In the even-numbered, non-Olympic years, the comparisons to determine who’s having the best year is always a challenge. The world’s best swimmers are scattered across the world, at different meets, and with different taper targets.
With that being said, last week, we had two big senior-level competitions going on: the European Championships and the Pan Pac Championships. The European Championships are for swimmers in Europe, and Pan Pacs are specifically targeted at swimmers not in Europe – it even says so in the rules- No Euros allowed.
SwimSwam’s Anne Lepesant has gone through and made a comparison of the top 18 finishers (10 from Pan Pacs, 8 from Euros) from the two meets combined, and ordered them. Given the conditions of Pan Pacs, it seems as though they’d naturally be at a disadvantage, with the outdoor pool and swimming in the rain.
The “wins,” however, in a virtual sense in the individual events were split right down the middle – 14 for the Americans, and 14 for the Europeans.
This comparison focuses on the events raced at Pan Pacs. Because that meet had no 50 meter strokes, we’ve excluded those races, though the Europeans performed very well in them.
A few high-level conclusions:
- The European male breaststrokers are on-fire at the moment. They took the top three spots in the ranking in the 100 breaststroke and the top two spots in the 200 breaststroke.
- The American men, specifically, were dominant in the 100 fly, holding three of the top four spots (and it would have been more, were there not limits on the number of athletes who could final). The rest of the Pan Pacs region, however, were not good – All 8 European finalists were faster than Pan Pacs bronze medalist Hirofu Ikebata.
- Pan Pacs, meanwhile, was dominant in the 200 IM. While Lazlo Cseh’s win in Berlin was his 5th-straight title, at 1:58.10 it would have only been the 6th-fastest time in finals at Pan Pacs.
See the comparison below.
Oooooh! Thank you Anne. 🙂
Anne, Thanks for adding on those relay times! Wow, are they eye-opening or what?!
I know the US Women’s 400 Medley Relay can be faster than they were at Pan Pac’s, and I know the conditions weren’t optimal for racing in Australia, and I can see the depth of strong competitors improving in a number of countries, but….
Denmark would have beaten us by almost 2 SECONDS?!
Sweden would have beaten us by almost 1.5 SECONDS?!
Great Britain’s time was only 0.5 second behind us?
Those are large amounts of time to improve in a year! I’m not used to our Medley Relays not being at or near the top! 🙁
AND that doesn’t include… Read more »
Amazing. Will there be an inclusion of asian games and yog times? And 2 things that can impact a lot. Gyurta did not swim 200br and cielo 50 free was at maria lenk only
Very interesting article ! loved to follow it through . It kind of gives the forces in each race category for those countries ; even considering the weather / facilities conditions .
unfortunately there is no way to factor in the poor conditions of pan pacs to the ideal conditions of the european champs
Sorry that i have to say it, but its funny how now many fans here try to say that the times wouldve been better with other conditions. Ledecky setting 2 new world records or other swimmers like Van Landeghem setting new pbs mustve been a dream, or how do you explain these times? Water at european champs was clearly warmer than normal, because the competition took place in a velodrome, so there had to be a certain temperature in there, so that the wooden lane didnt get destroyed, maybe with cooler water times wouldve been faster? Who knows? In addition to that i dont think its fair to compare two competitions where one consits of countries with clearly more people… Read more »
Sorry, i think its wasnt van landeghem but mclean 🙂
Chantal van Landeghem set the Canadian Record in the 50 Free, which has lasted since 2009.
Brittany MacLean broke their record in the 1500 Free by 10 seconds (a 13 second improvement on her own PR).
Would be great if some of the top times from the Commonwealth Games were also added for comparison.
I like this a lot, but because I am lazy, can we have relays too please or are they somewhere else?
Relays has been posted on site but on another post.
Sorry, I thought you meant videos.
@LINNY just added relays.
Just one more thing: Connor Jeager! WOW! Fantastic performance in this meet but another, even LESS publicized US male swimmer, who would have been close to medaling in 3 events! Lochte’s and Phelps’ most important contributions were key relay swims, but Clary and Jeager made the US presence known significantly in 6 individual events as a combo!
I’m not sure what they do differently up in Michigan, but they sure teach tenacity! Clary and Jeager know how to fight for that finish! To only miss the silver in the 800 free by 0.02 sec and to beat Cochrane by less than 0.2 sec in the 1500 free, THAT is determination!
Has anyone been able to find a video of the men’s 1500?
he had a tremendous meet ! he is surely climbing the ladder on world level too ; he is a cool guy motivated by what he does best in the best environment . Clary showed he can step up strongly in many events ( tough events to say the least ) and put the hammer down ( that 200 back was incredible ) . Lochte & Phelps showed they are still fully alive and helping those relays to evolve with hopefully a new generation to step up to the Blocks within one year or more .
Shields did have a step back , though now he knows what he is capable to do on LC high level competition .… Read more »