I need help: Research

[LJH]

A character in one if my stories is a swimmer. He practices in the sea and is an olympic contender. What kind of time should he be reaching for in the 100m breast stroke? That is 50m to the nearest buoy and 50 m back to the beach. Obviously his time would need to meet Olympic qualifying time and is it necessary to meet that when he practices, or would he be swimming in the sea for strength and stamina only? what is the olympic qualifying time? Can anyone help?

Edited January 15, 2014 by LJH

[JamesSavik]

Google is your friend.

 

Construct your query with bits you are interested in, use quotes for compound words that may be misunderstood:

 

>> olympic swimming "100 meter" qualifying times

[rustle]

This is the best info I've found for using Google for advanced searches.

 

http://themetapicture.com/google-tips-tricks/

[LJH]

Thanks guys. I have googled it but wanted to know if there are other factors involved. I'll google again.

[LJH]

Okay, found it. Thanks guys.

[joann414]

It's been so long since I qualified for the Olympics, my memory fails me       

[LJH]

It's been so long since I qualified for the Olympics, my memory fails me    

 

I fell over laughing in less than the time it would take an olympic swimmer to butterfly the 50m. lol

[The Pecman]

My first novel, Groovy Kind of Love, concerned a kid who was a competitive swimmer in high school. I was also on swim teams during those years of my youth, so I know that experience well. I can't smell chlorine today without immediately going back decades and remember exactly what that experience was like.

 

One thing I tried to capture was the sound you hear while crashing through the water, where you hear momentary bursts of the audience applause while you're turning your head to breathe. The actual contest times are dependent on age levels, and I never got anywhere near Olympic performance -- this was strictly local and regional events. In fact, I don't even think we did 100-meter races except as relays, usually in 25-meter pools. I think in the latter part of high school, as the participants hit 17 or 18, they do step up to 50-meter pools, but I never swam in one of those in Florida. 

 

2012 Olympic Swimming Qualification Times

Edited January 17, 2014 by The Pecman

[LJH]

My first novel, Groovy Kind of Love, concerned a kid who was a competitive swimmer in high school. I was also on swim teams during those years of my youth, so I know that experience well. I can't smell chlorine today without immediately going back decades and remember exactly what that experience was like.

 

One thing I tried to capture was the sound you hear while crashing through the water, where you hear momentary bursts of the audience applause while you're turning your head to breathe. The actual contest times are dependent on age levels, and I never got anywhere near Olympic performance -- this was strictly local and regional events. In fact, I don't even think we did 100-meter races except as relays, usually in 25-meter pools. I think in the latter part of high school, as the participants hit 17 or 18, they do step up to 50-meter pools, but I never swam in one of those in Florida. 

 

2012 Olympic Swimming Qualification Times

Perfect. That's just the kind of thing I was looking for. South Africans qualify under the FINA rule for swimming. The times are close. The website you quote says 1.00.79 for Breast stroke and FINA says 1.00.86, and for Freestyle there is also a difference of 9 seconds. I think the best way would be to qualify as per your website. Thank you Pecman. Hugs

[Graeme]

I need to point out that there is no way to compare swimming times in the surf with swimming times in a pool. Even different pools are not necessarily comparable. I was recently at the Australian Institute of Sports in Canberra, where the Australian Olympic swimming team trains, and they told us that the pool they use there is designed to maximum swim times... and world record times recorded in that pool are never official because of that.

 

In the surf, you've got the movement of the water affecting times, and the density of sea water is different to the density of pool water. If the swimmer is in the right ball-park, that's okay, but don't try to get them to match Olympic qualifying times in the ocean.

 

It might be great training, but don't try to hold the times too closely to those that you get in a pool.

[Trebs]

One other factor would be the date of the story.  The times would be different 10 years ago or five years in the future.  If they are qualifying for the 2016 Olympics, you could go with the times that you have above, knowing that if you're off by a 1/2 second, it could just be seen as part of the sport's changes

[wildone]

I'm a bit confuzzeled with your original question Louis.

 

There is open water swimming competitions, some swimmers have died like one in UAE a few years back due to the water temperature and other factors. The modern Olympics don't have open water swimming except in the Triathlon competitions.

 

If this is a Olympic swimmer that does open water training, I don't know if the time achieved in the pool could be achieved in the ocean. Like Graeme said, two totally different conditions. It would be like holding a Indy car race in the Arctic, just wouldn't be comparable.

 

Just my two cents worth But if you are looking for times, check out Open Water Swimming or Wild Swimming or times from Triathlon pages.