If I recall correctly, she's from Nottingham so it's probably more of a "hometown celebrity appearance" kind of thing rather than a serious venture into tri.

Shes been retired from swimming for a long time now and does a lot of presenting on the BBC these days; the impression that I get is that she enjoys being retired far more than she enjoyed competing!

She did the swim leg in the Nottingham relays last year- I think she came out of the swim in 3rd

You're pretty much right- she's from Mansfield - half an hour up the road from Nottingham.

And yes she did the swim leg as part of that relay last year (they allowed the proletariat to race during the daytime, before the elite mixed event in the early evening.
I was in the same wave (of I'd guess a hundred) as her... she didn't wait for me !

From other articles elsewhere she's not that experienced in open water; I've read interviews where she said she wouldn't go in the sea when on a beach holiday in years past, as she was scared of OW.
So good on her for doing this.

There are several faster female swimmers than Lucy Charles in triathlon but she is right up there.

I don’t know if there are any male pros with a LCM 800 free PR faster than 8:28 much less any women. So tell us what you mean when you say there are several faster female pros.

I am sure my 50m free PR is significantly faster than hers. Surely that is not what you mean?

Edit:

I specified Lucy Charles not Rebecca Adlington

Who are you referring to having a 8:28 LCM PR? As far as I can find Lucy's is 8:33 and Rebecca's is 8:14. I don't mean to be pedantic, just interested!

Source:

https://www.swimmingresults.org/...rles&tiref=57877

https://www.swimmingresults.org/...ngton&tiref=7880

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Practise doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent. Only perfect practice makes perfect!

Source was what I remember reading in a slowtwitch interview! I’ll look it up later...

I know. Who is faster than Charles? Let’s assume I am wrong and she is 8:33, not 8:28 in 800m free. Who has done that?

Haley Pierson. Sure. But she retired years ago.

What I see from those two sets of lifetime bests, is that Lucy with her OW experience would just draft off Rebecca, and sprint her for the win in the last 50. Looks like Lucy's 50LCM is quite a bit faster than Rebecca's, and all that field sprint experience, I bet the house on Lucy every time...

Put her against Jessica Learmonth, Summer Cook, Pamela Oliveira, Carolina Routier

Lucy is fast, one of the best but to say she is the best in triathlon is a stretch unless you are talking just Ironman, then I'd agree.

Since Lucy has turned Pro, how many races has she comes second out of the water in 70.3 or Ironman. She's not an ITU racer so we don't care about what they do in regards to this exercise.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

I forgot that if it isn't ironman it's not triathlon.

Not my point. But relative to this...how many women in ITU can thump a chunk of the Men's field?

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

If a man can't swim he won't be in the WTS, he goes to Ironman.

Easily best swimmer to ever do triathlon other than Haley Peirsol.

I know we’re not comparing apples with apples as Rebecca’s specialised in 400/800, but the Olympic Distance is 1500m and I don’t think Rebecca ever went under 16mins did she?

Anyway, just Sunday afternoon semantics.....

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Facebook Page: Sweat7
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her 8:14 was a world record at the time.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

I stick by my statement that Lucy is the best female swimmer currently in triathlon. Pool time comparisons:

400/800 LCM times
Charles: 4:15 / 8:44
Learmonth 4:26/9:02
Cook 4:31/9:12

I think Routier might be the best of the bunch you mentioned but I just did a quick search and couldn't find results.

I wish Lucy hadn't been discouraged by British Tri to pursue the Olympic distance.

The thing about that though, and to me it shows me exactly why she should be in IM. Out swimming the front pack swimmers is sorta pointless in ITU. The only advantage you have is that you have a stress free T1, but your not going to out swim the group and then ride alone and not suffer. So if she's just going to "sit up" or ride the 1st half lap of every ITU race "easier" than the front group, there's no real point/value in her super fast swim- at that point just swim with the group.

And no I don't think she's shown any capacity to out swim the group and then extend her lead on the bike and "hang on" with the run.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Based on what she has done do you really think she couldn’t have trained up to run 34 low off the bike?

My opinion: her 400 time is slightly better than her 800 time, btw.

The only one to catch and beat her has been Daniela.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

I dont know, what I'm telling you is that your splits just showcased why an athlete would be far better in non-draft than DL. Having that superior of a swim is pointless in ITU. She's not going to iTT her way to success in ITU like she has done in IM.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Precisely why she should race non-draft. So at best she's likely in the "breakaway" group of usually a handful of athletes or at worse stuck in the main front pack of usually 10-12 athletes.

So suddenly now she's running in top 10 vs events where her strong swim/bike lets her race at worse for top 2-3 at every non-draft event.

That's why I said, her superior swim is pretty much relegated in ITU. Maybe she's going to go for broke every race and her goal would be to simply "hold on", but I just don't think that works in ITU. Which is precisely why she's dominated in IM.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Having that superior of a swim is pointless in ITU. She's not going to iTT her way to success in ITU like she has done in IM. //

You have said this several times now, and I am going to have to take umbrage with your statements. A swimmer like her is not pointless, in fact she could change the whole dynamic of the womens race, to match what Varga and a couple others have done to the mens race. Right now it is typical of the women to group up on the bike, unlike the breaks in the day with both Killer B's, driving the out of T1 pace and forcing smallish breaks, and then gaping a lot of good runners in that 2nd pack.


Varga would often get much better results because of this, much better than his run splits would have him otherwise. I think in comparison, Lucy is a better runner than Varga, and has the potential to perhaps become a top 5 runner. But in the meantime she could drive the swims to open gaps, do just enough to have Flora and a couple others with her, and then they can drive a break to get some good gaps. Hell, just here, Flora, and maybe Spivey could do very well in a 3 up break, maybe one or two more than can hang with a much stiffer swim pace..


So it would not be pointless or nothing to bring her swim to ITU, it would be fun and interesting to me. Right now no one can do that in the womens race, and they have the template of a long history of mens races to see that it can really work...