LIGHTNING BOLT IN THE 200M

[David]

I rate Bolt just higher, but I wouldn't say it's "definite" by any means.

I guess a good question is, what would Phelps need to have done MORE to make his performance higher?

[bennymacca]

I rate Bolt just higher, but I wouldn't say it's "definite" by any means.

I guess a good question is, what would Phelps need to have done MORE to make his performance higher?

8 events, 8 gold medals, 7 world record times.

its pretty hard to do more if you are michael phelps

maybe because we fully expected phelps to do this, wheras although bolt was favorite before the event, noone quite expected him to win as convincingly as he did.

question for you

why dont sprinters do the 400m as well? with the stride that bolt has, i bet he would make a great 400m runner.


another question

why is it easier to break a swimming world record? i know the new LZR swimsuits have made a massive difference in recent times, but still, over the last 10 years, i bet there have been more world records broken for the 100m free than that 100m running. why is this?

[bennymacca]

ha just went to the adelaidenow website, and they have the exact poll running, phelps or bolt.

interesting, that when i voted, there was about 250 votes cast, and the split was EXACTLY equal.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,24222277-12428,00.html

[bennymacca]

this is also an interesting point i reckon - laurie laurence from a live chat

8:58 Laurie Lawrence - I agree that Phelps is King of the Pool and Bolt is King of the Track, however Bolt is so fortunate that he has more natural ability than Phelps and I do believe that there will be another natural athlete that will eclipse Bolt because his energy system is only in the 9 - 20s range. Whereas Phelps needs to refine his skills and work hard over events that go from 47s to 4m.
8:59 Laurie Lawrence - As a result I don't think we'll see another Phelps but we will see another Bolt.

i tend to agree - its a lot harder to perfect 4 different swim strokes over 400m than it is to be taught a good running technique.

[stevo]

why dont sprinters do the 400m as well? with the stride that bolt has, i bet he would make a great 400m runner.

I was saying exactly that to a friend last night, I reckon with Bolt's running style/large stride he could definitely make the jump to 400m also, imagine if he could get the 100/200/400 trifecta, I wonder if anyone has ever done that before?

As for sprinters doing the 400m I think the reason that you don't see the 100m runners doing it is that 400m is just at the distance where endurance begins to take over from raw speed, where as 200m is somewhere in the middle and allows both 400m and 100m specialists to compete and be fairly even.

why is it easier to break a swimming world record? i know the new LZR swimsuits have made a massive difference in recent times, but still, over the last 10 years, i bet there have been more world records broken for the 100m free than that 100m running. why is this?

Probably just has to do with the technological advances that you can get with swimming (i.e. swimsuits, pool design, lane ropes etc.) compared to running. Perhaps also the training side of things has seen more advances in swimming, without knowing much about the history of swimming etc. I would dare say that people have been researching running technique etc. for longer than they have swimming technique and so they have been able to make bigger advances over the recent years in swimming than in running.

I always wonder if there will come a time when we just cannot go any faster (both swimming and running). Perhaps there will be and we are closer to this point in running than in swimming which is why there seem to be much more swimming records broken than running?

[bennymacca]

in addition steve, i think that because running is a natural biomechanical thing for a human to do, that it is much easier to find "natural" runners that already have perfect technique - they basically have to train themselves up, and then go out there and run.

prime example is the kenyan and other east african runners - they are built for long distance running, and so they can win olympic medals with no money or resources.

this is quite different to swimming, which humans aren't necessarily built for. this means that training methods and technique come to the fore, which is why i think australia and the US do well in swimming - we clearly pump vast amounts of money into training and facilities to make our swimmers the best - but in running, the playing field is much more level.

having said that however, apparently phelps has a higher than normal centre of gravity, which allows him to sit higher in the water, and he has an insanely wide armspan - usually your armspan is roughly the same as your height, but he has an armspan that is 3 inches longer than his height, allowing his strokes to be longer etc.

(but having said this, phelps gains most of his advantages in his turns, which are like noone has ever seen before (and even after thorpe who was until then the best turner that anyone had ever seen))

just quietly, how awesome is it to have so much sport on free to air tv? i wish i had fox

[stevo]

Good point about running being a more "natural" thing to do. The african runners who have grown up running many kilometres a day to collect water etc. have trained themselves to run more efficiently without even knowing it, hence when it comes to long distance running the africans totally dominate.

Phelps physiology is one big reason why he is so good and can swim so many events. In addition to his armspan as you mentioned, he is also highly flexible and has a very low lacticity (i.e. lactic acid build up in his blood). Apparently when he broke his 200m butterfly world record he had a lacticity reading of about 5 when most swimmers usually register about 10-15, and he can supposedly recover WHILE he is swimming if he races just below his peak.

I love reading about the bizarre physiology of athletes such as Phelps. Lance Armstrong was the same, he had all the traits that you would want if you were to design a person perfectly suited to cycling.

just quietly, how awesome is it to have so much sport on free to air tv? i wish i had fox

I agree, and they have poker on fox too

[bennymacca]

yeah you are right about phelps. i heard that after a race, the lactic acid in his muscles was about the same as most people when they are resting! that is insane.

same with lance armstrong, his V)2 max (ability for his blood to carry oxygen) was absolutely off the charts. his heart was also a good percentage bigger than every one elses. literally.

i have to say, i would have loved to do human movement like my bro, but i didn't wanna become a PE teacher LOL

[krunchie]

word is that phelps has size 15 feet that he can straighten to +10% that is a lot more than the average pleb, hence giving him almost flipper like feet

[bennymacca]

i wonder how many people in society have these sort of attributes, but never come through the system. i.e there might be a local footballer, country footballer, that is rubbish at footy, but with the right training, could be the best swimmer ever.

lol that is 1 advantage of living in a country like china - if you have these attributes, then you are now a swimmer