Earlier this month, University of Texas pro group member Shaine Casas became the first swimmer to surpass 5,000 points at the Longhorns’ annual quadrathlon featuring 50s of every stroke.
For each 50 event, longtime Texas head coach Eddie Reese has a time standard, unchanged since the 1980s, that is worth 1,000 points. Every hundredth of a second faster under the mark added one point to a swimmer’s total, and every hundredth of a second slower subtracted one point.
The fun event format got us thinking: What would a swimming decathlon look like?
SwimSwam’s David Clossey compiled a hypothetical 10-event schedule consisting of 50s of each stroke, 200s of each stroke, the 200 IM, and the 1000 free. The next task was finding time standards in each event worth 750 power points, about the same value as the 736.75 average of Reese’s benchmarks at Texas. Note: scoring is weighted differently to account for sprint vs. distance disparities.
SwimSwam’s “Decathlon” Lineup
| Event | Time Standard | Scoring Conversion |
| 50 Free | 21.43 | .01 seconds = 1 point |
| 50 Breast | 26.69 | .01 seconds = 1 point |
| 50 Back | 24.12 | .01 seconds = 1 point |
| 50 Fly | 23.52 | .01 seconds = 1 point |
| 200 Free | 1:41.95 | .01 seconds = .25 points |
| 200 Breast | 2:08.16 | .01 seconds = .25 points |
| 200 Back | 1:53.56 | .01 seconds = .25 points |
| 200 Fly | 1:54.08 | .01 seconds = .25 points |
| 200 IM | 1:54.20 | .01 seconds = .25 points |
| 1000 Free | 9:39.20 | .01 seconds = .05 points |
If any teams actually decide to try this, let us know how it turns out.
And if divers are feeling left out, an alternative schedule could be replacing the 200 IM with six 1-meter dives. A score standard of equivalent difficulty would need to be created, and every point away could be a point added or subtracted.
This sounds like round 1 of 3 in a main set at Badger Swim Club on a typical Tuesday afternoon.
Painful… it would look painful
It’d be tough to get 10 race-level times in 1 day out of any senior-level club swimmer or college swimmer, regardless of how “fast” and “well-rounded” he/she is.
Would propose the team commit 2 Saturday “practices” early in the season with the following format, almost mirroring a college swim meet (swapping out the 100s of stroke with 50s), with a warm-up and then a “meet”:
Day 1:
1000 Free
200 Free
50 Back
50 Breast
200 Fly
Day 2:
50 Free
200 Back
200 Breast
50 Fly
200 IM
Would love to see some elite teams trial this. It’d be great to see the well-rounded 200/distance types get some recognition,… Read more »
Yeah I agree that’s likely the best way to structure it if you’re looking to get the best look at actual racing times.
The alternative to splitting it up across two days would probably be to just treat it as a practice with a really long off the blocks set.
Time standard are out of balance
IIRC, we did do a dive or two when we did the ‘record board’ set at practice.
The field events don’t translate well. Could be fun to come up with some.
If the analogy to Track & Field is Swimming & Diving, then field events should include boards and platform
Kinda sounds like it would look like a practice.
My vote is just to do a 4IM
4 x 100 each stroke
3M dive
platform dive
2-minute technical solo dance
best out of 10 full court water polo shots
5 K open water swim
10th event: underwater monofin? open water lifeguard save?
Bubble rings.
A time trial to put on a racing suit?