The REAL World Championships Started Today

[Wrestleknownothing]

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45864313/ravens-employ-olympian-michael-phelps-teach-swim

I will make the same offer to wrestlers

[Mr. PeanutButter]

1 hour ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

Very cool!

Since it seems like you have the data handy, would it be too big of an ask to see if you could filter and partition the data out into time periods? The world record was at a 1:58 from 1994 until Phelps brought it down to 1:55.9 in 2003. I'm wondering how Leon's big jump compares to Phelps'. My memory is a little hazy from that time but it feels like worlds and Olympics were routinely being won with a 1:58-1:59 and then  Phelps came in with a 1:55 and, eventually, a 1:54. And even after Phelps and Lochte retired it wasn't until very recently that it took more than a 156 to win... Now we have a 152. Crazy crazy crazy 

[BigRedFan]

8 hours ago, GrandOlm said:

It's clear that  the styles and distances either aren't unique enough to require enough specialization

Says someone who has never competed in swimming...

[GrandOlm]

1 hour ago, BigRedFan said:

Says someone who has never competed in swimming...

Well you're wrong because I was on a swim team in my youth for about 3 years. 

Not that it really matters because you couldn't bother to figure out that olympians have been winning multiple medals in the different styles for years.

[Wrestleknownothing]

41 minutes ago, GrandOlm said:

Well you're wrong because I was on a swim team in my youth for about 3 years. 

Not that it really matters because you couldn't bother to figure out that olympians have been winning multiple medals in the different styles for years.

[Pinnacle]

8 hours ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45864313/ravens-employ-olympian-michael-phelps-teach-swim

I will make the same offer to wrestlers

There is a video of Trent Hidlay swimming two lengths (not sure if total was 50 or 100 yards/meters). He gassed so bad it was funny. 

[Pinnacle]

13 hours ago, ionel said:

Also for speedwalking to be a legitimate sport shouldn't there be a slowwalking sport?  

 

Slow walking IS a sport. Don't believe me at your own risk.

[D3 for LU]

28 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

But, here's a more "interesting" take of the above...

See Below.

 

... hmmm. Something really freaky is going on here. 

D3

 

[Wrestleknownothing]

8 hours ago, Mr. PeanutButter said:

Very cool!

Since it seems like you have the data handy, would it be too big of an ask to see if you could filter and partition the data out into time periods? The world record was at a 1:58 from 1994 until Phelps brought it down to 1:55.9 in 2003. I'm wondering how Leon's big jump compares to Phelps'. My memory is a little hazy from that time but it feels like worlds and Olympics were routinely being won with a 1:58-1:59 and then  Phelps came in with a 1:55 and, eventually, a 1:54. And even after Phelps and Lochte retired it wasn't until very recently that it took more than a 156 to win... Now we have a 152. Crazy crazy crazy 

While I have the data, that graph came from Swimswam (and I am very jealous, and plan to steal the idea).

Here is what the progression looks like since the first world record in 1956 using the time ratio rather than the raw time.

I also called out the two largest time gaps - from Jani Sievinen to Michael Phelps, and from Ryan Lochte to Leon Marchand.

[Wrestleknownothing]

Boom

 

 

[Wrestleknownothing]

Ledecky is now 11 for 11 in the 800 at Worlds and Olympics combined. 

11 for freakin 11

[Wrestleknownothing]

Ledecky is also 8 for 8 in the 1500 at Worlds and Olympics. 

19 for 19 in the distance events. Yowza. 

[BigRedFan]

3 hours ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

Ledecky is now 11 for 11 in the 800 at Worlds and Olympics combined. 

11 for freakin 11

And she broke her own World Championship record by :01.7 ...set in 2015.  She won that race by about ten seconds.

[Iwrite]

Well, I can't resist. In 1956, I read the book "100 Greatest Sports Heroes" and the three bios that impacted me the most were Frank Gotch, King of Wrestlers; Bob Mathias, King of the Decathlon, and Johnny Weissmuller, The Human Fish. I have written books about Gotch and became friends with Mathias late in life...and corresponded a bit with Weissmuller, who after setting 67 swimming records became even more famous as Tarzan in 12 movies.

BTW. Dan Gable was a standout swimmer as a youth until he channeled all his energies into antoher sport.

 

[BigRedFan]

FWIW, Jack Alexy split a 45.95 100m anchoring the US 4x100 Medley to a bronze medal.

[Wrestleknownothing]

Sadly for us distance swimmers, Bobby Finke came home with the bronze. 

A lot of criticism of US Swimming leadership coming off these worlds. The men massively underperformed while the women underperform, but did much better.

I should have said the lack of leadership. They have not had a CEO for over a year now. Bad decision making led to a training camp in Thailand where a big chunk of the team got sick, leading to an unprecedented number of scratches and performances well behind their best. 

It was so bad that Rowdy Gaines, Ryan Lochte, and Michael Phelps had their criticisms. 

The US did wind up with the most golds and most total medals, but still finished well below expectations. 

[Wrestleknownothing]

37 minutes ago, Iwrite said:

Well, I can't resist. In 1956, I read the book "100 Greatest Sports Heroes" and the three bios that impacted me the most were Frank Gotch, King of Wrestlers; Bob Mathias, King of the Decathlon, and Johnny Weissmuller, The Human Fish. I have written books about Gotch and became friends with Mathias late in life...and corresponded a bit with Weissmuller, who after setting 67 swimming records became even more famous as Tarzan in 12 movies.

BTW. Dan Gable was a standout swimmer as a youth until he channeled all his energies into antoher sport.

 

I will make a swimming fan out of you yet. 

[Voice of the Quakers]

On 8/3/2025 at 12:50 PM, Wrestleknownothing said:

Sadly for us distance swimmers, Bobby Finke came home with the bronze. 

A lot of criticism of US Swimming leadership coming off these worlds. The men massively underperformed while the women underperform, but did much better.

I should have said the lack of leadership. They have not had a CEO for over a year now. Bad decision making led to a training camp in Thailand where a big chunk of the team got sick, leading to an unprecedented number of scratches and performances well behind their best. 

It was so bad that Rowdy Gaines, Ryan Lochte, and Michael Phelps had their criticisms. 

The US did wind up with the most golds and most total medals, but still finished well below expectations. 

I'm not sure what to make of the criticism of the team from Gaines, Lochte and Phelps. Clearly, there are leadership issues at USA Swimming - regardless of who is the acting CEO, who thought it was a good idea to book the training camp in a country known for contaminated food, communicable illness and general disorder? - but they also questioned members' training habits and sense of entitlement in a way that I'm not sure is fair. 

The reality is, for probably the first time in my lifetime, the best male and female swimmers in the world are not from the US. Plus, men's swimming is much more competitive than it ever has been. (Women's swimming remains, for the most part, a US-Australia dual meet.) And, the US swimming community seemed to understand in their heads but not their hearts at the Olympics and going in to this year's Worlds that the men's team is between generations.

Ultimately, I'm very optimistic for the men's team at the next worlds and the LA games. (The resulys from the World University Games were outstanding.) The women's team will keep on keeping on as long as Walsh, Douglass, Ledecky, Smith, et al keep swimming and so long that China doesn't find any more 12 year old superheroes.

Edited 5 hours ago by Voice of the Quakers

[TNwrestling]

Big shout out to Gannon Buhr for winning the Professional Disc Golf World Championships in Nokia, Finland at only 20 years old! 

 

Those are the only other world championships I care about. 

[bnwtwg]

@Wrestleknownothing do you have any comment on the rampant doping in NCAA swimming?

Absolutely. Disgusting. Behavior.

https://swimswam.com/drury-vacates-its-mens-2025-ncaa-division-ii-team/

 

[ionel]

On 7/30/2025 at 10:33 PM, Wrestleknownothing said:

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45864313/ravens-employ-olympian-michael-phelps-teach-swim

I will make the same offer to wrestlers

I'm willing to teach any wrestling posters how to ride a bike.   

[Wrestleknownothing]

9 minutes ago, bnwtwg said:

@Wrestleknownothing do you have any comment on the rampant doping in NCAA swimming?

Absolutely. Disgusting. Behavior.

https://swimswam.com/drury-vacates-its-mens-2025-ncaa-division-ii-team/

 

I don't think I can pass that test most mornings. 

But how about the Brazilian woman who tested positive for SIX substances at their Olympic trials ?

https://swimswam.com/ncaa-d2-champion-rafaela-raurich-given-four-year-ban-after-testing-positive-for-six-substances/

All that and her best finish was a sixth?

[ionel]

3 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

 

But how about the Brazilian woman who tested positive for SIX substances at their Olympic trials. 

a brazilian ... that's gotta be like the entire planet no?   

[bnwtwg]

48 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

I don't think I can pass that test most mornings. 

But how about the Brazilian woman who tested positive for SIX substances at their Olympic trials ?

https://swimswam.com/ncaa-d2-champion-rafaela-raurich-given-four-year-ban-after-testing-positive-for-six-substances/

All that and her best finish was a sixth?

To be fair, if I took all those fun substances I would still not place sixth at women's NCAAs so I'm not going to throw any shade into that pool. But if you got me hopped up on 5 shots of espresso then all bets are off!

[Voice of the Quakers]

1 hour ago, bnwtwg said:

@Wrestleknownothing do you have any comment on the rampant doping in NCAA swimming?

Absolutely. Disgusting. Behavior.

https://swimswam.com/drury-vacates-its-mens-2025-ncaa-division-ii-team/

 

The amount of coffee one must drink to pop an NCAA caffeine test is insane. Pills are the most likely culprit, because if you shot-gunned 6-8 cups of coffee just before a race you would probably be going to the toilet and not the starting block.

Did anyone on Drury notice their teammate talking like Boomhauer from King of the Hill during the meet or was this standard procedure for this kid?

Edited 1 hour ago by Voice of the Quakers