South African swimmers are really not very happy with their federation right now.
Though the issue of who would pay for swimmers to travel to the World Championships this summer has been partially resolved (the federation will, though they’ve only committed to the ability to send top athletes, so some may still be footing the bill on their own), new issues have arisen upon arrival in Port Elizabeth.
That’s because on the eve of the meet’s start, the pool is bright green.
Having coached at a pool that had some issues and was bright green, I can pass on the knowledge from our pool guy that the biggest risk is an increased possibility of swimmer’s ear, but having murky water can certainly affect the outcome of the competition as it can obscure swimmers’ views of both their competitors and of the course in terms of knowing where turns are at.
Beyond that news, in an interview with Garrett McCaffrey last night, Arizona-trained swimmer Darian Townsend, after taking a big run at the World Cup over the (South African) summer and then beating Ryan Lochte at the Mesa Grand Prix in the 200 IM on Saturday night, has confirmed that he won’t be swimming at Nationals that run from Monday, April 15th through Saturday, April 20th. There’s a lot of great info in that interview, including a discussion of the financial burden that the current situation in Swimming South Africa is placing upon the athletes, so check it out.
Another shot of the pool, thanks to Megan Stephens
According to the official selection criteria, that means he will be ineligible to swim at this summer’s World Championships. (That selection criteria, which can be seen here, also thinks the meet began last Wednesday).
The qualifying standards are below.
| Men’s Standard | Women’s Standard | |
| 22.33 | 50 m Freestyle | 25.34 |
| 48.93 | 100 m Freestyle | 54.86 |
| 1.48:42 | 200 m Freestyle | 1.58:74 |
| 3.49:55 | 400 m Freestyle | 4.09:81 |
| 7.59:06 | 800 m Freestyle | 8.34:33 |
| 15.14:38 | 1500 m Freestyle | 16.26:36 |
| 54.43 | 100 m Backstroke | 1.01:39 |
| 1.58:48 | 200 m Backstroke | 2.11:09 |
| 1.00:86 | 100 m Breaststroke | 1.08:63 |
| 2.12:78 | 200 m Breaststroke | 2.27:88 |
| 52.57 | 100 m Butterfly | 58.89 |
| 1.57:03 | 200 m Butterfly | 2.09:38 |
| 1.59:99 | 200 m Ind. Medley | 2.14:97 |
| 4.18:99 | 400 m Ind. Medley | 4.44:53 |
I swam my 400 on Day 1 and nearly missed the wall completely in one of my turns because I couldn’t see a thing! Races are won or lost by splits of seconds and Nationals is one of the most important local swimming events of the season at which swimmers are expected to swim some of their best times in form conditions possible, not having to resort to swimming waterpolo “head up” strokes in order to locate where they are!
Wow this is horrible, those swimmers should protest and not swim in those conditions. To make them risk an ear infection is just awful. Time to clean out more than just the pool in that Federation.
That isn’t the Chicago River and it’s not St. Patrick’s Day, so my conclusion is they’ve got some problems.
Money is tight. South Africa might have overspent their aids/ HIV budget & swimming has been sequestered.
How I love that word.
And Cameron van der Burgh can do his breastroke dolphin kicks again, hard to DQ someone for underwater kicks when you can’t even see what they’re doing. Doesn’t this create some legal issues for officiating?
Totally agree with this. You could have swimmers getting away with a lot underwater. Only thing that officials could be sure of is the 15 meter mark… Only thing that is visible with that water!
That pool is a disgrace to a country that has produced great swimmers for decades, from Karen Muir, Jonty Skinner, Penny Heyns, the mens sprinters of the 2004, Natalie du Toit, Chad Le Clos, etc etc…
I am going for a degree in statistics so a table of numbers always peaks my interest. NERD ALERT: Quick number crunching shows that when going from 100m to 200m the butterfly has a statistically significant smaller ratio, suggesting the swimmers decelerate the most and that’s is the most draining of the strokes. Is it just a coincidence or is this true in practice? Btw, numbers show backstroke has the least deceleration.
butterfly is considered by many to be the hardest stroke. at the recreational and semi-competitive level, many swimmers find butterfly so difficult that they will refuse to compete in the 200 fly or even the 100 fly. at higher levels (HS state finals) that’s not an issue, but many would regard the 200 fly as a tough race, unless they are distance of butterfly specialists
according to ESPN sports science, butterfly is more tiring and uses up more energy than the other strokes, which would make sense because it requires constant movement of both arms and a bull body kick. so even at a world class level, people probably get tired more quickly. when adjusted for the start, i personally… Read more »
butterfly is definitely the hardest to maintain so that makes sense. Backstroke allows for you to breathe the entire time so it also makes sense that it would have the least deceleration
Is this a late April fools joke? Unfortunate that the South African swimmers have to perform in these conditions. Imagine the US or Australian Swimmers arriving at their trials and being expected to perform under these conditions.
Will there be a restructuring of their federation??? After the World Champs debacle and now this on the eve of their trials!!!! Surely a change is necessary.
Good luck to all the swimmers out there. Glad I don’t have to race there.
Given how long it took South Africa’s Sport Confederation and Olympic Committee to notice that former Athletics South Africa president Leonard Chuene had a tendency to order a new Mercedes for ASA’s use every year, and then declare it surplus goods, and buy it from ASA’s surplus properties list at the end of the year for something like ten rand, I wouldn’t expect them to be terribly interested in trying to shore up their swim federation unless it’s connected to an external scandal. (Chuene only really got caught as a result of everything getting looked at closely when he poorly handled questions about Caster Semenya’s gender.)