The REAL World Championships Started Today

[Mr. PeanutButter]

4 minutes ago, manatree said:

Here’s the thing, in most sports that I can think of, when a new technique is developed, they don’t create a completely new event. 

Back in the early days of track & field, shot putters pretty much just stood in the circle and put it into the throwing sector. Then they developed the Hop Step which is pretty much as it sounds. In the early 1950s, Parry O’Brien developed the Glide technique. In the early 1970s, the Soviets popularized the Spin technique. While there are still some Gliders on the international circuit, most of the top throwers use the Spin. You can use whatever technique you choose as long as it complies with the rules, but there is only one shot put event.

Same thing with the high jump. Techniques have changed dramatically, but there is still only one high jump event.

In swimming, the front crawl/freestyle and even the breaststroke have a long history. The butterfly developed out of modifying the breaststroke as it was a faster technique For some reason they eventually decided to create a new event out of it. The backstroke, much like race walking, is a fine fitness endeavor, but should not be a competitive racing event. 

If logic were to prevail, competitive swimming would at least cut down to freestyle and butterfly.

It is illogical to try and compare swimming with track and field. Running comes natural to humans. It is an inherent trait for us. On the other hand, There is nothing natural about swimming. My sister told me recently that babies have a natural floating instinct. She then plopped her baby into the water in front of us (we were in a pool) only to have to rush to submerge and extract the poor girl when she started sinking. 

 In track, distance covered in the least amount of time is the whole point. In swimming, a huge component of the "point" is "style". If it weren't, everyone would swim freestyle (front crawl) and there would be no limit to how far you could kick underwater.

It's fine to criticize the sport for its number of events. I personally have mixed feelings about the stroke 50s being added to the Olympic program. I'm also sympathetic to the argument that the large number of events is confusing to the casuals and lessens the value of each individual medal. However, I think comparing the sport to track and field is a tired and ineffective argument since the historical backdrop of each sport is so different and their aims differ as I pointed out above. 

Day 2 finals wrapped up this morning. There was speculation that one of the US' stars, Gretchen Walsh, may have been sick when she was pulled from the relay yesterday. She must have mostly recovered as she ended up winning the 100 fly (my personal favorite event) with the 2nd fastest time ever, only behind her own world record.

The US men have missed the finals in the 400 free, 100 back, 100 breast, and 50 fly so far. That is the most missed finals that I ever recall seeing at the world champs. They also lost the 400 free relay, an event they were considerable favorites in. I'm just going to enjoy the races for what they are from this point on and brace for another 2023 type team performance 

[Wrestleknownothing]

13 minutes ago, Mr. PeanutButter said:

It is illogical to try and compare swimming with track and field. Running comes natural to humans. It is an inherent trait for us. On the other hand, There is nothing natural about swimming. My sister told me recently that babies have a natural floating instinct. She then plopped her baby into the water in front of us (we were in a pool) only to have to rush to submerge and extract the poor girl when she started sinking. 

 In track, distance covered in the least amount of time is the whole point. In swimming, a huge component of the "point" is "style". If it weren't, everyone would swim freestyle (front crawl) and there would be no limit to how far you could kick underwater.

It's fine to criticize the sport for its number of events. I personally have mixed feelings about the stroke 50s being added to the Olympic program. I'm also sympathetic to the argument that the large number of events is confusing to the casuals and lessens the value of each individual medal. However, I think comparing the sport to track and field is a tired and ineffective argument since the historical backdrop of each sport is so different and their aims differ as I pointed out above. 

Day 2 finals wrapped up this morning. There was speculation that one of the US' stars, Gretchen Walsh, may have been sick when she was pulled from the relay yesterday. She must have mostly recovered as she ended up winning the 100 fly (my personal favorite event) with the 2nd fastest time ever, only behind her own world record.

The US men have missed the finals in the 400 free, 100 back, 100 breast, and 50 fly so far. That is the most missed finals that I ever recall seeing at the world champs. They also lost the 400 free relay, an event they were considerable favorites in. I'm just going to enjoy the races for what they are from this point on and brace for another 2023 type team performance 

And there is a probable cause for this year's under-performance, stomach flu has swept through the team. In addition to swimmers scratching from events you also see them turning in poor times. One of the two US men's backstrokers was 3 seconds slower than his time at Nationals (would not have mattered though), and 16 year old Luca Mijatovic was a whopping 14 seconds slower than Nationals.

[Wrestleknownothing]

On the plus side, Ledecky did Ledecky things in the 1500 prelims, taking the top seed for the finals by 10 seconds.

[ionel]

1 minute ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

And there is a probable cause for this year's under-performance, stomach flu has swept through the team.

So the team is wrestling with stomach flu.  Is this how you tricked this thread into the CW rather than NWT forum? 

[alex1fly]

I've been swimming a lot this summer to get ready for the folkstyle season. The watching folkstyle season I mean.

[Wildcat92]

to paraphrase Daniel Tosh..."Swimming?  You mean that thing you instinctively do before you die?"

[boconnell]

3 hours ago, Mr. PeanutButter said:

It is illogical to try and compare swimming with track and field. Running comes natural to humans. It is an inherent trait for us. On the other hand, There is nothing natural about swimming. My sister told me recently that babies have a natural floating instinct. She then plopped her baby into the water in front of us (we were in a pool) only to have to rush to submerge and extract the poor girl when she started sinking. 

 In track, distance covered in the least amount of time is the whole point. In swimming, a huge component of the "point" is "style". If it weren't, everyone would swim freestyle (front crawl) and there would be no limit to how far you could kick underwater.

It's fine to criticize the sport for its number of events. I personally have mixed feelings about the stroke 50s being added to the Olympic program. I'm also sympathetic to the argument that the large number of events is confusing to the casuals and lessens the value of each individual medal. However, I think comparing the sport to track and field is a tired and ineffective argument since the historical backdrop of each sport is so different and their aims differ as I pointed out above. 

Day 2 finals wrapped up this morning. There was speculation that one of the US' stars, Gretchen Walsh, may have been sick when she was pulled from the relay yesterday. She must have mostly recovered as she ended up winning the 100 fly (my personal favorite event) with the 2nd fastest time ever, only behind her own world record.

The US men have missed the finals in the 400 free, 100 back, 100 breast, and 50 fly so far. That is the most missed finals that I ever recall seeing at the world champs. They also lost the 400 free relay, an event they were considerable favorites in. I'm just going to enjoy the races for what they are from this point on and brace for another 2023 type team performance 

It is awesome that you responded to a post about shot put by saying running comes naturally to humans.  

[Voice of the Quakers]

22 hours ago, manatree said:

Having multiple strokes is ridiculous. It’s the aquatic equivalent of adding backwards run, one legged hop, sideway shuffle, etc. to track. Just jump in the pool and swim whatever is fastest.

Remember this take when we cheer for the inclusion of beach wrestling next to freestyle AND Greco-Roman wrestling at a future Olympics.

That being said, as the father of a (maybe former) competitive swimmer, you can have breaststroke. My son and I joke its "anti-swimming" - swim slowly as fast as you can. My son is a sprinter and could never muster any enthusiasm for it it.

[manatree]

38 minutes ago, Voice of the Quakers said:

Remember this take when we cheer for the inclusion of beach wrestling next to freestyle AND Greco-Roman wrestling at a future Olympics.

That being said, as the father of a (maybe former) competitive swimmer, you can have breaststroke. My son and I joke its "anti-swimming" - swim slowly as fast as you can. My son is a sprinter and could never muster any enthusiasm for it it.

For the record, I’m against adding beach wrestling.

[Fadzaev2]

22 hours ago, Jason Bryant said:

Swimming: Way to keep from drowning. 

 

21 hours ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

GREATEST way to keep from drowning. 

But watch out for the sharks and currents

[Fadzaev2]

17 minutes ago, Fadzaev2 said:

 

But watch out for the sharks and currents

https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=1143732730897776