The Leaving London Series: Stroke 50s

Last week speculation surfaced via one of the premier swimming swimming websites on the Internet SwimSwam that the International Olympic Committee is considering adding the stroke 50s to the Olympic program (along with ditching the women's 800FR in favour of a women's 1500).

As SwimSwam pointed out, the IOC has refused adding stroke 50s to the Games program because of the number of swimming medals already being handed out at the Games.  With Michael Phelps claiming 22 medals over 3 Olympiads is a feat that can not be duplicated by a sailer, a soccer player, a tennis player, basketball, or handball.  Really, the only sports that could yield so many medals to an individual are track, gymnastics, and swimming.  As a result it's hard to see the IOC actually pulling the trigger on stroke 50s.

However, as SwimSwam points out, money talks and when it comes to the first week of the Olympics, the world is focused almost squarely on the excitement in the pool and it's hard to argue against the "excitement" factor of stroke 50s.

Men's 10km podium, LtoR - Lurz, Mellouli, Weinberger

As someone within the swimming community, I'm all in favour of more Olympic team spots via more events.  The men's 10km open water race yielded a bronze medal for Canadian Richard Weinberger, who is a force in open water swimming but a non-factor in the 1500 pool race.  For guys like Richard, the open water Olympic race gave him Olympic glory and anyone in the swimming community should support even more opportunities.

Yes, more 50s mean more piling on for the sprinters and might serve to stunt the development of some younger swimmers who see their future in just the 50s at too young an age but with good coaching and time it will be observed that young kids are just not going to be able to compete with older, stronger, and more mature swimmers that gravitate to the 50s as they get older.

Opening the door for stroke 50s will hopefully at a later date open the door for the men's 800 and women's 1500, who would not want to see Katie Ledecky and Sun Yang compete for more Gold with the addition of these great races??

I am also for expansion of the Open Water program to include the 5km and 25km races.  Take it from me, you want a real marathon of swimming, it's not the puny 1500, it's not the comfortable 10km race, it's a grueling 25km race.  Love that race, a true test of distance capabilities.

The more Olympic swimming the merrier, sign me up as interested.

TOMORROW...  Officiating