As part of the upcoming European Week of Sport, Irish National Team members are attempting to break the 100x50m free world record.
Fancy claiming a #GuinnessWorldRecord? Can you swim 50m in ≤33sec? Join us in our Charity 100 x 50m Relay Event! https://t.co/lrrBGbooP3
— Swim Ireland (@swimireland) September 7, 2017
Last year’s Week of Sport had about 15,000 events, with 10 million people participating in over 30 countries, with 35 partners across Europe.
The relay team so far includes 2017 FINA World Junior Championships medallists Mona McSharry and Conor Ferguson, Worlds team members Jordan Sloan and Brendan Hyland, and Irish record holders Danielle Hill, Jack McMillan, Andrew Meegan and Alex Murphy.
To reach 100 swimmers, Swim Ireland is recruiting both masters-level and younger swimmers. The only condition is that they must be able to swim a 50 in under 33 seconds, as the team hopes to break 55 minutes.
The race will begin at 8 p.m. on Friday the 29th at the Dublin National Aquatic Center.
Click here to see the Facebook event.
All participants will raise a minimum of €100, and all proceeds will benefit the Irish Cancer Society and the Northern Ireland Hospice.
As of September 19th, there were about 20 spots left on the team.
33 is not that fast though
The challenge in these records isn’t so much about “how fast are the swimmers.” The challenge is getting enough fast swimmers to show up in the same place at the same time, not flake out, and raise money. People are generally selfish, and that’s what makes this hard.
For example – if you did this at US Nationals, you could probably do the relay in under 40 minutes and smash the record. The issue is – could you get enough swimmers to give up their nap time, “tapers,” massage time, etc. to do it? Probably not.
That makes sense. I was thinking a 55 minute 5000 isn’t really world class. There was a time when I could have done close to that on my own and I was far from world class.
But is really need to have so many guys? On some “For Fun Relays” with a team of 10 swimmer (Master level mostly) is possible to swim 10 times each swimmer averaging 30 seconds.. Is there any rule that all 100 swimmers must be different?
Also even some Bigger Master Championships.. you could find 100 different swimmers who could go that time..
33 seconds in a 50 for a 60 year old women is fast. It depends upon the sex and age. I couldn’t swim 33 seconds free even in yards anymore and was not much faster than 33 in 50 meters as a kid since I was a mediocre age group swimmer and was better at butterfly where I could swim as fast as a freestyle in a 50,
Traditionally, yes, all 100 swimmers must be different. Though, Guinness (the only ones who monitor these records) could decide to have separate categories if they wanted.
Lol put me in there right now. I will swim half of them.