AFTER just one session the verdict is in: the blistering pace of progress in the Olympic pool is unprecedented. History is being rewritten before our very eyes courtesy of a perfect storm of timing, technology and the spread of world-class standards around the world.

The time in which Stephanie Rice of Australia won the silver medal in the 400m medley at the world championships a year ago would have placed her 18th in the heats here; last into the final of the 400m medley - in which Michael Phelps set an Olympic record of 4:07.82, 0.44sec quicker than he swam to win gold in 2004 - was Thiago Pereira of Brazil, in 4:11.74. It took 4:16.77 to make the final in Athens, a time good enough for 18th place four years on. And in the heats of the 100m butterfly, title favourite Libby Trickett found herself 12th best, the Australian clocking 58.37. Britain’s Jemma Lowe was last into the 16-strong semi-finals, with 58.49, 0.04sec ahead of Poland’s Otylia Jedrzejczak, who failed to progress. When she won silver in 2004, it took 59.84 to make it through to the semi-finals.

In the heats of the 100m breaststroke, British champion Chris Cook, one of only seven men to race under the minute, scraped into the semi-finals in 15th with 1:00.71, a tenth of a second away from what it took to win a medal in 2004 and a time that would have secured silver in 2000.

Trickett hit half of the nail on the head when she said: “It’s obviously a lot faster being at night, and being an Olympic event it’s going to be a lot tougher.” NBC television, the Olympic broadcaster, insisted swimming tradition be turned on its head here, with finals held in the morning to coincide with prime-time viewing in America. All the better for the home crowd to see Phelps chase Mark Spitz’s record and NBC accountants to chase advertising revenue. No matter that science suggests peak performance among athletes is more likely later in the day.

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Technology has also played a massive part in pumping up the pace. Since February this year, when the Speedo LZR Racer costume, with high compression factors and polyurethane panels d e s i g n e d b y N A S A , w a s launched, 51 world records have fallen, 29 of them in the Olympic long-course pool and 47 to swimmers wearing what some have described as “technological doping”.

Britain had what Michael Scott, the performance director, described as a “workmanlike start”. Scraping into their finals were Hannah Miley in the 400m medley and the women’s 4x100m freestyle quartet of Fran Halsall, Caitlin McClatchey, Julia Beckett and Mel Marshall, who wiped 1.36sec off the national record to qualify in 3:39.18. The time would have won a medal at any time before 2004. No longer.

David Carry set a British record of 3:47.17 for the 400m freestyle, easily good enough for a place in the 2004 final, but the last man in this time was European champion Yury Prilukov of Russia, in 3:44.82.

“World swimming has moved on,” said Scott. “I was sitting next to the Denmark team and their man dropped from 3:48 to 3:45. It’s a very fast time. You would have expected that to make the final but he missed out. The world has become more competitive. It’s a combination of a variety of factors and technology is playing a part in that.”

51
The number of world records set since Speedo’s new racing suit, designed by Nasa, was launched in February. Of those, 29 have been set in the Olympic long-course pool and this number is certain to increase in Beijing