I was just watching the 4x200 free relay from London Olympics 2012.
I don’t ever recall Phelps and Sun Yang going head to head in anything, and then I saw that both swam anchor for their respective countries in that Olympic final.
Phelps swam a 1:44.05
Yang 1:45.55
What was interesting is the guy who woudl become 200 free champion in Rio, and was 200 fly champ at London Chad Leclos, only swam 1:48 relative to his low 1:45 in Rio.
I just checked Sun Yang’s PB in the 200 free which was at Budapest 2017 and it was 1:44.39
How fast do you all think Phelps could have done the 1500m free? Sun Yang’s 14.31.02 from London 2012 is still the world record. I don’t recall where in the meet the 4x200 was relative to Sun Yang’s 1500 free so that could also explain things a bit. I just assumed they would be closer at 200m.
The time differential on le clos is a very interesting one. He split a 1.47 mid on a relay at com games a few months back as another data point.
With phelps I think he could have been in the high 30s or low 14:40s if he trained like a 1500m swimmer and didn’t do all the other events at meets. Don’t see him getting low 14:30s like Hackett did from that generation, but hard to know as Phelps never raced an international 400m free that I am aware which is a helpful mid point between the 200 and 8 - 1500
I always felt that Phelps could have been in WR contention in the 1500, but he never had a schedule that would allow that. We dont need to see him in thew 400 free to extrapolate either, because we do have the 400IM. The time there he did is still the world record, and really shows his talent for endurance as well as speed. I think he did do a 1500 in his youth that was pretty good, low 15 minutes or there about, so he could do the distance. Just never had a shot in his prime, and really, it would have been stupid to ever focus on that event. He would not only lose his sprints, but the relays too. And he often would only win by a 100th or two in his short events, so any distance focus would have lost him those races too…
Funny to see Biedeermann in there only going 1;46+, guess he really missed those old super suits when he set that WR that still stands at 1;42 flat…
The time differential on le clos is a very interesting one. He split a 1.47 mid on a relay at com games a few months back as another data point.
With phelps I think he could have been in the high 30s or low 14:40s if he trained like a 1500m swimmer and didn’t do all the other events at meets. Don’t see him getting low 14:30s like Hackett did from that generation, but hard to know as Phelps never raced an international 400m free that I am aware which is a helpful mid point between the 200 and 8 - 1500
As Monty mentioned we have Phelps’ 400IM time as an extrapolation of his ability in between 100/200 free and 1500 free. I think based on his endurance at 400IM he would be head to head with Sun Yang in the 1500m free, but then he’d be losing all his shorter events!
In any case, I never knew there was an event that those two were ever head to head until I watched the London 2012 4x200 anchor leg. I know there is a lot of theoretical banter on whether Phelps would beat Sun Yang at 1500 free so interesting to see them head to head at 200 free.
I think Phelps would struggle to go same underwaters for 1500 as he did in 200 free. That’s where his advantage came in that 200 free final and how he won it. I think yang and Hackett beat him by 10 seconds plus over 1500.
I think Phelps would struggle to go same underwaters for 1500 as he did in 200 free. That’s where his advantage came in that 200 free final and how he won it. I think yang and Hackett beat him by 10 seconds plus over 1500.
Good point, no one holds 11-12 m out of every turn for 1500 m. OTOH, I’ve read that Phelps went 47:30 for a timed 5000 scy on just a “random day” in practice, e.g. not tapered at all. IIRC, Paltrinieri went 50:57 for 5000 lcm at the Italian “Distance Championships” a few yrs ago. I think how much faster MP was when fully tapered would be the question.