2024 Olympics Race Data Breakdown: Men’s 100 Free

The French governing body for swimming (Fédération Française de Natation) recently released a data analysis booklet of each event raced at the Paris Olympics. In this data-packed guide, information including swimmers’ 25m splits, time spent underwater, total stroke count, and more is laid out in a table with a breakdown of each finalist’s information. Over the next few days, I’ll be choosing some of my favorite races from the Olympics and analyzing the data behind the world’s fastest swimmers.

This data gold mine, all in French, has four distinct sections: Laps (splits), Parties Nagées (Parts of the race swum), Parties Non Nagées (Parts of the race not swum, including the start, underwaters, and finish), and Mouvements (total strokes and such).

LOOKING BACK

This was an unbelievable race, with China’s Pan Zhanle breaking his own world record by 0.40 seconds, swimming a 46.40 to win the final by over a second, one of the biggest margins of victory we’ve ever seen in this race. Kyle Chalmers became a three-time medalist in this event, finishing second in a 47.48. All the swimmers in this heat were originally seeded within the top 8, except for Josha Salchow, who was entered at 13th. Chalmers and fourth-place Nandor Nemeth were separated by 0.02 seconds, with Popovici going 0.01 seconds faster than Nemeth and slower than Chalmers to win bronze. All eight men were under 48 seconds, the first time that feat has occurred in an Olympic final. The swimmers finished as follows:

1. Pan Zhanle, China – 46.40
2. Kyle Chalmers, Australia – 47.48
3. David Popovici, Romania – 47.49
4. Nandor Nemeth, Hungary – 47.50
5. Maxime Grousset, France – 47.71
6. Josha Salchow, Germany – 47.80
7. Jack Alexy, United States – 47.96
8. Chris Guiliano, United States – 47.98

LAPS (SPLITS)

Opening 50:

1. Pan – 22.28
2. Grousset – 22.61
3. Alexy – 22.63
4. Guiliano – 22.82
5. Nemeth – 22.90
6. Salchow – 22.93
7. Popovici – 22.94
8. Chalmers – 23.03

Closing 50:

1. Pan – 24.12
2. Chalmers – 24.45
3. Popovici – 24.55
4. Nemeth – 24.60
5. Salchow – 24.87
6. Grousset – 25.10
7. Guiliano – 25.16
8. Alexy – 25.33

Pan was 0.33 seconds faster than the next fastest competitor in both the opening and closing 50 of this race. The other seven swimmers experienced a flip-flop of sorts, with Grousset, Alexy, and Guiliano (all well established 50 freestyle swimmers) flipping first but having the slowest last 50 times. On the other hand, Popovici and Chalmers used their skillset as 200 freestyle swimmers to make up from their first-50 deficits and place second and third, relying on their impressive back halves. Chalmers was the only swimmer to open up his 100 in over 22 seconds, but was also the closest swimmer to Pan during the final 50.

One theory about how Pan was able to break his world record in a “slow pool” ties largely into his first 50 swim. He was able to get out very quickly, and in hitting the turn before the rest of the field, he was able to avoid the tumultuous wake from everyone else’s flip. Swimming in clean water is always preferred, and with Pan taking out his first 50 as fast as he did (this time alone would’ve placed 33rd in the individual 50, even when measured to the feet), he found his way around the worst of the chop.

PARTIES NAGÉES (PARTS OF THE RACE SWUM)

This section provides the swimmers’ times from 15m to 45m, as well as their times from 65m-95m, accounting for everything except the start, turn, and the finish. The following ranking is their total time spent “swimming.”

1. Pan – 29.32
2. Nemeth – 30.04
3. Chalmers – 30.14
4. Salchow – 30.19
5. Popovici – 30.22
6. Alexy – 30.57
7. Grousset – 30.63
8. Guiliano – 30.73

This was another statistic that was relatively consistent with the final rankings, which makes sense, given that the fastest “swimmers” are going to finish near the top in a race like the 100 freestyle. Pan was undoubtedly the fastest in these segments, which was vital in helping him break the world record by as much as he did. Another interesting thing to note is the two Americans near the bottom of this list. Both Guiliano and Alexy were not near their best times, but it hasn’t been uncommon to see American names on the lower end of the “swimming” rankings– more on that in the next section.

PARTIES NON NAGÉES (PARTS OF THE RACE NOT SWUM)

This section highlights the start, turn, and finish of the race, including reaction times, time spent underwater, distance covered underwater, time to hit the 15m mark, closing 5m time, and distance from last stroke into the wall. The following ranking is the total time spent from the start to 15m, 45-65m, and 95m to the wall (measured in seconds).

1. Pan/Grousset – 17.08
3. Guiliano – 17.25
4. Popovici – 17.27
5. Chalmers – 17.34
6. Alexy – 17.39
7. Nemeth – 17.46
8. Salchow – 17.61

Fastest swimmers to 15m (in seconds):

1. Grousset – 5.33
2. Guiliano – 5.40
3. Pan – 5.45
4. Alexy – 5.55
5. Chalmers/Nemeth – 5.61
6. .
7. Salchow – 5.62
8. Popovici – 5.66

As I mentioned in the last section, American swimmers tend to have better auxiliary portions of their swim comparative to the entire race. We saw it with Nic Fink having the fastest time in the segment for the men’s 100 breaststroke, Gretchen Walsh’s quick underwaters in the women’s 50 freestyle, and now Chris Guiliano and Jack Alexy having some of the fastest starts amongst the men’s 100 freestyle field. Of course, this doesn’t hold true for every race, but it’s likely due to the influence of NCAA and SCY (short course yards) swimming on the American delegation. Yards swimming requires more out of a swimmer’s starts and turns than long course does, so it’s fitting that the swimmers who were raised in SCY pools will likely have better times in the starts/turns/finish segments of their races.

This portion also showcases Grousset, Alexy, and Guiliano’s talents as 50 freestylers. The trio had the three most efficient starts off the blocks, this metric determined by the distance traveled before the first breakout stroke divided by the time spent underwater. That ranking is seen here:

1. Grousset: 12.92 meters underwater / 3.62 seconds underwater = 3.57 m/s
2. Alexy: 12.14m / 3.49s = 3.48 m/s
3. Guiliano: 13.64m / 3.95s = 3.45 m/s
4. Popovici: 11.82m / 3.46s = 3.42 m/s
5. Pan: 13.18m / 3.90s = 3.38 m/s
6. Salchow: 12.76m / 3.80s = 3.36 m/s
7. Chalmers: 12.22m / 3.65s = 3.35 m/s
8. Nemeth: 13.05m / 3.94s = 3.31 m/s

MOUVEMENTS (STROKE)

This final section modeled the total strokes that each swimmer took during the race, and the following ranking shows from most strokes to least.

1. Nemeth: 70
2. Popovici: 69
3. Grousset: 68
4. Chalmers/Alexy: 67
5. .
6. Salchow/Guiliano: 65
7. .
8. Pan: 64

This stroke rate analysis section tends to circle back to the tenet of “swim your own race, whatever works for you.” None of the swimmers on the podium of the men’s 100 freestyle took the same amount of strokes as another, with Pan taking 64, Chalmers taking 67, and Popovici taking 69. Pan’s distance-per-stroke was admirable, as he managed to take the fewest amount of strokes and have the fastest time in the Parties Nagées section; however Josha Salchow had the best DPS rate.

Distance per stroke ranking (total distance spent above the water / total strokes)

1. Salchow: 1.229 meters per stroke
2. Pan: 1.220 meters per stroke
3. Alexy: 1.197 meters per stroke
4. Guiliano: 1.192 meters per stroke
5. Chalmers: 1.171 meters per stroke
6. Popovici: 1.167 meters per stroke
7. Grousset: 1.131 meters per stroke
8. Nemeth: 1.121 meters per stroke

For the previous data breakdowns, see the following articles:

• Women’s 50 Free
• Men’s 100 Breast
• Women’s 200 IM

For the full breakdown: see the booklet here.