Swimming at the Summer Olympic Games 2020

[heywoodu 16,036]

28 minutes ago, NearPup said:

Really sad that Andrew won a gold medal.

What did he do, other than not wanting the vaccine but at least for a somewhat understandable reason for an athlete?

[Vektor 3,326]

19 minutes ago, rajiv said:

I'd be in favour of only having only one specialty stroke event  ( the longer one -200m for the novelty strokes and 400m for IM )

Freestyle is to swimming as straight running events are  to athletics 

All the other events are really novelty events . Races are about who is the fastest over a certain distance . Not about who is fastest with one hand tied behind your back 

This comparison between track and free doesn't work because it's near impossible for anyone to win 3 or 4 individual running events in athletics. The same obviously isn't true for free swimming events. 

[George_D 1,473]

Just now, OlympicsFan said:

Completely crazy that in swimming alone they almost won enough golds to finish top 10 in the medal table, again shows that there are clearly too many events. One sport shouldn't be enough to finish top 10 in the medal table, same is true for judo/wrestling/cross-country skiing/speed skating.

USA also finishes first in Olympics because mainly of swimming and athletics, where we can say that they start with 20+ golds 

[George_D 1,473]

if we had 20 class in wheightlifting and no restrictions in quotas could be first also

 

its a matter of discussion this subject with the number of events in some sports

[NearPup 3,510]

1 minute ago, heywoodu said:

What did he do, other than not wanting the vaccine but at least for a somewhat understandable reason for an athlete?

He's also not following mask rules in Tokyo (despite being, ya know, unvaccinated).

[OlympicsFan 860]

15 minutes ago, Vektor said:

Who cares about the popularity of the events when a swimmer can realistically win all of 200, 400, 800, 1500 just by being a great mid and long distance free swimmer? A sweep of more than 2 individual events should only be possible when someone is good in more than one swimming styles, or somehow they can win 100, 200/400, 800/1500 events. Obviously we need a second fly event because otherwise either sprinters or mid distance swimmer won't get a good opportunity in that swimming style, at that point it would more fair just to throw butterfly out of the program. 

Currently there is noone who can win the 200 free and 1500 free and even historically this was very rare. Should we get rid of the long jump because Carl Lewis was able to win it and also the 100 m? I think winning the 200, 400 and 1500 free is about as difficult as winning the 100/200/400 m in athletics. The 800 free is unnecessary though. Freestyle is the most popular stroke = most competitve stroke (since there are far more people specializing in it), therefore it absolutely has to have clearly more events than the other strokes. The question is whether those should be individual or relay events and in my opinion it should be individual events, since those are usually more competitive than relays. Freestyle in my opinion should lose 3 events per gender (1 out of 50/100/200 free + 800 free + 4x200 free relay). In that case there would still be 5 freestlye events per gender, which is still 3 more than any other stroke has and in my opinion that would be appropriate for the popularity of freestyle compared to the other strokes.

[heywoodu 16,036]

4 minutes ago, NearPup said:

He's also not following mask rules in Tokyo (despite being, ya know, unvaccinated).

Ah yeah, forgot about that. Now I agree with you  

[JoshMartini007 2,769]

The 800m freestyle is like having the 3000m event in athletics so if there has to be cuts, it will likely be the first to go. In terms of competitiveness (as in the number of nations competing) the 400m IM is the least competitive individual event and could also be at risk. The 4x200m relay is also quite uncompetitive and may be removed. At best FINA could combine it to make it a mixed relay (and unlike athletics have a set order for male/female athletes)

 

As for the medley relay, FINA needs to decide whether to have separate genders or a mixed event. Personally, there's enough competition to have it split, but you can't have both.

[heywoodu 16,036]

@thiago_simoes  

 

[Gianlu33 5,291]

4 hours ago, thiago_simoes said:

A great final, really. I'm surprised with Paltrinieri not even making the podium. I thought he had it in the bag, but nope.

Paltrinieri had mononucleosis. It's a miracle that he get a medal in the 800