Mr Bell: I am intrigued by the last entry. Am I to infer that prior to 5/1957, WR's were were not official, and therefore similar to what we used to call "world bests" for short course meters (25 m pool) before they became WR's in the 90's in such pools?
Or does it have something to do with WR's exclusively for this new relatively new stroke? (i.e., separation of breast and fly?)
June 25, 2008 Prior to 05/01/57 world records were not standardized, i.e., they could be set in pools 50 meters in length or 55 yards, and flagged and/or "rtoped" finishes were also allowed.
FINA decided to standardize things at that time and settled on pools 50 meters in length as the choice for world reords, since that was the size pool used in the Olympics (no World Championships in thsoe days). And they also decreed only the swimmer who touched the wall first was the winner.
Thus 50 meters became the "gold standard" for official world records, and has been for the past 50+ years.
Were I ruler of the Swimming World I'd like to see the Olympics and ALL otherr major international competitions held in 25 meter pools.
I'd also like to have the 50 stroke and 100 meter IM events included as they were at the Manchester worlds a couople of months ago.
And let's also ABOLISH any race over 200 meters in length.
Can you imagine anything more boring than being subjected to watching a 400/80/1500 freelet let alone a 400 IM (two dashes replaced here) for both sexes no less.
Mama Mia!
I'd rather watch paint dry.
Give me the 50s and 100s any day of the week and twice ON Sunday.
Now THAT'S entertainment, right, Gary Hall?
No wonder kids get turned off by swimming. Who in their right minds wants to swim a mile (or a 400 IM)?
Oops, just kidding, Messrs. Goodell, Hackett, Vendt, Prilukov, Perkins, Davies, Cseh, Schubert, Korzeniowski and ESPECIALLY Mr. Phelps and Ms. Ziegler.
No offense, Michael, but just stick to the short stuff @ Beijing, OK? And Katie...the 400's plenty to handle, what with Mme. Manaudou, Pelligrini, Adlington, Barrett, Hoff et al.
Are you reading this, FINA?
Bill Bell
Submitted by:
slickwillie32
June 26, 2008 Thank you for the clarification Mr Bell. Now I understand why some records were recorded, for example in the 110 yd free as breaking a time set in a 50 meter pool (100 meters free).
In the wish to abolish any race over 200 meters, are you also including the 800 free relays? They CAN be exciting sometimes.
Submitted by:
Park528
Reaction Time responses do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Swimming World Magazine or SwimmingWorldMagazine.com.
Reaction Time is provided as a service to our readers.
.jpg)
.jpg)
