I think the idea is that your fastest swimmer, if he enters the race with a deficit to make up, will be able to turn up the heat even more, give the mythical 110%, and pass the leader. Alternatively, if your best swimmer enters with surplus time, he can take it a little easy and be fresher for later. This is of course one theory; to me, it looked like, in last night’s 4x200 relay, they wanted their fastest swimmer to go first, which gave his teammates a sizable lead from the get-go and allowing them to focus on swimming a solid race rather than pouring every ounce of effort into the lowest possible time.
Sports are a gamble; if you gave it absolutely everything you had, every single time, you’d end up injuring yourself in pretty short order. You need to calculate the risks, do enough to accomplish what you want to while still keeping your body intact enough to do it again. If Phelps went absolutely flat out, all the time, for every race, he’d likely tear a muscle due to the immense effort. The gamble might be worthwhile if he were behind and had to make up ground, but Phelps’s 95% simply squashes most swimmers’ 100%.
I have 5 kids who swim. As far as I can tell, the reasons for putting the fastest guy last are:
It keeps everyone in the game, if they believe their anchor can make up a gap. So, they swim faster.
Everyone swims faster when their competitors are close.
The slower swimmers are more likely to be able to draft, because they are not out in front.
If a slow swimmer is early, he is much more likely to swim out of his mind if he thinks a superhuman effort will make a difference. If he is the anchor, he is not as likely to think he can catch someone.
The fast guys got fast, because they are confident and because they know how to push. They believe they can make up a gap.
For all that, one of my sons was placed on a relay of boys the next age group up. The coach put him last. She figured the older boys would build a lead my son would not dare lose. She was right. He absolutely smashed his PR, because he didn’t want to let the other guys down, and hung on for the win.
If you are swimming the relay, you don’t have to anticipate the starting signal. You go when you see your teammate touch. This advantage subtracts about a second from your split.
Actually, you start before your teammate touches. You can anticipate the touch and start your lean well before the other swimmer is done. As long as your feet stay on the blocks until the touch your body can be out over the water. You can’t do that on a normal start. I think it gives you about .7 seconds.
Yeah, Lezak’s reaction time was .04 second. He could have got away with -.03 without being disqualified so could have gone .07 faster. If you watch the changeovers the swimmer leaving the blocks is practically off the blocks before the previous swimmer touches.
Phelps swam first because he isn’t really a relay swimmer having not gone to college and hasn’t learned all the changeover skills apparently.
What was Bernard’s split time in the relay? And was it up there with his best split times? I’m wondering whether Lizak swam really fast or Bernard swam a bit slower than usual for Lizak to make up that kind of distance… Spoiler: 100m Free Result…especially as Bernard beat Lizak twice since on the same distance (Heats and Finals).
I believe, but I’m working for memory, that Bernard actually swam what would have been the fastest relay split in history, if not for the fact that Lezak went a half-second or so faster.
There is one thing that could have made that relay better. This would be it!
I agree completely. Lezak just gave the performance of his life and the dumbass announcers kept turning it back to Phelps. I fully acknowledge that Phelps is a swimming god, I took great joy in watching his dream stay alive, and frankly at this point it seems like his only true competition is himself. But for Og’s sake, the U.S. team is full of awesome swimmers, it is a crazy good year for swimming across the board and it was really insulting of the media to undercut the great performances coming out of the others on the team.
With regard to the relay, I consider myself privileged to have witnessed it Live on television. I actually came out of my seat when Lezak hit the wall. I think it’s the single most memorable event, for me, out of everything I’ve ever seen in the Olympics.
I cannot believe that, after NBC finally realized there are other swimmers than Phelps, and actually interviewed Lezak during primetime last night… the gist of the interview was “well, doesn’t it feel great that you won that relay so you get to have a little bit of Phelps’ glory?”
:mad: :mad: :mad:
Jeebus! Lezak was obviously nonplussed, but managed to point out that while they all wish Phelps well, they won the gold to win the gold. All of NBC’s interviewers and half their commentators need to be fist-of-death’d.
I agree with that 100%. Of course, it is not Phelps’ thought. I really think the race itself that got him so excited, not so much that another successful step was made toward 8 golds. After all, he didn’t react like that after any of the other win. Perhaps the other swimmers are patient with the announcers, because they understand that Phelps’ goal provides NBC with a vehicle for shilling the sport?
I don’t think it is just these announcers, either. I always get pissed off when they talk about a QB winning the Super Bowl. Hey, even with the rule changes over the last couple of decades increasing the importance of the QB, it is still a team sport.
Except that isn’t what was said. They asked him if he was bothered by the fact that so much of his accomplishment was being chalked up to “helping Phelps”, when it was clearly a phenomenal feat on its own. They gave him all the credit in the world.
As I mentioned in another thread the Australian commentators, who are all ex- swimmers and know Phelps, said that his reaction to winning the relay was due to the fact that he is a real team player and was amazed by Lezak’s swim. In relation to SlowMindThinking’s point, this morning one of them mentioned that Phelp’s had SMS’d Rowdy Gaines yesterday and jokingly asked, “How are the ratings?”
(Usual caveats about only working for Americans who can watch the other NBC videos. Also it resizes your browser but I don’t know how to link and avoid that.)
