Swimming Blogs - Chris DeSantis

I thought Roman Sloudnov was out of my life, but I was wrong.

I can remember being completely petrified of him. For some reason the glimmering last gasps of the cold war that hung over my childhood had significantly biased the way I percieved Russian athletes. I could only picture them in two molds: Dark haired and stone-faced (Alexander Popov) or blond and even more stone-faced (Ivan Drago from Rocky IV). So when Roman Sloudnov became the first man to go under a minute in the 100 breaststroke in 2001, I developed an immediate caricature of him in my mind. My imagination ran more wild when I learned that he was Siberian. I had nightmares about Roman Sloudnov, picturing a hulking and angry man.

As it turns out, Roman Sloudnov wasn't that scary. When I opened my issue of Swimming World in 2001 in which he was featured as European Swimmer of the Year, I found a smiling face, a dorky haircut, and an average swimmers build. Still, as young breaststroker myself I found myself cheering for Sloudnov to falter so that America's greatest hope at the time, Ed Moses, would be the world's best. In the end, I got my wish.

Sloudnov was on top of the world and in an instant, not. Just a year before, in 2000, you could have easily considered him co-favorite to win Olympic gold in the 100 breaststroke. Few saw the eventual champion, Domenico Fioravanti of Italy, coming. By 2002 he had already lost his grip on Europe, losing to Oleg Lisogor at Euros that year with Hugues Dubosq hot on his tails. For the next series of years, Sloudnov, the first man under a minute, would repeatedly fail to reach that height again and again, losing his world record first to Kitajima and then to Hansen. Its not that he had fallen completely off the map; he was still at all the big meets, but similar to Franziska Van Almsick always considerably off his best. In 2004 he failed to make the final, swimming 1:01.54 in the Athens semi final. He has not medaled at any international meet since 2002. This year was the first that the sub minute breaststroke club finally lost its exclusiveness, with Christopher Cook, Hugues Dubosq and Alexander Dale Oen joining. Even if Sloudnov could match his 2001 form, it seemed that the breaststroke world had already passed him by.

Just when I was prepared to record my eulogy for Roman Sloudnov's career, I caught the signs of a Sloudnov comeback. I had hunted down the results from an obscure low key Italian meet after having read about it in David Marsh's blog. Marsh was mum on times from the meet and I wanted to see how American sprinting hope Cullen Jones had performed. As I scanned the results I couldn't help but notice the winner in the 100 breaststroke, Sloudnov. The time was unimpressive, 1:02.64, but I still found myself thinking that Sloudnov may be returning to form if he was swimming that fast in an obscure meet.

Of course, then came Russian nationals. Just days ago Sloudnov went 1:00.09, his fastest time since 2001. While it still ranks him behind the aforementioned breaststroke heavyweights, my curiousity was further piqued by the poorly translated (via babelfish) interview I saw from Sloudnov

http://66.163.168.225/babelfish/translate_url_content?.intl=us&lp=ru_en&trurl=http%3a%2f%2fallsport.ru%2findex.php%3fid%3d15100

Now, I don't completely understand the entire thing, but whats important is that Roman Sloudnov thinks he can be 59.5 in Beijing. I, for one, give him a chance. Thankfully for all the swim nerds out there that Vegas doesn't take bets on swimming, because one thing is for certain. Breastroke, particularly, is very unpredictable. Its the only stroke that hasn't seen a back to back Olympic champion. In fact, only a few swimmers have even medaled in back to back games. Think about that for a moment. In recent history, Ian Thorpe was money in the bank for a six year period in the 400 freestyle spanning two olympics. Phelps is a favorite to become back to back Olympic champion in the 200 fly, 200 IM, and 400 IM. Grant Hackett has already won two consecutive titles. Yet breaststroke is littered with one time champions, swimmers who struggled to sustain their success over a long period of time. In fact, its very remarkable that Hansen and Kitajima remain viable in 2008, perhaps even unprecedented. Sloudnov himself has been highly volatile, but perhaps 2008 is the perfect year for an upswing.

Just as Sloudnov was reintroducing himself at the (relatively) old age of 28, at the other end of the spectrum a sixteen year old Danila Izotov totally blew me away. My reaction this time was not fear, but shame. I've become a bit arrogant in my position as unoffical swimnerd know it all and I have to admit, I had never heard of him. How could I have never heard of this swimmer who became the first sixteen year old swimmer to go 1:46 since Ian Thorpe (read it on swimnews)? Partly slacking on my part, since Izotov had won that event at the European Youth Olympic Festival in 2007. Still, to my knowledge his 2007 best had been just 1:51.03, a far cry from the speed of a 15 year old Ian Thorpe or even his 2008 performance. Izotov shocked the world, but will I be recalling him wistfully as I did Roman Sloudnov or singing his praises in ten years? Only time will tell.