Swimming Blogs - Chris DeSantis

Records are receiving more talk than ever it seems. When I started this blog, I revelled in the chance to discuss a new record in all its glory and talk about the ones that have come before. However, there is one record that has been discussed ad nauseam over the last year that always made me pretty uncomfortable: Alexander Popov's 50 free world record.

I'm definitely not even close to the first person to bring it up. It gets cited over and over again by people who bemoan the effect of suits on world bests. However, before Popov's record stood in rarefied air, it was the subject of much complaint. Here's the best, old grainy video I could find of the swim on youtube:

At first glance, this is pretty awesome. Alex Popov swims a 21.64 in the 50 free swimming in a brief with no cap. I was a huge fan of Popov growing up- I preferred his silent, aloof style to his ever boisterous foil Gary Hall Jr. His stroke was a thing of beauty- something swim coaches talk to each other about in hushed tones. It was entirely contrary to what people expected from a sprinter at that time. Rather than turn it over with everything he had, Popov swam a long, efficient stroke that he had drilled incessantly with his coach Gennadi Touretski.

I started to grow uncomfortable when Hall started running his mouth off about this swim. I was uncomfortable because he was speaking the truth. For one thing, Popov completed this swim without any swimmers in the lane next to him. Anyone in swimming can tell you the advantage, particularly in a sprint, of not having to deal with someone else's wake.

The other accusation made- that Popov had been allowed a rolling start by Russian officials, was much harder to prove. After all, the only people that know for sure that the start was legal are the swimmers and officials at the race. I attempted to break it down like the JFK Zapruder film and discern whether Popov had been granted a false start. Here is what I found:

1. If you freeze the Popov video at 1.3 seconds- which from watching the end of the video we know is in fact synched with the actual running clock in the race- he has completed the following in 1.3 seconds:

a. reacted to the start

b. dove off the blocks

c. spent some time in the air

d. had his entire body enter the water.

2. For comparison's sake, I broke out the higher quality video of Freddy going 20.9:

If you try to match up the Popov position to the 1.3 to where Freddy is at 1.3, Freddy still has some limbs still clearly sticking out of the water, and doesn't go fully submerged until conservatively 1.5-1.6. Now, flight times in the air vary from swimmer to swimmer. However, Popov used a two footed start- which meant more time in the air. Just watch how much longer it takes Popov to get in the water in comparison to his heat at World Championships in 2003:

In that video his entire lower half is still out of the water at 1.3! And he did not have a bad start- he ended up winning the event that day in 48.4

What does it all mean? Not much. Popov was one of the greatest sprint freestylers- perhaps THE greatest of all time. And this record was ratified by FINA- so it must be pretty legit.