The French swimming governing body (Fédération Française de Natation) recently released a data analysis booklet for each event from the Paris Olympics. This data-packed guide lists swimmers’ 25-meter times, time in the water, total strokes, and more in tables, along with detailed information about each finalist. Over the next few days, I’ll be choosing some of my favorite events from the Olympics and analyzing the data from the world’s fastest swimmers.
This gold mine of data is entirely in French and is divided into four sections. wrap (Division), Party Nager (I swam part of the race) Non-Nazi Party (The part of the race where you don’t swim, including the start, underwater, and finish) Movement (Total number of strokes, etc.).
Looking Back
Bobby Finke The event ended with a bang, breaking the world record of 14:31.02 set by Sun Yang at the 2012 Olympics. Finke touched the wall in 14:30.67, becoming the first man to break 14:31, and winning the only individual gold medal for the U.S. men at midnight. Gregorio Paltrinieri He came in second behind Finke and won his fifth Olympic medal. Daniel Wiffen Ireland won its second ever medal in the men’s pool event. The team’s results are as follows:
- Bobby FinkeUSA (WR) – 14:30.67
- Gregorio PaltrinieriItaly – 14:34.55
- Daniel WiffenIreland – 14:39.63
- David Betlehem, Hungary – 14:40.91
- Kuzey Tunceli, Türkiye – 14:41.22
- Ahmed Jaouadi, Tunisia – 14:43.35
- David AubreyFrance – 14:44.66
- Damien JolieFrance – 14:52.61
wrap (Split)
I won’t bore you with all 240 50m splits for every swimmer (30×50 for each of the 8 swimmers), so I’ve compiled the fastest, slowest and average splits for each swimmer. Because this is a long distance event, this post is a bit different than the sprint events I’ve compiled so far.
Fastest 100:
- Jaouadi: 55.18 (closing at 100)
- Finke: 55.34 (closing at 100)
- Bethlehem: 55.51 (closing 100)
- Paltrinieri: 56.02 (Opening 100)
- Tunceli: 56.08 (closing price 100)
- Wiffen: 56.36 (Opening 100)
- Aubrey: 57.06 (Opening 100)
- Jolly: 57.61 (Opening 100)
Slowest 100:
- Finke: 58.76 (500-600)
- Paltrinieri: 58.93 (100-200)
- Wiffen: 59.31 (900-1000)
- Bethlehem: 59.34 (1000-1100)
- Aubrey: 59.43 (300-400)
- Tunceli: 59.55 (200-300)
- Jolly: 1:00.16 (300-400)
- Jaouadi: 1:00.42 (1200-1300)
This stat is interesting because Ahmed Jaouadi has both the fastest and slowest 100m split times in the field. He had a 100m final time of Bobby Finke In a rare occurrence, he was much more shaky than Finke, with both Frenchmen recording their fastest times in the first 100 metres of the race and their slowest times in the fourth 100 metres.
Average 100 splits (in seconds):
- Finke: 58.04
- Paltrinieri: 58.30
- Wiffen: 58.64
- Bethlehem: 58.73
- Tunceli: 58.75
- Djawadi: 58.89
- Aubrey: 58.98
- Jolie: 59.51
Average 100 (ignoring the first and last 100)
- Finke: 58.45
- Paltrinieri: 58.50
- Wiffen: 58.83
- Bethlehem: 59.13
- Tunceli: 59.15
- Aubrey: 59.25
- Jaouadi: 59.33
- Jolie: 59.74
Standard deviation of 100 splits in the middle 1300 meters:
Standard deviation measures how far, on average, a swimmer deviated from their average 100 split. The lower the number, the more consistent a swimmer’s times are. The higher the number, the more inconsistent they are.
- Aubrey: 0.09
- Bethlehem: 0.18
- Paltrinieri: 0.20
- Finke/Tunceli: 0.24
- .
- Jolly: 0.29
- Wiffen: 0.36
- Djawadi: 0.57
David Aubrey was by far the most consistent of the field, with just 0.29 seconds separating his fastest 100m split time from his slowest intermediate 1300m split time. Ahmed Jaouadi had the largest standard deviation of his times, with a difference of 2.07 seconds between his fastest and slowest 100m split times.
The following graph shows the general trend of 100m times for each swimmer. Notice how the graph is roughly arched, with the fastest 100m times occurring at the beginning and end of the race.
The following graphs compare the times of the podium finishers to the other finishers. Note that these graphs do not overlap.
The following graph shows Aubrey’s consistency alongside Kuzey Tunceli, whose splits were more average, and Ahmed Jaouadi, whose splits were much more variable.
party (I swam part of the race.)
This section shows the time the swimmer spent “swim”, taking into account all times except the start, turns at each wall, and the finish. The next ranking is the total time spent swimming.
- Finke: 13:09.81
- Aubrey: 13:18.68
- Bethlehem: 13:21.59
- Wiffen: 13:29.26
- Tunceli: 13:30.89
- Paltrinieri: 13:31.94
- Jolly: 13:36.10
- Jaouadi: 13:36.28
We’ll discuss this in more detail in the next section.
Non-Party Naje (Part of the race do not have Suum
This section highlights race starts, turns, finishes, reaction times, time spent in the water, distance traveled in the water, etc. Rankings by total distance spent in the water are as follows:
- Aubrey: 204.3 meters
- Finke: 198.0 meters
- Bethlehem: 191.8 meters
- Jolie: 181.6 meters
- Wiffen: 176.0 meters
- Djawadi: 171.7 meters
- Tunceli: 169.8 meters
- Paltrinieri: 163.3 meters
Time spent underwater:
- Aubrey: 1:25.98
- Finke: 1:20.86
- Bethlehem: 1:19.32
- Jolly: 1:16.51
- Wiffen: 1:10.37
- Tunceli: 1:10.33
- Jaouadi: 1:07.07
- Paltrinieri: 1:02.61
Looking at these rankings, it becomes clear once again that there is no one way to win a race. Finke was in the water for around 35 metres longer than Paltrinieri, and spent 18 seconds more time underwater. David Aubrey Paltrinieri spent far more time and distance in the water than anyone else, but still finished in seventh place. Even a little Although he spent less time and distance in the water, he still managed to finish in second place.
Each swimmer had their own race strategy and executed it in a way that worked for them. I am sure that if Paltrinieri and Aubry were to change their race plans in the water, their times would change dramatically.
Movement (stroke)
In this final section, we model the total strokes each swimmer took during the race, and the following rankings are given from most to least strokes taken.
- Bethlehem: 1236
- Tunceli: 1167
- Paltrinieri: 1136
- Jolly: 1028
- Finke: 1009
- Javadi: 983
- Wiffen: 965
- Aubrey: 906
Race strategy will be key here too. David Bethlehem said, David Aubrey However, the time difference between the two was just four seconds. Bobby Finke Just 19 strokes less Damien JolieBut the American beat the Frenchman by 22 seconds. The key here is to maximize stroke efficiency, Bobby Finke It’s on another level. He didn’t need to have the fastest rotation rate between strokes, he didn’t need to have the fastest distance per stroke, finding that happy middle ground is what worked perfectly for him in the long run and allowed him to break the world record.
For a breakdown of previous data, see the following article:
For more detailed information, please see this booklet.
