There were two strong candidates for race of the day on the 2nd day of competition at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center and the FINA World Championships.
In the men’s 100 breaststroke, Alexander Dale Oen of Norway swam a 58.71 that in its own right was a blistering, and impressive performance that is the 4th-best swim of all time. It cleared Kosuke Kitajima’s textile-best by more than three-tenths, making him the first in textile under 59 seconds.
Set against the backdrop of 93 of his countrymates left dead by way of domestic terrorism, however, this becomes one of the top two inspirational sports stories of the year, right alongside Japan’s win in the women’s World Cup after natural disaster struck their country. Shots of Dale Oen leaning against the lanerope, pointing to the Norweigian flag on the side of his cap, will be one of the indelible images of this meet.
In the women’s 200 IM, China’s Shiwen Ye put up a similarly masterful swim to break her own textile-best by over half-a-second. Not only that, but she did so in exhilarating fashion. She went from 5th to 1st over the last 50 meters, and did so in one of the fastest closing 50’s you’ll ever see in this race (at least as long as the current suit rules stay en vogue). Not only that, but she did this in front of a home crowd of Chinese supporters that have been searching for a swimmer to get behind at a meet that thus far, has not been a great one for China.
This swim represents China’s first gold medal in the swimming portion of this meet, and it always means something special when the home nation wins, especially in such an impressive fashion.
I’m not usually a sentimental guy, but for a swimmer like Alexander Dale Oen, who is one of the good guys in the sport and a true patriot, to emerge with such a phenomenal victory with great tragedy still fresh on his mind, he can’t be denied the honor.
This World Record wasn’t on anybody’s radar, but in 2012, I’d almost be shocked if Dale Oen didn’t break it. Let’s snap things back to the nuts-and-bolts for a moment (because presuming that this is the race of the day only because of its inspirational nature would be selling it short). A side story to this race that doesn’t get talked about is that earlier this year, Dale Oen underwent a nose surgery to correct a problem that reportedly left him out of training with severe colds 4-6 weeks a year. Now that he’s got that straightened out, his training towards London should be even more phenomenal. It would be foolish to pick against this man in London.
Click here to watch the video of Dale Oen’s 100 breaststroke title.
Dale Oen looked so fluid and his strokes were efficient with almost no “dead zone”