I was surprised to read that Michael Phelps last remaining world record was broken this week. I don’t follow swimming very closely but do remember that Michael Phelps was considered to be almost superhuman.
Got me wondering why his records haven’t lasted longer. Track records can stand for years (in some cases decades) before being broken. I understand that diet, training and technology all have an impact in improving performance. But why have his records not lasted as long as say Usain Bolt’s sprint records. What’s different about swimming.
In: Biology
Swimming strokes are complex and still evolving. Water has a lot more drag than air so non-optimal movements and shapes are impacted more by the water. The pool itself also has less variability tracks. The track itself, humidity, temperature, elevation, wind, all play a roll. And technology is evolving faster in swimming. Like the lane separators now reduce waves a whole lot more than lane separators of 20 years ago.
What made Phelps special wasn’t that he was setting “unbreakable” records like Usain Bolt, it was that he was setting world records in a wide range of events and managed to stay on top for as long as he did.
One fundamental difference between swimming and athletics is that with swimming, you are swimming your own race, in your own lane. You are (generally) separated from the other competitors.
Running is not like that. For every race of 800m or longer you run together. That brings in tactics, and decisions of pace. You’re not always running the race as fast as you theoretically can.
Also – in swimming it’s the fastest who qualify for the next round, regardless of position in the heat, so there is incentive to go all out in every race. Running isn’t like that (for the tactical reasons noted above).
Swimming is much more technique based than running, and the technique is constantly developing. Of course there’s technique that goes into high level running, but it doesn’t matter as much since air is so inviscid. Water is so viscous that exactly how you move yourself through it matters a great deal. Take an athlete who has neither specifically learned to run or to swim at a high level, chances are they’re much better at running than they are at swimming.
Also as an aside, Phelps’s last world record was broken a year ago, not this week
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