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The Fifth Stroke: Dolphin

Mar 29, 2007  - Craig Lord

A version of this article appears in The Times (London) today

The United States put its pilgrim spirit on display yet again at these world championships, the cracking of three more world records confirming that a bold, pioneering new era of superspeed has dawned in the sport of swimming, one that brings with it a new, fifth stroke: dolphin.

We saw it used to best effect by Michael "the porpoise" Phelps on his way to a fourth gold and a third world record in five days: out of every start, undulating into every turn, out of every turn, like a tightly coiled spring he snapped into a whipping motion designed to emulate the propulsion of the fastest mammal in the ocean. Don't try it in the privacy of your own pool. The energy required is exhausting, debilitating, devastating if you haven't practiced long and hard. Devastating, too, if you have. For others that is.

As Phelps rocketed to a 1min 54.98sec victory and world record by 0.86sec over 200m medley last night, only teammate Ryan Lochte, also flipping and whipping his way off walls, could live with him. Silver was won in 1:56.19, leaving Hungarian Lazslo Cseh, who in a dolphin-free sea would be considered the shark of his sport, floundering just a little on 1:56.92. For Beijing, he has more work to do, like the rest of the world.

Phelps post-race comments all week have been dotted with references to the "immense" work put in to improve "my dolphin skills".

They have been a long time in the making. Dr Rajat Mittal and a team of 10 researchers into fluid dynamics at George Washington University, asked USA Swimming as far back as 2003 to collaborate on a research project linked to his work for the US Navy on how fish swim. The three-year project analysed the fluid dynamics of the dolphin kick and concluded that mimicking a dolphin underwater is more efficient speed-wise than travelling at the surface using traditional swimming strokes.

"The goal of this project is to understand what makes swimmers like Phelps and Coughlin such great dolphin kickers, both of them get a significant advantage during the dolphin kick phase," said Mittal in 2005. "They usually come out of the water about half a body length or more ahead of the competition. We're trying to understand the fluid dynamics behind this."

After the learning comes the lesson to the world. US Teammate Leila Vaziri undulated her way to an unassailable lead and a world title over 50m backstroke in 28.16sec, equalling the world record she had set the night before in the semi-finals. Standards in 50-metre sprinting in non-Olympic events have a way to go yet.

And there was the Dolphin once more in a 4x200m freestyle relay in which Natalie Coughlin - up with block-blaster Libby Lenton out of the dive and half a body up on that other Dolphin out of turns - led the United States quartet off in the third fastest four-laps freestyle ever on a trajectory to a world record of 7mins 50.09sec.

Coughlin, who had earlier qualified fastest for the final of the 100m freestyle in 53.40sec, a championship record and the second-quickest in history just 0.1sec outside German Britta Steffen's world record, said: "I had no idea how fast I was going. I have been experimenting staying under water longer. It obviously helps ..."

And how. The fastest fish from the land of the brave, as the anthem fittingly concludes have never been so fast - and the number of records being broken is marginally less relevant than the margins by which new standards are being set.

"The world has been delivered a huge lesson in skills by the Americans like we've never seen before," said Bill Sweetenham, head coach to Britain and a man who believes that the sport is not even close to the end of a journey towards maximum speed.

"The dolphin kick we're seeing here has to be considered the fifth stroke now," he said."I think swimming has moved to a new era, a new level. It will challenge all coaches and swimmers around the world. The world will respond, including us ... we will go back to the drawing board. We're seeing things we would not normally expect to see."

Dolphin skills are just one of a number of factors at play here, of course. Having the courage and the conviction and the confidence to aim for something well out in front of you is key. In the women's relay, was it that the US did something extraordinary? No, they did what they were capable of, while the next four teams home clocked times that suggested an average of four seconds had been lost from potential. Performing, underperforming, the ability t find four team members ready and willing to fire on all four cylinders at the same moment.

And what of Phelps? What an extraordinary week. On Sunday, he led the US 4x100m freestyle off to victory in 48.42sec, fast enough to have beaten joint winners Brent Hayden (Canada) and Filippo Magnini (Italy) in the individual blue-ribband title by 0.01sec last night. Tuesday saw him take Ian Thorpe's 200m freestyle record, on Wednesday he took an axe to his own 200m butterfly standard. Still to come: 100m butterfly, 400m medley, 4x100m medley and 4x200m medley.

The stats of the championships are building to something outstanding, a watershed for the sport. We've seen:

10 world records (including one equalled); 8 of those by Americans; 4 gold medals to Phelps; 3 world records to Phelps. His coach Bob Bowman has suggested that after an the "most intense summer" of training in his charge's career - to follow after a small break of no more than a week beyond Tuesday's Duel in The Pool in Sydney (US v AUS) - the partnership will be ready to take things further out of sight.

"I think swimming has moved to a new era, a new level ... it will challenge all coaches and swimmers around the world," said Sweetenham. "We're seeing things we would not normally expect to see. It's great for swimming and leaves a great challenge for all of us."

Ian Thorpe, whose record tally of six gold medals at one championships back in 2001 is now on notice, said on the eve of racing here that swimming was still "primitive" in terms of where it could get to on the clock through advances in skills and understanding of fluid dynamics.

Sweetenham agreed: "Even after what we've seen here, we are nowhere near our limits. Both skill-wise and because all phylosophies of old still stand true: it's not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog that counts."

Given the emphasis on dolphins, there may well be a very long way to go: a porpoise can swim at speeds of up to 35mph. Physicists in Japan recently discovered that the surface of a dolphin's skin reduces drag and helps porpoises to glide more smoothly and quickly through water. Costume-makers have made similar claims for the revolutionary material used in their bodysuits and it is open to debate whether one suit helps more than another - and if it does, should all swimmers not have access to the same technology? Is there a level playing field when it comes to matters external to the swimmers' natural and trained capabilities?

Something is clearly at play in Melbourne. It is not just a matter of the winners taking an axe to standards, it is about the tightness of the field, the fact that seventh place through to the women's 200m freestyle final would have won any of the past four Olympic and world crowns.

"That's caught out those swimmers who want to prepare on a knife-edge, those wanting to do the minumum to get through," says Sweetenham. "The world's swimmers and coaches are learning to deal with heats, semis and finals."

He explained: "The worst place you can be going to the Olympics is between 6th and 12th because its a twilight zone ... you've got to be good in heats and sensational in semis to get through, and if you're not doing the volumes of work and you haven't worked on your recovery skills, you can't go from one transition to the next (without paying the price).

There were two ways to go through the stages: minimal effort-minimal stress; or minimal or maximum effort but maximum stress. "If you go too hard, you can swim it off, load with carbs, have a massage, there are things that cn be done. But there's no recipe to destress you. If you have to burn in the semis, that's stress. You have to have rehearsed that."

He cited some greats from other sports, such a Michael Jordan. When such people do extraornidary things, they often utter familiar words: "I can't believe how easy that was ... and that tells you where they're coming from" said Sweetenham. "Great achievement is easy because there has been great preparation."

That much is screamingly obvious in the US camp. America has "given the world a lesson in turning that's never been delivered before ... they've sent a message to every nation in the world on turns", said Sweetenham, citing the likes of Ryan Lochte, who emerged from turns well over a bodylength of pure streamlined gain ahead of his rivals in the 200m backstroke. A short-course world champion Lochte may be, but this was no short-course syndrome, said Sweetenham.

"If you go around and talk to people on the deck, they say the turns are because of short-course. No-one does more s/c than Britain ... ". The implication, his team, like so many others here in general, having been washed sideways, is clear.

The explanation is to be found elsewhere: "Its the pressure of an enviroment that forces the adaptaion to new goals and new barriers, there's a stimulus to change ... it's much about the American competitive environment."

As US coach Eddie Reese put it to SwimNews: "I do believe that every pilgrim, the first and the now, has a very strong competitive gene. If someone else can do it, we can too, and it's all right if we work even harder than anyone ever has to accomplish it. Our competitive nature and willingness to go to workout extremes to get 'it' done is key."

In Melbourne, the US had unlocked the door to a brave new world, one that had "changed the face of swimming forever", said Sweetenham. There was a changing of the guard, a "massive generational shift that has caught a lot of people off guard."

So many men and women who have been giants in their sport are beginning to look and sound like figures of the past. Already, Pieter van den Hoogenband, while clinging to his triple crown dream for Beijing 2008, has given up the fight over 200m. There is a point at which there is no point, sad as that may be.

We may all one day look back at Melbourne and know that the sport reached a crossroads over eight days in the Susie O'Neill Pool at the Rod Laver Arena. 

"Every swimmer and coach will walk away from these championships and know within ..." Sweetenham squeezes forefinger and thumb together. " ...what it's going to take to swim the heats and semis in Beijing. And they will want to be saying 'I better be able to do that easy, because if I can't the stress will be too much."

The believed that the "world will respond" to the challenge delivered by the US. Some records still looked soft. He noted that one of his own former charges, Tracy Wickham would still have challenged for medals here over 400m, 29 years after Berlin 1978 and that 4:06 milestone. "Its moved up into reality. A lot of programmes and coaches have been caught in history. The world will respond very quickly, including us."

A little under 18 months to go to Beijing. Dust down the drawing boards. Time for reinvention in a sport that refuses to stand still for too long.