Becca Mann is one of many promising American female distance swimmers. She’s also gone 4:08 for 400LCM, 8:28 for 800LCM, and 16:11 for 1500 LCM (which is 5th in the 2012 world rankings this year) . And then won the Pan Pac junior open water championship less than 48 hours after that 1500M.
Be interesting to see how she focuses going forward. If the IOC does put the women’s 1500M on the program for Rio, and she stays healthy and focused, I could see her trying to pull an Ous Melouli.
The interesting thing about youg women/girls is that at 13-16 years old, depending on the girl, they generally reach their best power to weight ratio. That is important in a lot of sports. With swimming, with drag being soooo important, creating a tiny hole in the water, like 14 year old girls can, is a big benefit.
By comparison, boys reach their highest power to weight ratio, about 18 or so.
It will be interesting to see how she does as she grows older, and importantly as she becomes a woman, more than a girl.
Becca Mann is one of many promising American female distance swimmers. She’s also gone 4:08 for 400LCM, 8:28 for 800LCM, and 16:11 for 1500 LCM (which is 5th in the 2012 world rankings this year) . And then won the Pan Pac junior open water championship less than 48 hours after that 1500M.
Be interesting to see how she focuses going forward. If the IOC does put the women’s 1500M on the program for Rio, and she stays healthy and focused, I could see her trying to pull an Ous Mellouli.
She did quite well, finishing 10th overall in 50:38, only 3:10 behind the OA male winner’s 47:28.
The interesting thing about youg women/girls is that at 13-16 years old, depending on the girl, they generally reach their best power to weight ratio. That is important in a lot of sports. With swimming, with drag being soooo important, creating a tiny hole in the water, like 14 year old girls can, is a big benefit.
By comparison, boys reach their highest power to weight ratio, about 18 or so…
This is quite true in many sports, gymnastics being one and in my experience, martial arts also. I had female students in that age group that were phenomenal, boys I found the 18-20 years olds tended to hit their peak. In particular I had three sibling girls that all hit peak about the same, 12, 14 and 16. The 14 year old once knocked the wind out of me THROUGH a standard sparring chest protector. I’ve had many an adult male not be able to strike that hard and precise. One thing I have noticed though about this age group, if they hit a growth spurt, things go wonky for a week or so, they could be smooth as silk one day and all elbows and knees the next.
I’d go with closer to 22.
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FWIW: Becca’s older sister, Rachel is a top tier triathlete in the Junior Elite ranks (until she broke her arm a few months ago).
Great family all around.
Amazing! Thanks for sharing.