Medley Mentalism
If there’s one certainty in the world of top-level swimming, it’s that 400m IM swimmers are absolutely batshit insane. They also seem to take a punt on pretty much any other event going - or do they?
Because I have no life, I’ve decided to find out - using SCIENCE (i.e. sifting through the world rankings). Here’s a quick run down of the current top 5 female 400 IM swimmers and their extra-curricular activities in 2011:
1. Mireia Belmonte (200m IM - #3)
800m free - #9, 400m free - #20, 200m free - #41, 200m fly - #5
2. Li Xuanxu
1500m free - #5, 800m free - #2, 400m free - #18
3. Hannah Miley (200m IM - #10)
800m free - #35, 400m free - #27, 200m free - #45, 200m breast - #47, 200m fly - #76
4. Kirsty Coventry (200m IM - #7)
100m back - #24, 200m back - #7
5. Miyu Otsuka (200m IM - #49)
200m fly - #37
Compare with the 200IM specialists:
Alicia Coutts (#1 200IM this year)
50m free - #24, 100m free - #3, 200m free - #15, 100m fly - #1
Ariana Kukors (200IM World Champion)
200m free - #74, 100m back - #34
I dunno, it’s like they’re not even trying! (ONLY JOKING)
Anyway I think what we can learn from this is that a) Hannah Miley is well hardcore b) the Chinese lasses don’t get much race practice c) having a good 200m fly is key to not being so knackered after your first 100m you can barely push off for your backstroke leg.
Fun fact about your author’s murky chlorinated past: my fastest and only ever 400m IM time (set in 1996, where’s my zimmer frame etc) was somewhere around 5min45 because I SUCKED SO MIGHTILY at fly and was so super-knackered after one bloody length of it I nearly drowned and demanded that my coach never enter me in such a foolish event ever again. However I still managed to come 6th, which just goes to show that however crap you are there’s always going to be someone else who is even crappier.
