Depth In 100 Freestyle Gives America Relay Chance Against Aussies

The Australians and Americans have long been the powerhouse nations in swimming, producing plenty of talent and arguably boasting the most depth worldwide.

Of the 25 times the men’s 100m freestyle has been contested at the Olympics, an American has won 13 times, an Australian has won three times.

While it’s easy to see the success of a champion, to look at the depth of a country’s talent pool means digging a little deeper than just the highest pinnacle of sport.

The best way to compare depth in 2016 is to compare the two countries’ Olympic Trials results starting at prelims, and heading towards the finals.

PRELIMS COMPARISON

Although prelims times don’t mean a whole lot, the significance is the number of swimmers who were under 49-seconds and under 50-seconds in prelims.In prelims, Americans were without a doubt faster than their Australian counterparts. In the United States, Nathan Adrian took the top seed for the men at 48.43, in Australia Kyle Chalmers took the top seed with a 48.61.

At the U.S Olympic Trials, there were four swimmers under 49-seconds as opposed to the three at Australian trials. All 16 qualifiers in the States were under 50-seconds with the slowest being 49.55. In Australia only 13 qualifiers were under 50-seconds.

The 16th place qualifier in the States would have been 13th in Australia. The fact of the matter is, 29 swimmers in the United States were under 50-seconds at trials. The 31st place swimmer in prelims at the U.S trials would have made the semifinals in Australia.

Based on the above comparison it’s easy to conclude that there is more overall depth in the United States than in Australia in the men’s 100m freestyle.

SEMIFINALS COMPARISON

It took a 49.18 to make it to the finals in the United States and a 49.33 in the United States. Conor Dwyer, who finished eighth in the semifinals would have been fifth in the semifinals in Australia.

The 11th place swimmer in the semifinals in the States would have qualified for the final in Australia. Once again this trend points to showing more depth in this event for the Americans.

FINALS COMPARISON

The final comparison of depth is a comparison of the finals at both the U.S trials and Australian trials. Cameron McEvoy and Nathan Adrian were the fastest overall for their respective countries. McEvoy was significantly faster than Adrian posting a 47.04 to Adrian’s 47.72.

Caeleb Dressel was second in the States, Kyle Chalmers was second for Australia. Chalmers 48.03 was faster than Dressel’s 48.23.

Where the comparison changes is that the next six American finishers are faster than their Australian counterparts. The slowest time in the final was relatively similar for both countries albeit slightly slower for the Australians.

Both nations had six swimmers under 48-seconds and one swimmer under 48-seconds. In the argument of speed, Australia takes the cake with McEvoy and Chalmers. In the argument of depth, the United States is slightly better within their top eight, but much better overall as a nation.

The argument of depth though really only applies to the top four considering they’ll be the ones competing on the freestyle relay at the Rio Olympic Games.

If you tally up the overall times from trials Australia would go a 3:12.07 and the United States would go a 3:12.75. The Australians have a faster total based on trials times, but they’re not unreachable from the American relay quartet.