OK Phelps is 23 and he has a bunch of Gold. I was wondering will Phelps be around for the 2012 Olympic games, then I got to thinking, just how long do swimmers stay competitive?
I know it’s somewhat subjective but then again as you age you simply can’t compete against the new young kids on the block no matter how hard you train?
So what is the “general” life of a competitive swimmer or how long can they stay on the circuit and compete in races? I realize it’s a bit different for each and Phelps being exceptional probably will stick around a bit longer if he chose to.
Seriously, though, one thing swimmers have for them, I’d expect, is lack of constant shocks against hard surfaces that probably play hell with, say, runners and gymnasts.
I know (have read) that Phelps doesn’t WANT to compete after 30, but who knows - given Torres, he might still have what it takes then. Though I wonder whether training has less of an effect on the body the more it ages…?
Mark Foster swam for GB in the 50 free at the age of 38 this year, but he didn’t qualify from the heats. However, he has not been in full training for the full 4 years since the last Olympics, so with more single-mindedness who knows what is possible? No criticism of Foster intended here, I applaud him for enjoying a life outside swimming and still being good enough to get into the Olympics.
Despite the hype, I did enjoy seeing a 41-year-old compete, especially after watching women’s gymanstics, where the Chinese competitors looked like they were ten.
Cate Campbell the 16 year old Aussie who won the bronze medal in the 50m behind Steffen and Torres said in an interview that she had been hanging around with Torres and used to introduce her to people as, “my young friend, Dara.”
Mark Spitz came out of retirement at age 41, and tried out for the 1992 Olympics, 20 years after winning 7 medals. His times were pretty close, about 2 seconds slower than his records from 20 years earlier.
However, those times were not good enough for him to even qualify for the US team. The sport of swimming had moved on enough that the younger swimmers were turning in better times.
Still, being withing 2 seconds of your world record time when 20 years older is pretty good. Most of us would have a hard time matching what we did in High School, even if it was far below a world record level!
Actually if Phelps had been born a little earlier he may have been able to score an extra pile of gold medals in Sydney in 2000. He competed as a 15 year old and finished 5th in the 200m butterfly but broke the World record twice within 6 months. He won both medleys at the next Pan Pacs and set 13 World records in butterfly and medley before Athens. So had he been born say in '82 or '83 he would be 25 or 26 and have maybe 20 medals including 18 gold assuming no relay swims in 2000.
Phelps has talked about going to the London games at least a couple of times. I’m no expert on swimming, but I haven’t heard any commentators suggest that expectation is unlikely or unreasonable.
Jason Lezak (anchor for the 4 x 100m relay) is 32. So Phelps probably has a few good years in him. And the competitive age range is expanding in swimming – back in 1984, Rowdy Gaines was thought too old to compete at 25.
As swimmers age, they tend to switch over to sprint events, since the distance events favor younger athletes who can recover quicker (from prelims and semis, usually held the same day). However, as the competitive times get faster, eventually older swimmers find that they just don’t make the cut anymore. Mark Foster is not the only swimmer this happened to at this Olympics – Ryk Neethling and the South African relay team that won gold in 2004 really weren’t even in the running with the current field of swimmers.