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I like her chances in the 1500 better than the 200, it's not like the Aussies would leave her off the relay.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I can tell you a story about Ky...he was doing one of the televised comps back in around early 2002-2003 down in Torquay one weekend. His races were on the Sunday, and on the Saturday, the Danger 1000 open water swim was happening. He decided he wanted to swim in it. The call went out over the loudspeaker 'Has anyone got a spare wetsuit for Ky Hurst?', and I happened to have a spare wetsuit & was about 5 metres from him at the time, so I lent it to him. He subsequently jumped in, and demolished a pretty strong local field & set the course record that still stands.

Thanks for correcting my error, he easily would have been top 16 at the Atlanta games in that event.

Good thing we have you here as the self-proclaimed swimming expert!

They did used to have b finals at Olympics when there were no semis

Lol, I forgot about that. ‘96 was the last year they were held...

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I ain’t proclaimin’ nuthin. I’m not that smart to be an expert on anything.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Btw: I heard an interview with Germany's OWS head coach (Steffen Lurz). He mentioned that they hardly train in open water. It is 99% done in the pool.

edit- read all the replies before replying

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

The top finishers in the 10k OWS in Rio went 1:52:59 which is a 42:56 pace for a race nearly 3 times as long. My money is on an easy course record by any of the top Olympic open water swimmers.
Not sure how top pool swimmers like Thorpe/Ledecky/Paltrinieri would fare but as others have noted they usually do well in open water so I’d also bet for a new course record while swimming comfortably.

Let’s remember that pro triathlon is really a cyclist’s sport, and to some extent runners as well. The odds of finding great bike/run athletes capable of beating Olympic swimmers are very low.

Somewhere recently I saw that one of the FINA circuit 10K swims was won in 1:47:55, or 41:00 per 3.8 K. I'd guess that, on a calm day, a top OWS guy could go 39 high for the iron swim. Of course, after that, he'd be caught by mile 35 or 40 of the bike. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

So on a theoretical Olympic pro relay you have a 40 minute swim, a 3:40 bike and a ~2 hour run for a sub 6:30 finish!

Ya, something like that on a cool, calm, overcast day. It would need to be nice and cool in the mid-day, and a flat course, for the mary guy to run 2:00-ish. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

And the right shoes, and a Tesla/multiple draftees

I suppose we assume all top swimmers would jump in the ocean and smash it. But perhaps some have never swam in the ocean, never swam in chop, never swam in a wetsuit or with 2000 people. They'd be familiar with drafting, but I used to get my balls chewed off when squad swimming if I got too close to the guy in front. Maybe it wouldn't occur to them to draft. So I can see how some don't go as great as you'd think.