OMAHA — he gold fireworks shoot upward from poolside like giant sparklers, illuminating the packed Qwest Center in light and celebration. They do it here at the Olympic Trials for every world swimming record set, and you have to love the organizing committee for trying. It is supposed to be special. It looks special.
It just doesn’t feel special.
The biggest question in Omaha, besides how many world records Michael Phelps will break, is who experienced more fireworks: the crowds inside the Qwest Center or people outside here Friday on the Fourth of July.
With just today left in the Trials, nine world records have been set, continuing a colossal global trend that has made world swimming records as disposable as old lotto numbers. In 2008, swimming has experienced 51 world records.
That includes 22 in the 50-meter long- course pools (as opposed to 25 meters) used at the Trials. The women’s 100 backstroke was broken Monday in back- to-back heats — in the prelims. Natalie Coughlin broke the 100 back mark in back-to-back days. Aaron Peirsol and Phelps set two each. An American record has been set 17 times.
USA Swimming may soon distribute each record book with its own tub of Wite-Out.
“It’s an Olympic year,” Phelps said after he broke his own 200 individual medley mark Friday. “I think everyone tries to peak for an Olympic year. You get that experience every four years. That’s it.”
A remarkable year
Phelps isn’t wrong very often in swimming. However, he may be off the mark here. It’s true. World records in Olympic years are as vulnerable in the water as week-old saltines. But no one in swimming can remember an Olympic year like this one.
The most world records before this year have been 15 in 2000. And keep in mind, next month’s Beijing Olympics are still to come.
Swimmers say it’s a big deal, although you never see one posing next to a scoreboard as you do in track and field, where only six world marks have been broken this year.
“There’s no difference between the world records of today and yesteryear,” said Matt Biondi, who won 11 medals in three Olympiads and is now a schoolteacher in Hawaii. “It’s something that everybody can understand: the fastest ever in the event of all time. Whether you’ve swum a lap or are afraid of the water, that is something special.”
There are many reasons for the record crash, a lot more than many think.
• The Suit: We capitalize suit because Speedo’s LZR Racer has been worn by so many record-breakers it has developing its own aura. The 2008 swimming season coincided with the introduction of the revolutionary LZR, which compresses the body and flattens the seams for less drag.
In a sport in which hundredths of a second can separate first from fifth, every suppressed seam counts. As Phelps said, “The suit gives me a little extra edge.”
It’s not just him. All five swimmers who broke world marks here wear the LZR Racer.
But while U.S. swim coach Mark Schubert was quoted as telling swimmers to wear the suit “or they may end up at home watching on NBC,” no one is ready to give an inanimate object its own Olympic berth. After all, Phelps has worn the LZR all year and didn’t break a world record until Omaha.
“If it was the swimming suit, then I’m buying Tiger Woods golf clubs because it means it doesn’t mean who the swinger is,” said Mark Spitz, whose 1972 record of seven Olympic gold medals Phelps is trying to break. “I’m going to be able to score like him.”
• Longevity: This may be the biggest reason. Look at the people who broke records here: Phelps, 23, and Peirsol, 24, are entering their third Olympics, and Coughlin, 25, is entering her second.
There’s a reason they’re still putting in four to five hours a day in the pool and why Dara Torres, the American-record holder in the women’s 50, has returned at 41. The water has turned green. Not only Phelps is getting rich. One source said top-flight gold medalists are making near seven figures, and Olympic team members who aren’t even medal contenders are making $150,000-$200,000 a year. They all have agents.
When Spitz went to Munich in 1972, he was 22. He never swam in another Olympics. He cashed in his fame and lost his amateur standing. When Mel Stewart won two gold medals in Barcelona in 1992, he went hat in hand to PowerBar and Speedo begging for sponsorships.
He got $20,000 from Speedo and $6,000 from PowerBar. He thought he’d just signed with the Yankees.
“Because you have people like Michael and Aaron Peirsol staying in the sport longer, they’re able to stay at their peak level longer,” said Bob Bowman, Phelps’ coach. “And what you used to have is a new crop of people would come up and they’d have sort of a breakthrough, then maybe break a world record.
“Well, for these guys it’s just doing their best time.”
Cutting back
• New training methods: Around 1990, coaches began wising up. They cut back on the mass yardage favored by their predecessors for shorter, more intense training. When John Naber won four gold medals in the 1976 Olympics, he swam 16,000 yards a day. Phelps doesn’t do half that.
“The idea is you don’t know how to swim fast unless you swim fast,” Naber said. “You swim long and slow, you get into a rhythm and you’re accustomed to seeing the tiles move beneath you at a certain speed.”
Ellie Freeman, a St. Mary’s Academy graduate swimming at Virginia, wore the LZR Racer here and had two personal records, but she credits her training for her great season.
“It’s technique work,” she said. “Coaches are starting to figure out that you don’t have to go as far. It’s more quality versus quantity in terms of yardage. I’m faster with less yardage just working on technique.”
Claims of doping
• Drugs: Two-time gold medalist Gary Hall Jr. threw down the gauntlet here when he said he suspected that doping is more prevalent in swimming than all the negative test results would suggest. While Hall often shoots from the hip, he also often scores direct hits. Stewart considers Hall a true leader and says, “I don’t take what he says lightly.”
With doping scandals in nearly every other sport, you’d think one swim team would have been exposed in the last 10 years. None has.
“I’ve been on deck all year, and I think the Americans are clean,” said Stewart, now a swimming journalist. “I’m close to them. And trust me. I sit on your side of the aisle. If I could break a story, it would be fantastic. Can’t do it. I would love to do it, but it’s not out there. Not with us.”
• Other reasons: The Qwest Center installed a 9-foot deep pool rather than the standard 6-foot, causing less wake, as it takes longer for shock waves hitting the bottom of the pool to return. Swimmers say they feel as if they’re swimming atop the water instead of through it.
Technology is going beyond suits. Today’s swimmers use video of starts and strokes from every angle. There are lactate tests to measure recovery rates. Then there’s one other angle.
“One of the most overlooked impacts is Michael Phelps is bringing energy and excitement to the pool,” Naber said. “If you were prepared to swim close to a world-record pace and suddenly 12,000 spectators started cheering, suddenly something intangible happens.”
This year it’s happening more than ever. And, by the way, you know where fireworks were invented, don’t you? China.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
22 world records
Halfway through 2008, 22 swimming world records have been set in 50-meter pools. The Olympic Trials aren’t over yet. And the 2008 Olympics have yet to begin. In 2004, only 12 world records were set throughout the Trials and Olympics. In 2000, that number was 15.
World swimming records
(50-meter pools only)
SINCE 2000
2008 — 22
2007 — 12
2006 — 13
2005 — 8
2004 — 12
2003 — 14
2002 — 7
2001 — 10
2000 — 15
LONGEST-STANDING WORLD RECORD
Women’s 800 freestyle, Janet Evans, U.S., 8:16.22, 1989.
WORLD RECORDS 2008
Men’s 50 freestyle — Eamon Sullivan, Australia, 21.56, Feb. 17; Alain Bernard, France, 21.50, March 13; Sullivan, Australia, 21.44, March 27; Sullivan, Australia, 21.28, March 28.
Men’s 100 freestyle — Alain Bernard, France, 47.60, March 21; Alain Bernard, France, 47.50, March 22.
Men’s 200 breaststroke — Kosuke Kitajima, Japan, 2:07.51, June 8.
Men’s 100 backstroke — Aaron Peirsol, U.S., 52.89, Tuesday.
Men’s 200 backstroke — Aaron Peirsol, U.S., 1:54.32, Friday (tied).
Men’s 200 individual medley — Michael Phelps, U.S., 1:54.80, Friday.
Men’s 400 individual medley — Michael Phelps, U.S., 4:05.25, June 29.
Women’s 100 freestyle — Libby Trickett, Australia, 52.88, March 27.
Women’s 400 freestyle — Federica Pellegrini, Italy, 4:01.53, March 24.
Women’s 100 backstroke — Natalie Coughlin, U.S., 59.21, Feb. 17; Hayley McGregory, U.S., 59.15, Monday; Natalie Coughlin, U.S., 59.03, Monday; Natalie Coughlin, U.S., 58.97, Tuesday.
Women’s 200 backstroke — Kirsty Coventry, Zimbabwe, 2:06.39, Feb. 16; Margaret Hoelzer, U.S., 2:06.09, Saturday.
Women’s 200 individual medley — Stephanie Rice, Australia, 2:08.92, March 25.
Women’s 400 individual medley — Stephanie Rice, Australia, 4:31.46, March 22; Katie Hoff, U.S., 4:31.12, June 29.
