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I'm sure most of you have noticed all the world records that are being broken in swimming this olympics. The icing in the cake for me was 2 days ago when the top 5 teams out of 8 in some men swimming competition (I forget but maybe the relay) ALL broke the previous world record. then yesterday the top 3 broke the WR and at one time a guy in a semi-final heat broke the WR only for the guy in the following semi-final heat to break his record.

Does anyone know what the heck is going on? I can't imagine that the athletes have gotten THAT much better from 4 years ago. Its always enjoyable to see athletes breaking WR but this year it has lost everything unique about it. WR have diminished siginificanly in my eyes.

Forget 4 years ago, apparantly everyone has gotten a lot quicker than their last competition (nationals maybe? i don't know too much about the various competitions for these guys).

i don't really get it either.

It is because of the Watercube (the swimming arena in Beijing) and that new revolutionary swimsuit, I think. There has been a lot of discussion in swimming circles about that.

Apparently the pool is deeper than normal and the buoys are designed to limit turbulence. This makes it easier to get faster times.

a lot of technology implemented for swimming, if this is happening now imagine how things will be in 2012!

Heat3 wrote:Apparently the pool is deeper than normal and the buoys are designed to limit turbulence. This makes it easier to get faster times.

Well they better start making that standard or these WR won't mean anything in the future

The swimmers might be a little better, but its gotten ridiculous, but the technology is just going ahead way too quickly.

Put one of these new ZLR suits on me in a shallow pool back in 1960 and I'll take the mens 50m world record...

erase the athlete name from all the WR books and just put ZLR down... they are the ones making the records.

I agree. These new suits are ridiculous. I understand the arguments of "evolving technology in sports is inevitable" and "they are available to everyone, so it's okay." But i read somewhere that since the invention of this new suit earlier this year, which is proven to help people swim faster, over 40 WR's have been broken!!! that's insane. Like someone earlier said, it's not even exciting anymore. The fact that everyone has the opportunity to wear the suit does make the actual race fair (ie. who wins, who medals, etc), but I think every world record needs an asterisk. We are now in the Sharksuit era, or whatever the suits are called.

You would never see new technologically advanced high jump spikes with tiny little springs to give jumpers more ups, or track suits that propel runners a bit faster through the air. Bottom line is, these sports are meant to test human achievement and limitations, not technology-enhanced accomplishments.

I say we go back to competing naked

high jump records are going down when these are introduced

The people I feel bad for are the former athletes whose records are being broken left right and center by athletes that maybe without this technology would not be able to even touch their records. All their hard work seems to have disappeared just like that because (mainly) of swim suits. Its really unfortunate because WR don't seem to mean much now.

people should swim in the nude....maybe paper underwear for when they're on the blocks but will dissolve in the water.....you know in the spirit of the ancient games.

frederica pellegrini and natalie coughlin......bling_singh likey

These records are because of two things,

1st is the swim suits. These new LZR body suits have less resistance than human skin.

Another is dolphin kicking off of walls, which allows the body to stay underwater longer, which is where the suit is at its best.

my friends think ian thorpe was garbage compared to phelps.

Just to let everyone know, Thrope used a "new suit" in his swimming times... and him like other were setting alot of records at the Sydeny and Athens games.. of course not as many as in Beijing.

Its a combination of all factors... technology in training techniques, the technolgy in advancement in the "fast" pools, and obviously the technology in the suits.

In the Breaststoke athletes are allowed to take 1 dolphin kick at every turn, compared to to none in prior years. It should be obvious that the suit streamlines athletes more efficiently in the freestyle and the backstroke, where ur try to glide the surface of the water, instead of the fly and breast where u phyiscally need to climb ur body above the surface to complete the stroke.

Phelphs' dominance is not cuz he masters the actual strokes better... its because he is far and away the best underwater swimmer. His dolphin kicks propell him, and the suits aids him more then others, since he can generate so much speed and distance from each kick.

Phelphs does have physical tools that enable him to perform better.. his wing span is 6'4, his feet size is big, and most importantly (on turns and dolphin kicks) his bone structure allows him to bend his ankles 15 degrees more then the avg swimmer... basically turning it into a flipper

The Duke wrote:Just to let everyone know, Thrope used a "new suit" in his swimming times... and him like other were setting alot of records at the Sydeny and Athens games.. of course not as many as in Beijing.

Its a combination of all factors... technology in training techniques, the technolgy in advancement in the "fast" pools, and obviously the technology in the suits.

In the Breaststoke athletes are allowed to take 1 dolphin kick at every turn, compared to to none in prior years. It should be obvious that the suit streamlines athletes more efficiently in the freestyle and the backstroke, where ur try to glide the surface of the water, instead of the fly and breast where u phyiscally need to climb ur body above the surface to complete the stroke.

Phelphs' dominance is not cuz he masters the actual strokes better... its because he is far and away the best underwater swimmer. His dolphin kicks propell him, and the suits aids him more then others, since he can generate so much speed and distance from each kick.

Phelphs does have physical tools that enable him to perform better.. his wing span is 6'4, his feet size is big, and most importantly (on turns and dolphin kicks) his bone structure allows him to bend his ankles 15 degrees more then the avg swimmer... basically turning it into a flipper

Dude, that was an awesome post. I feel enlightened.