Three Takeaways from Day Two at Fina Short Course Worlds

Day two of the fina short course world championships are in the books. Here are Davis Tarwater's three key takeaways.

Dec 8, 2016

Three Takeaways from Day Two at Fina Short Course Worlds

After two days of swimming in Windsor, while the stigma of "it's the first major event after Olympics," certainly holds some water, there are some trends emerging as of day two. However, before I blow your collective minds with my insight, I must admit that I did resonate with Andrew Gyenis' article suggesting that certain structural changes to the meet itself might add some interesting flavor. My additions to his pipe-dream changes, while we are just dreaming, would be:

Have an athlete captain (like the Ryder Cup, lets say Phelps).
Pick a combined 10 men and women total (this way its about the math, Phelps).
Limit all finals to 4 people (better know who is going to be prepared).
Swim all relays COED (two genders).
Crown a country champion (not county, there is an "r" in there not when I anchored my elementary school's tug-of-war team at field day).
For smaller countries, combine into regional subgroups (i.e Africa, Eastern Europe, etc).
Pay the team winner.

Similar to Lululemon's business model, if you create a certain illusion of scarcity, a ton of people will want to buy yoga pants.

Anyway my three takeaways after day 2 are as follows:

1. Preparation is spotty at best. The best swimmers in the world are swimming well enough. No real herculean efforts, just solid swimming. One would expect that that Team USA is swimming pretty tired, as there is a large collegiate contingent. As a country, Canada seems well prepared and would be indicative of the fact that they have likely had this date circled on the calendar for quite some time. Penny Oleksiak, is a future star and continues to dazzle and score clutch ties.

2. US Collegians and alumni have consistently exceptional short course skills. Aside from Tom Shields underwater wizardry, there have been numerous impressive swims thus far. Alia Atkinson was marvelous off the start and turns, but was outdone by Lilly King. Even performers newer to the scene like Ali Deloof from Michigan, Matt Josa (Queens and now Cal), or veteran Vlad Morozov (silver medalist in the 100 Breaststroke?), have demonstrated a high level of comfort and execution in the short course pool.

3. Le Clos and Hosszu haven't skipped a beat. These two seem to be consistently conditioned and prepared to race. The presumptive top money earners on each side, have a heavy work load and continue to prove that one can both earn a nice living on the international circuit while maintaining peak conditioning and long course performance standards.

While as of day two, it is clear that while a large portion of this meet is made up of non-Olympians, the level of preparation seems to be somewhat inconsistent. Yet a handful of stars seem content on adding to both their career medal haul and 2016 earnings.

By Davis Tarwater

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