Swimming World Fantasy Grand Championship

Column by John Lohn, Swimming World senior writer

MEDIA, Pennsylvania, February 27. OVERWHELMED has been the general feeling running through my mind for the past two weeks. That's been the timeframe since we unveiled the Swimming World Fantasy Draft, a 100-pick process that required five individuals ' myself and four faithful followers ' to pick 20-person teams from the best athletes to ever grace the pool.

In the time since the teams were announced, more than 300 comments have been left on the Swimming World website, a record total. More important, there has been tremendous discussion concerning the teams, how they were formulated and the thought process that went into devising a lineup. Now, we get to the stage where we are putting together an Olympic-style competition: The Swimming World Fantasy Grand Championship.

There has been considerable discussion on the website about the need for a more scientific way to measure the greatness of each team, a process more measurable than that of discussion. Some have been hoping for some sort of numerical comparison. However, I am of the belief that athletes stretching across different eras makes a numerical comparison quite difficult, and not necessarily realistic. For example, world records back in the day tended to be broken by larger margins because there was more room for improvement. As time has gone by, and the faster the sport has become, there is less room for time drops and, therefore, less room for high-percentage improvements over the previous global standard.

As a result, we will maintain a discussion format for this Grand Championship. Here are the rules that have been presented to the participants, who will devise a lineup to bring to the table. We'll continue to dissect the battles which will arise and continue to gain an appreciation for different athletes, some of those we have learned more about through this process.
The rules:
' Each team, just as each country is allowed in the actual Olympics, can enter two athletes per event.
' There is no limit to the number of events each swimmer can contest, but let's be realistic. Don't have someone entered in 12 events when it is not a feasible possibility in relation to the Olympic schedule. That said, we will adhere to the Olympic schedule that was used in Beijing and will also be followed in London. This will maintain a level of realism to the competition.
' Once the lineups are set, I will post them in an overall breakdown which will allow for discussion.
Once again, here are the teams.

Paddles: Shane Gould; Kosuke Kitajima; Penny Heyns; Kirsty Coventry; Dana Vollmer; Denis Pankratov; John Naber; Kieren Perkins; Gary Hall Jr.; Debbie Meyer; Claudia Kolb; Jonty Skinner; David Wilkie; Tom Dolan; Anthony Ervin; Karen Moe; Amy Van Dyken; Jodi Henry; Tracey Wickham; Rick DuMont.

John Lohn: Michael Phelps; Janet Evans; Aaron Peirsol; Dawn Fraser; Matt Biondi; Leisel Jones; Grant Hackett; Petria Thomas; Brendan Hansen; Melissa Belote; Gunnar Larsson; Donna de Varona; Don Schollander; Libby Trickett; Victor Davis; Missy Franklin; Martin Zubero; Lorraine Crapp; Johnny Weissmuller; Catie Ball.

David Rieder: Tracey Caulkins; Ian Thorpe; Alex Popov; Inge de Bruijn; Susie O'Neill; Michael Gross; Rebecca Soni; Lenny Krayzelburg; Rebecca Adlington; Domenico Fioravanti; Diana Mocanu; Daniel Kowalski; Sippy Woodhead; Laszlo Cseh; Ian Crocker; Therese Alshammar; Dave Berkoff; Mike Barrowman; Otylia Jedrzejczak; Katie Hoff.

Aswimfan: Krisztina Egerszegi; Mark Spitz; Mary T. Meagher; Roland Matthes; Tamas Darnyi; John Hencken; Galina Prozumenshchikova; Jenny Thompson; Vladimir Salnikov; Shirley Babashoff; Britta Steffen; Rowdy Gaines; Laure Manaudou; Stephanie Rice; Jim Montgomery; Bruce Furniss; Tom Jager; Sarah Sjostrom; Federica Pellegrini; Murray Rose.

Nadador: Ryan Lochte; Natalie Coughlin; Sun Yang; Yana Klochkova; Norbert Rozsa; Amanda Beard; Pieter van den Hoogenband; Dara Torres; Michael Troy; Satoko Tanaka; Michael Klim; Kate Ziegler; Steve Lundquist; Samantha Riley; Jeff Rouse; Jessicah Schipper; Rick Carey; Anita Nall; Gary Hall Sr.; Emily Seebohm.

Follow John Lohn on Twitter: @JohnLohn

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