{"id":439430,"date":"2020-07-10T03:09:12","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T10:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=439430"},"modified":"2024-10-28T11:27:44","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T18:27:44","slug":"evolution-of-athlete-adaptation-1960-2020-jonty-skinner-on-the-flatlining-of-pioneering-swimming-speed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/evolution-of-athlete-adaptation-1960-2020-jonty-skinner-on-the-flatlining-of-pioneering-swimming-speed\/","title":{"rendered":"Evolution of Athlete Adaptation 1960-2020: Jonty Skinner On The Flatlining Of Pioneering Swimming Speed"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As a swimmer, Jonty Skinner<\/strong> went down in history as the man who crushed the swimming speed that crushed the rest: \u00a020 days after after American Jim Montgomery<\/strong><\/a> clocked a then stunning 49.99sec over 100m freestyle for Olympic gold at Montreal 1976, Skinner, locked out of the race by the apartheid policies of his country of birth, South Africa, rocked\u00a01976 United States Summer National Swimming Championships in Philadelphia with a 49.44 victory over the newly crowned Olympic champion and the Montreal silver medallist, USA team-mate Joe Bottom<\/strong><\/a>. Skinner’s standard record stood until April 1981, when Rowdy Gaines<\/strong><\/a> clocked 49.36 in Texas.<\/em><\/p>\n

Recently retired from Indiana<\/a>,\u00a0<\/i>Skinner, already a part of our 2020s vision series for the vision he delivered two years before the shiny suits were sunk<\/a>, looks at the evolution of athlete adaptation, its relation to swimming speed, asks ‘is the pace of progress flatlining and why’, are coaches harnessing the tools available to them, is generational difference significant and can it be taken into account when coaches plan training programs and\u00a0approaches – and then he picks one of three options when it comes to what happens next … some of the issues highly relevant to one of the themes we’ve been considering, <\/i>Athlete\u00a0Sustainability<\/a>\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Commentary By Jonty Skinner\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I was ruminating of late on the evolution of swimming and swimming speed<\/strong> a few days ago and then realized that my thoughts\u00a0needed a basis of information to give them context. Hence the following chart tracking the number of times a world record was broken in each decade. I\u2019ve kept this focused on Long Course Meters since SCY and SCM are essentially a different sport.<\/p>\n

The Count Of Pioneering Swimming Speed 1960-2020<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Graphic Courtesy: Jonty Skinner<\/p><\/div>\n

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Adam Peaty wears his lion on his sleeve – Photo Courtesy: Gian Mattia D’Alberto\/LaPresse<\/p><\/div>\n

Before I get into my thoughts on the subject, I need to clear up some anomalies that occur due to a change in the social or racing environment.<\/p>\n