Swimming Blogs - Chris DeSantis

I'm really on a kick with records this week. After re-reading my post from monday, I realized there was a pretty glaring hole in the piece. I failed to pay tribute to a number of impressive women's records that were broken this year or withstood the onslaught.

The second oldest women's record on the books entering 2008 was Krisztina Egerszegi's 200 backstroke. It had stood since 1991. Its startling to find seventeen years later so little discussion of Egerszegi despite her amazing career. Egerszegi was barely 14 when she burst onto the scene and won gold in 200 back and silver in the 100. For an 8 year period she was the world's premier swimmer in her pet event before she retired young at age 22. She was twice named World Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World Magazine. She even dabbled in some IM, winning the 400 at the Barcelona games and garnering numerous other international medals. Still, its tantalizing to think about what she might have accomplished had she continued to swim longer or ever thrown on a technical suit.

And yet, wearing a Speedo LZR, Kirsty Coventry broke Egerszegi's world record at the Missouri Grand Prix. Coventry had been among a host of threats to break the record for a number of years. To think that this record had withstood Coughlin, Coventry, and Manadou for these last few years is pretty amazing.

However, the oldest record on the books for the women lives on. Janet Evans' 800 free has taken a life of its own to a much greater degree than Chris Thompson's. It seemed like as far back as ten years ago a number of swimmers seemed like they would one day overtake her, from Brooke Bennett to Hannah Stockbauer. Yet still her 800, as well as her 400 and 1500, remained largely untouched. In 2008 we have seen her 400 free bettered a number of times, and Kate Ziegler has demolished her 1500. Katie Hoff has blazed a 9:10 over 1000 yards but to this point still remains well back of the record. This standard looks very likely to come off the books sometime this summer.

If you've never had the pleasure of watching Janet race, do a youtube search for her or watch this video of her swimming the 400 free in 1988:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6I6Ffd-IP8&feature=related


Often accompanying amazing performances Coaches and analysts will scour for answers as to why this particular swimmer is so much better than his/her competitors. Yet look at Evans. At 5'5 she was relatively short, and with her slighter build, hardly the body you would choose if you were creating the ultimate freestyle distance swimmer. You might then guess that she possessed some amazingly superior technique, but whats evident from the video is that her style is far from what is espoused in most any technique clinic. Her head thrashed wildly about as she raced, and she used a straight arm, rapid recovery. Clearly, there was something intangible about Evans that escapes the cursory glance. If you read anything written about Evans and her training, it was at the time and still is legendary. It is likely also that Evans possessed some outstanding physical traits that I don't know about

So if you're too young to remember Janet Evans, and you watch her record (possibly) go down this summer, remember who she was. We may not see another quite like her ever again.