They don't stop the meet for personal things. I suppose they could have done a minute of silence at the start of the session, or between events, but if they start allowing individuals to have "moments of silence" at a meet with 6000 competitors, that could be a slippery slope. I was at Worlds in Montreal '14, and there really isn't any extra time. I think the day that the 800's were being swum, they finished at something like 10:30 pm...

The 2 guys in the water swam in the heat prior. They use an overhead start protocol to speed up the meet.

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In regards to FINA... I get it.

But was not aware of the 'overhead start protocol'. I don't think I've ever been to a swim meet in my life... have only ever watched them on TV. Thanks for the info.

It's common at age group meets and masters meets, particularly in prelims and timed-finals meets. Where a separate finals session is run, they can be run either way, depending on the meet and how many finals are run. Some of the larger meets might run 4 finals per event (A B C and D), meaning the top 32 get a second swim.


The meets you see on TV are usually elite-only meets (Olympics / Trials etc), they don't have the same time pressure in heats (well, Trials does, but the Olympics and Worlds dont) and they only run one final per event (plus semis at the Olympics).

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Always heard them referred to as "flyover starts" at my kids' swim meets.. usually implemented when the meet started to run longer than it should so that the parents didn't kill the starter.

FINA Released a statement today the guy never even asked for a minute of silence, and they would certainly have granted one should he have asked.


http://fina.org/...pr-66-fina-statement

Now I generally trust FINA as far as I could throw them, but on this I have to believe they wouldn't lie.

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I wrote this, you should read it:
https://www.slowtwitch.com/...n_Swimming_6700.html

He probably asked the wrong person.

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Yes, "flyover starts" are often used in large meets to reduce the start interval between heats and compress the timeline. When you finish, you stay in the water in your line until the next heat starts, then you climb out.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

Chase starts compress the timeline even more... aka starts at both ends of the pool... after the last turn of the heat, once the heat that is finishing is about 15 meters, they start the next heat... the people finishing have to get out quick. It reduces the session even more but can be confusing to which side you should be starting on and you don't get splits for every 50 only 100s...

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ishi no ue ni san nen | Perseverance will win in the end. | Blog | @nebmot | Strava | Instagram |

I've been to a lot of swim meets in my life. Never done that, seen that, or even heard of that.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

They aren't very common, but we have been to a few championship meets that are doing them to give the kids as much time between prelims and finals.

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ishi no ue ni san nen | Perseverance will win in the end. | Blog | @nebmot | Strava | Instagram |

The majority of the meets I've been to were short course, where I imagine this wouldn't work. Been to a few big long course meets, but none so large they needed to do this.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

Yeah, flyover is the correct term. I was having a brain fart.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

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Chase starts are definitely a thing. My friend was caught in her 200 fly once...

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KJ
Swim and Triathlon Coach
AllTerrainEndurance.com
KJ@allterrainendurance.com