Like, Monty remembers when breastrokers couldn't put their eyebrow line below the water. //
Or when backstrokers had to touch the wall with their hands, no dolphin kick off the wall in breast, different leans into the wall, and a few other small ones. But the biggie is still the underwater dolphin. That blows the suits, new pools, new lane lines, new blocks, and salt water out of the water. For awhile it went unchecked too, and you had races up to a 100 swam almost exclusively under water. Now it is just 15 meters from each wall, but that is still a huge difference from the old turn and burn technique.
And funny thing is that it was not a new rule, new gadget, or new suit that had to be invented. It was always there, just had to have someone think of it. Not sure who was the first, but it was Berkoff who made it famous i believe.
As to Sun Yang, of course he is a very talented guy. Just unfortunate that we do not really know how much so now. Was he a guy that would have still won the gold and set world records, or a guy that just barley makes the finals in meets. I guess he will be under a real microscope now, even more than he was. He is young, so we will see if he makes any improvements in his times, or he falls flat and races with the mere mortals now. He is certainly built to be a perfect distance swimmer, about as hydrodynamic as a body can get, and drugs did not do that..
Or when backstrokers had to touch the wall with their hands, no dolphin kick off the wall in breast, different leans into the wall, and a few other small ones. But the biggie is still the underwater dolphin. That blows the suits, new pools, new lane lines, new blocks, and salt water out of the water. For awhile it went unchecked too, and you had races up to a 100 swam almost exclusively under water. Now it is just 15 meters from each wall, but that is still a huge difference from the old turn and burn technique.
And funny thing is that it was not a new rule, new gadget, or new suit that had to be invented. It was always there, just had to have someone think of it. Not sure who was the first, but it was Berkoff who made it famous i believe.
As to Sun Yang, of course he is a very talented guy. Just unfortunate that we do not really know how much so now. Was he a guy that would have still won the gold and set world records, or a guy that just barley makes the finals in meets. I guess he will be under a real microscope now, even more than he was. He is young, so we will see if he makes any improvements in his times, or he falls flat and races with the mere mortals now. He is certainly built to be a perfect distance swimmer, about as hydrodynamic as a body can get, and drugs did not do that..