After we covered the male swimmers’ Rio exploits (well, not all of them. Lochte’s deserve a blog of their own) it is time to turn our attention to the female swimmers. Same format, I’ll cover the swimmers who, in my opinion were in the top 10. Continue reading
Sadly, we reached the final part of our 2015 Swimming World Championships summary – the effect it had on the all-time medals leaders among the female swimmers. Sadly, because now it means that the Championship is really over. Forever. And nothing can bring it back. All we will be left with are the memories. And on this optimistic note, let’s move to the all-time tables. Continue reading
Was I the only one that couldn’t eat and sleep, eagerly waiting for the second part to come out? Well, probably yes. I was just so anxious to see how Kazan 2015 affected the women’s all-time single most successful Championships ever lists! But now the wait is over, let us dive into the wonderful world of medals rankings… Continue reading
So, the Championship is over and it’s now time to make some summaries. If we are looking at the medal standings, we see that USA won the most gold medals – 8, but this was nevertheless a disappointing World Championship for the Americans – they won 13 golds in the previous one. Another nation who was a major disappointment is of course the host nation – Russia. Only uno gold and 4 medals in total – what a terrible haul. The Russians had several huge fuck ups here, and even their one swimmer who was truly excellent – Yuliya Yefimova, is not free of criticism (remember her 200m breaststroke?). Continue reading
The morning sessions today had a couple of surprises in them, the main one being Sun Yang in his 1500m heat, where he finished only 3rd, well behind Paltrinieri and even behind Connor Jaeger. Could it be that he was simply saving his efforts for the final? I really hope so. Because it was really unnatural seeing him like this. After winning both the 400m and the 800m, I can’t imagine him losing the 1500m… but who knows. The second surprise was a personal one, when Israeli swimmer Guy Barnea failed to qualify for the 50m backstroke semifinals, after featuring in the final two years ago. Anyway, evening sessions – the stage is yours. Continue reading
Five days already behind us. Today was another good day. Well, for us the spectators, not so much for the host nation. The heats this morning were really disastrous for Russia, as first Efimova, the 100m breaststroke champion, failed to advance to the semifinals in the 200m, and then the women’s 4x200m team failed to make the final. A personal disappointment for me was Yakov Toumarkin, who, after performing so well in his previous two events and advancing to the semis in both, failed to make the semis in his main event – the 200m backstroke… A real disappointment. Well, enough about disappointments, there were also some good things, right? Right. So, as my good friend Eminem says – let’s get down to business. Continue reading
Ok, so yesterday we had a break due to the wedding I attended in the evening. I watched the swims but right after the final one – the women’s 100m breaststroke final – I went to the wedding, BTW, the groom – Roman, who is an old friend of mine, used to be a competitive swimmer himself, and is one of the very few people with whom I used to discuss the swimming events. Roman, if you’re reading this – mazal tov! Anyway, yesterday was amazing but I can’t really write about it, since it would take much time I don’t really posses. So without Freddy Adu, let’s move on to today’s events. I promise to make up for the lost time in two years. Continue reading
Well, the Swimming World Championships is finally under way! Such medals! Much excitement! I will cover the Championships in the blog, but I will only write about the evening sessions, without the morning heats. I watch them, since they can be really interesting sometimes, and many Israeli swimmers take part in the heats, but I don’t want to write posts that are 4,000 words long. I’m not Bill Simmons (sadly 😦 ). When the Championship ends, I will write some additional posts about swimmers and their medals and how the historical all-time medals rankings changed (and they will go through some changes, I guarantee you that). Continue reading
An update: Here’s the link to the updated 2015 rankings
We have already seen who are the most successful swimmers overall – male and female, in the history of the Swimming World Championships. It is time now to embark on the second half of our journey through the SWC’s: a journey that this time will take us to the most successful individual performances in a single championship.
For the making of the rankings you will see here I used those excel files I created, based on that awesome FINA handbook (and updating it with the results from recent SWC’s). Swimming is different from Track & Field because of the real possibilities for swimmers to win multiple medals in a single SWC. In T&F it’s rare to see athletes win 3 medals in a single championship, and it’s really unique to see an athlete grab 4 medals. In swimming, it’s not unusual. One has to be pretty fucking awesome to win 4, 5 or 6 medals, but it is possible, and you don’t even have to be an all-time legendary swimmer to achieve that, as you will see shortly. Continue reading
Michael's Sports Statistics 