couple of places.