It seems crazy that a slight difference in pool depth would account for a 2-3% slowdown compared to typical times of the last handful of years but fair enough. Wonder if anything like water temp could play into it?
They're swimming the fastest they've ever done in competition in a pool we keep being told is slow, so which is it ? The pool is slow or the records are just unremarkable because it's the Olympics
Because I kind of feel if you're setting PBs&NRs in a slow pool, your going to be alot quicker in a faster one and then how safe do you think those WRs and ORs would be ?
They are not swimming the fastest they've ever done. It's basically just Marchand some Aussies setting ORs, and nobody has come particularly close to a WR. The pool is "slow", but that's relatively – I imagine that the interference takes away 1-2% or so. It's nothing to write home about, perfectly in line with expectations and not indicative of anything out of the ordinary happening. You can then interpret "ordinary" however you wish.
An interesting tin-hat-type theory would be that times are slower because it’s France. Despite the Tour remaining unscathed France has sometimes shown more determination to crack down on doping, which is criminalized there. Perhaps they got the word out that drug testing would especially rigorous this Olympics and teams got the message. The Athletics events could shed more light, since it’s supposedly a fast (and purple!) track, so if sprint times are slower than at national qualifying that will seem suspicious. Although Middle and long-distances are sometimes slower anyways at the Olympics because tactical racing.
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Now we got that first WR, from the guy who looked dead in the heats, after he had been flying in the relay.
Came here just to see if someone made a comment about Pan Zhanle. Literally inhuman performace.
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The same Phelps who testified before congress about doping-concerns not long ago...
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Pan Zhanle putting in an absurd time like that when USADA were complaining over Chinese swimmers' transgressions being waved away on the flimsiest of pretexts (given their own past - and present - history of going to great lengths to ensure none of their own athletes face any scrutiny while screaming from the rooftops about others' indiscretions) might become hilarious in time, in much the same way as Pat McQuaid announcing cycling was clean now and then having to hang the gold medal around the neck of Aleksandr Vinokourov.
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Some of the other finalists didn't reach their best ever levels, but beating César Cielo's super-suit time, which was at one point thought to be maybe impossible to ever surpass, by half a second is definitely outrageous. When he beat Popovici's former record in the relay at the WC in February, he seemed to tone it down for the final, but here he went full bananas.
The other sprinters and Cielo are fortunate that he isn't doing the 50 freestyle.
The other sprinters and Cielo are fortunate that he isn't doing the 50 freestyle.
Several classified documents were released after the fall of the GDR showing the sophistication & success of their systemic anabolic steroid program. Remarkable rates of increase were particularly noted with their swimmers & T&F athletes..
Their primary anabolic steroid was Oral-Turinabol, which is a derivative of the popular Dianabol. Turinabol was tweaked in the lab to further reduce the androgenic aspect while maintaining the anabolic properties. Unlike Dianabol, Turinabol didn't aromatize nor cause nearly as much water retention. It had a high success rate of increasing lean muscle mass while significantly reducing bodyfat. This made it ideal as a non-bulking agent that even distance runners found success with.
Hormonal doping and androgenization of athletes: a secret program of the German Democratic Republic government - PubMed
Several classified documents saved after the collapse of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1990 describe the promotion by the government of the use of drugs, notably androgenic steroids, in high-performance sports (doping). Top-secret doctoral theses, scientific reports, progress reports...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Turinabol is a highly detectable compound now with detection rates approaching several months with normal use. It made a comeback with the Russians in the 2012 London games with a "microdosing" strategy. However, that strategy failed miserably when several years later their athletes started testing positive from WADA's retesting of samples.
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Uh-oh,
"Chinese swimmer Xu Jiayu didn’t show up for his 200-meter semifinal swim. He was the No. 6 seed after swimming 1:55.37 for his entry time. "
"Chinese swimmer Xu Jiayu didn’t show up for his 200-meter semifinal swim. He was the No. 6 seed after swimming 1:55.37 for his entry time. "
Olympics men's 100m freestyle today, 1st place wins by 1.04s over 2nd place, 2nd place to 8th separated by 0.5s. But Chinese swimming is clean 🤨
But it's a really slow pool everyone keeps telling me its all fine nothing to see here...
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But it's a really slow pool everyone keeps telling me its all fine nothing to see here...
Well Pan was the only one who swam a fast time.
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My favourite part of Pan smashing the world record is the spectacular contrast to the reception that Marchand gets as he's glorified to the high heavens for breaking 2 ORs to win 2 golds in one night across two of the most brutal events,
I'm sure Leon exploding just in time to become a generational great for a home olympics is just one of those wonderful sporting coincidences.
Probably just the great coaching from the camp of another all natty great like squeaky clean Mike and the US 2000s cohort
I'm just curious how pretty big countries like Mexico, Turkey, Switzerland, Poland or Spain are hanging for the dear life with 2/3 minor medals so far... Something is really off with these Olympics.
Mexico never rates high on the medal tables. None are big swimming nations where many of the medals have come from so far. Spain will start racking up medals when sports like tennis, basketball, and football get to the medal rounds. I'm sure there are some medals for those countries coming in athletics.
FWIW, the countries you named won (total medals) 4, 13, 13, 14, and 17 medals at Tokyo and ranked 84th, 35th, 24th, 17th and 22nd on the final table. Check back at the end of the games to see if their performancees have really been that different.
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Fact is if Marchand (e.g.) did that I don't think Hawke would be saying the same thing
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