An official stands at the far end of every lane holding a lap counter sign during the women’s 800m (eight laps) and men’s 1500m (15 laps) freestyle. At Grand Prix and collegiate meets they dunk the sign in the water for the swimmers to see how many laps they have left. Here at the Trials, they’re not allowed to put the signs in the water for fear of activating the timing pad.
I don’t understand why they are worried about activating the timing pad. Why don’t they just put it in on the other end of the pool?
Ah, right. Seemingly the one at the non-start end is just for splits, right? Are those so critically important that they have to go without counters?
I’d lose count and swim about 5 billion extra laps…
I’ve always wondered why no timing company (Colorado, Omega, etc.) has found a way to integrate a digital lap counting system into the pads. I would think it would be easy enough to have a section of the pad light up with the number of remaining lengths. Right in the middle of the pad would be ideal. However, if the texture was an issue (if if was too slippery and would interfere with turns), then I’d think they could move it to one - or even both - bottom corners. Something like this certainly would have helped me when I was swimming, and it would REALLY help some of the kids I coach as it seems their teammates are not capable of using the plastic lap counters correctly. Or maybe they just can’t count, jury’s still out on that one!
I don’t know if a counter in the pads would help, as your head should never be in a position to really see them. A number projected on the bottom of the pool, however, seems like doable technology.
The bottom of the pool could work, but in the pad is essentially the same as the manual plastic counters used at all other levels of the sport. It’s not ideal, but people make it work.
I want to preface this with I don’t hold Jaeger at any fault or think any less of him for this…crap happens when nerves are involved…at least he went long instead of short
however… these are elite level swimmers. Is it too much to ask that they be able to count to 15? I mean, they can swim blind on stroke count alone (probably more by feel at that point), so is counting your own laps really that hard? I also remember a lot of people arguing that Cavic beat Phelps in the 100m fly but didn’t depress the timing pad hard enough…so how can these things be so sensitive that some guy with a lap counting card could trip it?
Cost is an issue. A typical swim team or pool finds a bare bones timing system to be a huge financial burden, and will typically go with as cheap a system as they can find and then baby it to hopefully get at least 25 years out of their purchase. The reason why you only see Omega at a handful of college and Grand Prix pools is because the typical suburban high school can get a more durable Colorado system or the like for less than half the cost, and even the cost of a Colorado system led a friend of a friend to found IST because his daughter’s high school team was having a hard time paying for a replacement Colorado system.
And adding a lap count display function is going to inherently add to the cost per pad while providing yet another part to fail, and pads can be plenty tempermental to begin with.
however… these are elite level swimmers. Is it too much to ask that they be able to count to 15? I mean, they can swim blind on stroke count alone (probably more by feel at that point), so is counting your own laps really that hard?
apparently
I would imagine at their swim paces it is hard to think at all, much less count.
Cost is an issue. A typical swim team or pool finds a bare bones timing system to be a huge financial burden, and will typically go with as cheap a system as they can find and then baby it to hopefully get at least 25 years out of their purchase. The reason why you only see Omega at a handful of college and Grand Prix pools is because the typical suburban high school can get a more durable Colorado system or the like for less than half the cost, and even the cost of a Colorado system led a friend of a friend to found IST because his daughter’s high school team was having a hard time paying for a replacement Colorado system.
And adding a lap count display function is going to inherently add to the cost per pad while providing yet another part to fail, and pads can be plenty tempermental to begin with.
Oh, believe me, I know! I coach a high school team and the financial issues at that level would completely prevent what I was talking about. Even the traditional counters aren’t cheap for high school or club teams! Add to that lane lines (which my kids manage to break), timing systems, etc. and high end products are out of the question.
I would have been better phrasing it as an “aftermarket” part that isn’t necessarily available or marketed to the general public. More of something that is only available at the very highest of levels - Grand Prix, Olympic Trials, Olympics. But I suppose if there’s no mass-consumption appeal at the youth level, then the timing companies don’t have much incentive to produce it.
I also think it may be a FINA rule, as trials run under FINA rules as opposed to USA Swimming rules. Not much difference in the meet from the swimmers point of view (except the lap counting issue), just differences in the way the deck is run for the officials. He did get the bell…don’t know if he paid attention. At this level of meet, every swimmer gets a bell from the flags to the wall and back to the flags when they reach the start end at 100 meters to go.
The FINA rule 2.6.3 mentions lap cards (no mention of in water here) or semi automatic in water display (part of touchpad system, I think). At most meets I work we only have 5-6 officials on deck, whereas at this meet they had about 30 officials on deck for prelims (10 lanes). So we use radios to communicate disqualifications, each official has a radio, as opposed to a FINA or National deck where the stroke & turn officials relay the DQ to a chief judge in person who then relays the message to the referee who decides to either accept or reject the call. Officiating gets way more complicated at the higher levels, especially now with the advent of instant replay (only used to confirm or reject calls, not to make them).
With what these officials had to wear at this meet, I understand why they would not want to put the lap counters in the water.
I was never an elite distance swimmer, but it is a lot easier to lose track of laps than one would think. I worked a HS swim meet in the Chicagoland area that a relay swimmer took off 50yards to early once. The guy next to him yelled, hey and dove in as well. That caused two other guys to false start as well. A couple guys realized their mistake and went back. Some guys quit their leg a lap early, and one team had two guys swimming at the same time. One of the false start guys thought by going 150 yards instead of 100 would make it ok. Thank God I was the Junior official at that meet and the big dog knew his salt. There were some pretty hopping mad coaches on the deck.
Back on subject, when you are right on the edge remembering the count is not too hard to mess up. That is why they have counters.
don’t they ring the bell for last 100m anymore?
yes, at that level, the official at the start end rings the bell for the swimmer in their lane. was watching the prelims and did see the bell rung in the next heat. you usually don’t see that on tv coverage, but I think they made the point of showing it in the last heat because of what happened in the heat prior.
of course you could say he was just warming down in his lane.
Need timing mats at both ends to handle the 50…
From personal experience as a former distance swimmer, it’s real easy to “get in the zone” and completely lose track of how far you’ve gone. I still often lose count doing 500 repeats.
funny… the person writing the article said he may have lost track because of extreme boredom. 15 minutes insanely intense swimming for a shot at the olympic team… yawn! clueless non-swimming filler that writing is…
for most meets, built in lap counters in the timing oads are not going to be that useful except for a small percentage of heats. Especially now, it’d be hard to justify the added expense. And if there sren’t many pools buying them, it’d be a tough product for a timing company to pursue.
I’ve always wondered why no timing company (Colorado, Omega, etc.) has found a way to integrate a digital lap counting system into the pads. I would think it would be easy enough to have a section of the pad light up with the number of remaining lengths. Right in the middle of the pad would be ideal. However, if the texture was an issue (if if was too slippery and would interfere with turns), then I’d think they could move it to one - or even both - bottom corners. Something like this certainly would have helped me when I was swimming, and it would REALLY help some of the kids I coach as it seems their teammates are not capable of using the plastic lap counters correctly. Or maybe they just can’t count, jury’s still out on that one!
Great, great idea.
For those of you saying that it is cost prohibitive for most schools, clubs, etc. Of course it is going to be, but you also have to remember that most other meets have no problem placing the plastic counters on the opposite end of the pool, so it is not like they would need that technology to begin with. Now that I think about this, there should be no reason for why this is NOT available at the Olympic trials and the Olympics. I mean at the trials they built a temporary pool in a stadium, have pyrotechnics between the races, and rig the flags off of huge truss beams just so the flag poles won’t get in the way of the T.V. cameras. Adding an LED number to a touchpad is definitely doable if they are able to have all of those things for the meet.
To be honest, this sounds like a very practical solution to a problem that many distance swimmers may run in to.
