Weight of swimming events

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kryptonjohn

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#233365 13-Apr-2018 11:44

This journo has a crack, and it's along the way I've always thought about it.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/commonwealth-games/103010032/commonwealth-games-are-sinking-under-the-weight-of-swimming-medals

There's an insane number of events in swimming, be it Olympics or even more so, Com games it seems.

In general, if a sport is a straight out competition in the Citius, Altius, Fortius tradition, I think it should kept at that and kept simple. So there should be no "backwards running" event, nor a 50m hop etc. If it's a running race, just run the distance as fast as you can.

So not sure what the rationale for having anything other than freestyle in swimming is. Get rid of the rest and if you want to butterfly you can, but the other guy doing freestyle is gonna mow you down.

One thing watching the swimming did intrigue me though. It was a backstroke race for disabled athletes. There were competitors with very different disabilities competing against each other - lower leg amputees, lower arm amputees, and one guy strolled in who had no obvious visible disability. At least the disabled groups are doing their bit buy not exploding the event schedule by having a separate race for each disability.

Blurtie

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#1995376 13-Apr-2018 12:03

Personally, I'd like to see them introduce a doggie paddle event in the games.

On a serious note, I agree, it's a bit ridiculous having so many different events/swimming strokes in the games..

But different strokes for different folks I guess!

trig42

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#1995382 13-Apr-2018 12:11

It's really good for those competitors/countries good at swimming (looking at you Australia). They get a ton of medals from it.

Weightlifting used to be worse though - a medal for Snatch, a medal for Clean and Jerk and another medal for Total.

kryptonjohn

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#1995390 13-Apr-2018 12:16

trig42:

It's really good for those competitors/countries good at swimming (looking at you Australia). They get a ton of medals from it.

Weightlifting used to be worse though - a medal for Snatch, a medal for Clean and Jerk and another medal for Total.

... then multiplied by the number of weight grades!

chevrolux

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#1995424 13-Apr-2018 12:35

As an ex-swimmer, there is some massive differences in the training that goes in to the different strokes, as well as the distances.

The 100,200,400m swimmers don't stand a chance in the 800,1500m events.

The only one I reckon is they should drop 50m races at that level.

I don't see it any different to the track events.

ResponseMediaNZ

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#1995441 13-Apr-2018 12:46

chevrolux:

As an ex-swimmer, there is some massive differences in the training that goes in to the different strokes, as well as the distances.

The 100,200,400m swimmers don't stand a chance in the 800,1500m events.

The only one I reckon is they should drop 50m races at that level.

I don't see it any different to the track events.

Nah the 50 Splash and Dash was pretty epic in the womens this year.

Don't see any need to ditch any events.

There is so many more sports that have multi-discipline events over multiple classifications.

The best comment in that article was the "Ditch the fly" hmmmm he obviously has never swam...

kryptonjohn

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#1995442 13-Apr-2018 12:46

chevrolux:

As an ex-swimmer, there is some massive differences in the training that goes in to the different strokes, as well as the distances.

The 100,200,400m swimmers don't stand a chance in the 800,1500m events.

The only one I reckon is they should drop 50m races at that level.

I don't see it any different to the track events.

Doesn't worry me that there are many events for different distances - as you say it's the same with track.

But with the exception of the walk races (drop them too!) all running races are effectively "freestyle". They don't care if you walk, hop, skip or run backwards. I think swimming should be the same - it's a 1500m race and you go swim it with whatever style you can do it fastest.

The Olympic motto is Faster, Higher, Stronger. It's not faster forward, faster backward, faster upside-down, highest, strongest.

Having said that, I can understand that swimmers who have spent years of their lives perfecting the butterfly, back and breast strokes would strongly disagree.

edit: corrected motto declension

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Blurtie

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#1995443 13-Apr-2018 12:47

While I understand there are differences in the training and I don't see a problem with the different distances in the events.. but why the need for 4 different strokes? Why not a doggie paddle event? How far do you go?

I don't think it's the same as with track events... Everyone's all running - doing the same stroke.. it would be like having separate events for a single or double legged hop!

invisibleman18

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#1995618 13-Apr-2018 16:45

I kind of agree, and similarly with track cycling. Though not exactly the same, many events are similar enough that it's pretty much the same people in all the finals and winning the medals. Compared to the amount of work people in some other sports have to do for one medal.

Dingbatt

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#1995663 13-Apr-2018 17:24

Okay, by the same logic, just combine all the water sports. The one who gets to the other end of a stretch of water first wins. What do you mean the rowers and yachties have an unfair advantage?
Same on land. But the advantage would lie with the cyclists, surely.
Throwing events, hard luck that you chose a shot to put rather than grabbing a javelin or hammer.
By the way, freestyle is the event that you can choose to swim any way you like (including dog-paddle, sidestroke, etc). You are just not allowed to touch the bottom to propel yourself forward. Crawl just happens to be the fastest way of achieving it. All events at the games are FINA sanctioned events.

Confession: I used to swim competitively (backstroke mainly) and have just given up officiating at meets.

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amiga500

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#1995736 13-Apr-2018 20:47

Some of the commenters on that story had a grizzle about the number of gold medals won by the Australian swimmers. One of the reasons why swimming is so dominant in Australia is that the climate makes it all a bit easier. The sea is warmer. Outdoor pools are easier to heat. Not so cold at 4.45 am when swimmers are leaving home to go to the pool for morning training.

Contrast that with mid winter swimming training in say Christchurch. Get up, put several layers of clothes on. Go out to a cold car. Windscreen freezes over for the 2nd time. Drive to the pool. Get out of the car & slip over on ice or grit! Get changed in heated but hardly tropical change rooms. Swim. Then go to work or school with lots of frost and ice still around.

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#1998314 18-Apr-2018 09:55

It's not "why 4 different strokes", see it as 4 different events like

long jump high jump triple jump pole vault, they're all jumps!

at least you don't have the option to throw a ball, a ball with a string, a stick, a biscuit, etc into the water!

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HowickDota

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#1998435 18-Apr-2018 11:07

Don't they throw balls in water polo?

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#1998459 18-Apr-2018 11:29

But not 4 or 5 different options

Morgenmuffel

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#1998783 18-Apr-2018 17:11

Why isn't there a flutter board race, I mean that was the only swimming event i was good at.

And while we are at it with Diving, why don't they have a tri-dive-athon as in one event with points for best bomb, staple, and what ever the one holding one Knee was

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