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Is it the Pool, the Suit, the Maturing Athletes or Something Else ?Astonishing Speed in Beijing

By Robin Parisi

Every morning for the past week I have begun my day by looking at the Prelim results for theOlympic Swimming competition. And every morning I am astonished by what I see. Thursdaymornings stunner was the Mens 100 meter Butterfly, in which it took a 52.05 to get into thesemi-finals. Am I hallucinating, or isnt that incredibly fast? I decided to do a littleunscientific research on the subject, and this is what I found: In Athens in 2004, a 53.11 madeit into the semi-finals, and 52.05 would have been good for 4 th place in the finals. Thismotivated me to do a little survey of times at the past four Olympiads, picking four events atrandom, the results of which are reflected below:

Event Average Finalist Time* Percentage Improvement1996 2000 2004 2008 96-00 00-04 04-08

M 100 FR 49.30 48.95 48.80 47.77 0.73% 0.30% 2.11%

M 100 BK 55.18 54.85 54.52 53.28 0.60% 0.60% 2.29%W 200 FR 1:59.95 1:58.92 1:58.69 1:56.35 0.86% 0.07% 1.97%W 400 IM 2:43.42 2:40.64 2:41.00 2:35.15 0.98% -0.13% 2.08%

* The arithmetic sum of the times of all eight finalists in the event, divided by eight.

Yikes! It appears from this brief analysis that in 2008 the percentage drop in Olympic finalistsaverage times has more than doubled (and sometimes tripled) the percentage drop that was seen inprior years. The improvements reflected in these group statistics are also reflected in the recordbook: everyone expects that the fourteen world records broken in Sydney will pale in comparison tothe record-breaking swims put up in Beijing. So what accounts for the world getting so fast?Youve heard speculation here, in prior issues of the Nationals Enquirer. The speculation in moremainstream media is ubiquitous. It might be the new generation of bodysuits; it might be improvedpool technology; it might be that the best athletes are staying in their careers longer and continuing

to improve; it might be advances in training and technique or it might be the D word. Time willno doubt shed some light on the phenomena of exceptionally fast swimming that we are enjoying in2008. Further reading on the issue: As Swimming Records Fall, Technology Muddies the Water,by Jer Longman and Gina Kolata, NY Times August 12, 2008,http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/sports/olympics/12records.html?scp=3&sq=swimming&st=cse

Who Swims Masters ~Lane Mates become Life Mates

There is a picture above the 50-meter pool at theMultnomah Athletic Club in Portland of one MoHaslach, swimming furiously at the 1988 OlympicTrials. By the look on her face, you wouldnt want tomess with her. Shes the sister of a friend of ours, TimHaslach, Esq., a big shot lawyer in downtown Portland,but we havent seen her for years. We ran into her on thepool deck trying (unsuccessfully) to hang the banner of Arizona Masters.

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This publication (if you want to call it that) is not the official, or any, communication of USMS, OMS, Mt. Hood CommunityCollege, or any other responsible organization, nor is it a communication attributable to the Meet Directors, who are men of few

Lane Mates become Life Mates , Continued Nowadays she is Maureen Rankin, and since she has two kids aged 2 and 5, a husband and a real job, sheis only swimming the 400 IM, the 200 IM, the 50 Free, the 100 Free and the 200 Breast at thisNationals. She is married to Mark Rankin, and with him coaches the Brophy East Swim Team. Mark also coaches the Brophy Swim Club Masters team, and is a team coach for the Arizona Masters atNationals. Mark and his twin brother Matt swam with Mo back in the glory days of the MultnomahAthletic Club, where head coach Skip Runkle used to take a huge squad to Senior Nationals.

Swimming there was so great, Mo said.We had so many good swimmers. I believedtotally in everything Skip asked us to do. Iworked so hard for him that I made myOlympic Trials cut in practice . All of us inthose days made nationals. Matt won the 200Fly and the 400 IM and everyone swam besttimes. . . . Alex Stiles, Sarah Quan, KarenHaffner, and a whole bunch of others. Moswam well enough to make the consolationfinals at Trials.

Many on the team ended up swimming atUniversity of Arizona during the reign of Dick Yockums and later Jack Bauerle.

Mo now admits that she probably had acrush on Mark way back when they were lane mates at the MAC. But it wasnt until a few years aftercollege when they met again in Portland and began dating that Mo and Mark discovered that lane matescould make pretty good life mates too.

Mo now coaches the little tykes and stresses the fundamentals. Mark has the older age groups and thesenior squad. Swimming gave so much to me, Mo said. I love coaching. This is the best job I everhad.

Important Notice from a small but loud group of officials (after tipping a few atEdgefield):

Any swimmer who doesnt make his or her seed time in a distance event will have to swim the event again by him or herself in the moonlight, starting at 11:30 PM.

words (but mighty deeds in most situations). This publication is intended solely as entertainment by athletes, for athletes. The opinions expressed by the editors and contributors are entirely their own, God help them. Other editions available atwww.lcnationals.2008.net