Glad I watched to the end. I don’t know swimming but I was like why doesn’t the lead swimming just move away from the swimmer in 2nd to not give them an advantage
I still think that the 4×100 relay of 2008 was the best race in the history of the sports. There were so many things going up to the race and so much at stake (especially, Michael phelps's historic 8 golds), not to mention that the race itself was amazing.
In Finswimming this is a REAL problem. While we are all underwater, we are so fast that we have strong water movement behind and beside us. There is a sweetspot beside someone where someone slightly pushes you, but as soon as you are about a meter behind, you are slowed down extremely by the person in front of you.
You didn’t get it then… On the beach, the wave carries you, you intentionalry go the same direction the wave is going. The wave on the pool goes against you, but somehow instead of slowing you down, it makes you swim faster if you know how to take advantage of it.
For sure racing in swim is just as strategic as any competitive sport. I love it! But we mustn't forget the trash talking that fueled team 2008. That was the most exciting race I ever saw in my life. I will never, ever forget it. I learned a lot just simply watching that race. The celebration that took place directly after the wall was touched was so contagious, one could feel it through the tv. It was pure. I was sad for Lezak when the surfing accusations took place. I didn't understand why the French couldn't just be quiet. Remember, they were talking a big talk. So, I'm not sure if it is really by chance that the US won that relay with the surfing, or if they were motivated by some chitty-chat by the French. Either way, team USA won. It was electrifying and I was super happy for Phelps and his family, particularly his mom. She sacrificed a lot to support her son's dream.
so they used the wave to their advantage and shut it town instantly when someone else had the chance to use it? gotta love that kind of domination, in any sport
I'm actually curious how do they measure those crazy milliseconds, is there a sensor on the wall? Is it the whole width so no matter where you touch it it's detected?
Looks easy but really it isn’t. To take advantage of the waves, you need to be behind someone less than a meter behind, and hoping this person is not saving some energy on the last 15 meters.
It’s not exactly hard, and even if they do have energy for the last 15 you should be sprinting the last 2 lengths anyway. If you have been slipstreaming you have also been saving your energy and will always win over an opponent of equal strength.
@@Fuzcapp I agree the French swimmer cost himself at the end, because his touch was better timed than Lezaks, so had he not checked the next lane, he might have won or tied.
Technically yes, but I would say Duncan Scott's splitt was greater. They had the exact same swimming time but Lezak's reaction time was faster. On top of that Lezak wore a poly-urethane suit and Scott didn't.
@@verward For sure its a better raw swim, but I just love how poetic this win was for Lezak, such a clutch swim at the very end of your career when you've lost a number of times in similar positions. Not to mention I think anyone would rather do it at the Olympics. I get why Lezak's swim is more popular.
@@offduty5126 well, i think that perspective is a little america centric. The british with duncan scott had also lost that race in that position a number of times, all tonthe americans. You could argue that the olympics and phelps makes one more historic than the other, but I would argue that that british team being the first ever to beat the americans head to head makes it greater. Let me repeat that: no team ever had beaten the americans in that race. Not the Aussies in 2000, not the japanese in 08-12, not the russians in the 90s. The 2019 british were the first to do it, and they beat adrian, dressel and murphy along with a 58.6 breast split. That race was plenty historic, imo more so than the 08 400 free relay.
Duncan Scott 🇬🇧 did this to great effect in the medley relay at the 2019 world's (46.14). Duncan Armstrong 🇦🇺 in the 200 Free at the 1988 Olympics rode Biondi's wake and blew the doors off the field in the last 50.
This video made me appreciate swimming way more. My ex gf was a competitive swimmer in her teens. You don't realise how majestic and athletic it is until you see it through that underwater camera 😮
The story is partly BS. He portrays it like Alain Bernard was nervous about going last and had a bad race. In reality, Bernard swam his fastest LCM time ever - 46.73
This is something we do in canoe/kayak racing frequently except at sprint regattas where the rules say we must stay in the middle of our lanes for 200, 500 and 1000m races. Groups will work together to either catch leaders or break away from weaker paddlers, changing places to to take turns doing the work or having a rest. Best rest place, back of the diamond in a group of 4. Our club does it regularly in training, to upskill athletes and to enable weaker paddlers to join in with faster people.
I used to swim but I wasn't very fast or extremely interested in it. Watching your videos has made me want to try swimming again with different techniques
This was my favorite swimming race ever. Several teams obliterated the world record in this race. Lezak was absolutely stunning with that comeback. Never seen that kind of acceleration in swimming. What a great story.
I will never forget watching that shit LIVE! It was AMAZING i was so pumped yeeeeeeee still gets me hype n gets my American juices flowing 😆 🇺🇸 🎆 All 3 relay races LIVE! Awesome. 2/3 gold 🏅 🏅 is awesome
With Dressel, Apple, Pieroni and Brooks it looks hard for anyone to beat USA, with all 4 swimming times as 47.39, 47.72, 48.15 and 48.16 and knowing the fact that USA swimmers go better in relays then they do in individual events, it looks very hard for anyone to catch USA at this point of time.
The US is always the team to beat because they have such great depth. Australia might be the biggest threat. The French only seem to have one good 100m freestyler based on their trial times, so I'm discounting them.
@@zenokalo7438 you forget that Athletes under ROT had always had such timings, and yet they fail to secure a fold. Forget Olympics, recently concluded European Champs they couldn't get a gold. They are not big match players.
i think you are over stating it. the wake is only there if both athletes are on the rope. its also only advantageous if you are about half a body length behind. if you get further behind, or in front, there is actually additional drag. so unless you have all these conditions its really not that advantageous. if u want to win you eventually have to move forward of the wake and will suffer the corresponding drag..so its a trade off. hundredths of seconds. so if you manage to win by 0.05 seconds and you sat half a body length behind the leader, for a lap or more before your surge, and you were both on the same lane rope, then yes, the wake helped you win.
2008 was the only race that matter and the only one everyone cared about because of the history being made there with Philp going for 8 gold medals. So that made that race a 1,000 better than any relays ever swam. The USA was a huge underdog in that race as well. Ask anyone about all the other races and no one cares or remembers anything about it. Only that 2008 was the greatest relay swim in the history of mankind because of everything it meant and everything that hung on the USA winning it. And no one thought Philp would get his 8th gold when Jason jumped in a half a body length behind the fastest swimmer in the world.
Politicians screwing shit up the best they can. Also, Imagine being an Olympic Swimmer and being called "Not very athletic" by some guy on a random youtube channel. xD Maybe it's a second language thing, but that made me laugh. So much to learn about so many things. Shame we only live about 80 years. Just not enough time to see everything and do everything I want to do. I think a note should be made if an artificial tech like better suits significantly affects performance. I'm not trying to take away anything from these athletes. I'm more trying to say that we should make sure the old record holders get all the respect they deserve. Modern athletes aren't just better trained physically and mentally, they have better technology.
Love the way you pronounce Alain Bernard as Aaalaan Byeurnaaar My tongue twisted and I had to get a surgery done to untangle my tongue after I tried pronouncing that name the way you do
Hard to follow everything and who's in what lane. And hard to 'see' the surfing the wave action. But really neat concept. Thanks for sharing and sharing the scenarios
Should syrfing the wave be illegal? It’s giving an advantage to the swimmers who place next to the winner. So second place has an advantage just because they draft off of first place swimmers wave. This happened in the US Olympic trials for the 100 free last week where Zach apple surfed Caeleb dressers wave to beat Blake pieroni. It was so obvious that the commentators even said that Apple was right on the lane line next to dressel. And since only the top 2 go to the olympics it makes you question whether it’s justified for apple to go to the olympics over pieroni especially since apple wasn’t gonna make it until he started going faster by being on Caeleb wave…
while it makes a slight difference, and may take a few hundredths off your time or even a couple tenths, usually the faster swimmer will win the race. you must also be in perfect position along the side of the leader or you will actually be hitting the wave and be slowed down
For sure, even as a slower swimmer in high school I could tell the difference. It felt like there was basically zero energy costs at the very start of the stroke. The rest of the stroke felt about equal, but that initial phase was so helpful!
Lezak's turnover was simply faster than Bernard's in the last 50! Bernard was quoted as saying that he didn't see Lezak because he was breathing to the other side. If Lezak might not have won because he looked up, but Bernard got caught looking at Lezak at the end! The next two examples aren't applicable as the lead swimmer was in the middle of his lane and not on the divider.
Aussie here. You can trash talk, but you should never disrespect a country’s National Anthem. Also, the only people who actually have what it takes to back up their trash talking, are ones that won at least one individual gold medal. Cate does not even have an individual silver, and all but 2 bronze medals that she won are from relays. Therefore, she has no place to say what she said. Karma got to her at the end when she failed to qualify for Paris
Look Australia is the goat of swimming.. we'll never win the 100 metre sprint or marathon but swimming is our shit.. maybe it's because 90% of us live on the coast and start ocean swimming before 5.
100m is a sprint... there's no real tactics involved you just go absolutely flat out. Perhaps he sat close to the lane to take advantage of the wave but those racing ropes do a good job of killing off any waves, that's exactly what they're designed to do so I'm not convinced about that at all. In a 100m sprint nobody is 'holding back' to sit in someone's wake, the race is too short, there's no time to be 'patient', the winning swimmer was faster, that's all there is to it.
Why do all the swimmers look alike? All long slender builds and facial features that are both thin but also kinda long, looks like they were all copied and pasted with just a lil tweaking
