2024 Olympics Race Information Breakdown: Girls’s 100 Again

The French governing physique for swimming (Fédération Française de Natation) not too long ago launched an information evaluation booklet of every occasion raced on the Paris Olympics. On this data-packed information, data together with swimmers’ 25m splits, time spent underwater, whole stroke depend, and extra are specified by a desk with a breakdown of every finalist’s data. Over the following few days, I’ll be selecting a few of my favourite races from the Olympics and analyzing the information behind the world’s quickest swimmers.

This information gold mine, all in French, has 4 distinct sections: Laps (splits), Events Nagées (Components of the race swum), Events Non Nagées (Components of the race not swum, together with the beginning, underwaters, and end), and Mouvements (whole strokes and such).

LOOKING BACK

The rivalry between Kaylee McKeown and Regan Smith was quickly settled at this yr’s Olympic Video games, with McKeown defending her title from 2021, successful in a time of 57.33. Smith, who completed second within the occasion with a time of 57.66, remains to be the world file holder, with a finest time of 57.13 seconds. Katharine Berkoff earned herself a spot on the rostrum by breaking the 58 second barrier and swimming a 57.98 to take dwelling bronze. This race was one of many solely ones that we’ve seen in Olympic historical past the place solely 4 swimmers had been represented, with Australia, the USA, Canada, and France sending each of their swimmers to the ultimate. The swimmers completed as follows:

1. Kaylee McKeown, Australia – 57.33
2. Regan Smith, United States – 57.66
3. Katharine Berkoff, United States – 57.98
4. Kylie Masse, Canada – 58.29
5. Iona Anderson, Australia – 58.98
6. Ingrid Wilm, Canada – 59.25
7. Emma Terebo, France – 59.40
8. Beryl Gastaldello, France – 59.80

LAPS (SPLITS)

Opening 50:

1. Smith/Masse – 28.02
2. .
3. Berkoff – 28.05
4. McKeown – 28.08
5. Anderson – 28.47
6. Wilm – 28.69
7. Terebo.- 28.79
8. Gastaldello – 28.80

Closing 50:

1. McKeown – 29.25
2. Smith – 29.64
3. Berkoff – 29.93
4. Masse – 30.27
5. Anderson – 30.51
6. Wilm – 30.56
7. Terebo – 30.61
8. Gastaldello – 31.00

For many of those rankings, there appears to be two distinct teams of swimmers, with McKeown, Smith, Berkoff, and Masse (swimmers that completed 1-4) being the primary and Anderson, Wilm, Terebo, and Gastaldello (completed 5-8) being the second. The primary group all completed inside a second of one another (McKeown at 57.33, Masse at 58.29), as did the second (Anderson at 58.98, Gastaldello at 59.80). Within the first group, the swimmers all flipped at nearly the identical time, inside 0.06 seconds of one another, however McKeown pulled away within the second 50 to win the race. The instances from the second 50 matched the ultimate race order precisely.

Smith’s opening 50 was proper round the place it was when she broke the world file (27.94), however she didn’t have the identical back-half pace that we noticed from her at US Olympic Trials in June.

PARTIES NAGÉES (PARTS OF THE RACE SWUM)

This part gives the swimmers’ instances from 15m to 45m, in addition to their instances from 65m-95m, accounting for all the things besides the beginning, flip, and the end. The next rating is their whole time spent “swimming.”

1. McKeown – 36.81
2. Smith – 37.20
3. Anderson – 37.34
4. Masse – 37.36
5. Berkoff – 37.39
6. Terebo – 37.44
7. Wilm – 37.73
8. Gastaldello – 38.44

Usually, this a part of the evaluation tends to replicate the order of the swimmers, with out many surprises. The swimmers that mix for the perfect “swimming” and “non-swimming” instances are those who win the races. When Kaylee McKeown‘s time was round 0.40 seconds forward of Regan Smith for 60 meters of the race, it’s tough for Smith’s underwaters and turns to make up for the deficit.

PARTIES NON NAGÉES (PARTS OF THE RACE NOT SWUM)

This part highlights the beginning, flip, and end of the race, together with response instances, time spent underwater, distance coated underwater, time to hit the 15m mark, closing 5m time, and distance from final stroke into the wall. The next rating is the whole time spent from the begin to 15m, 45-65m, and 95m to the wall (measured in seconds).

1. Smith – 20.46
2. McKeown – 20.52
3. Berkoff – 20.59
4. Masse – 20.93
5. Gastaldello – 21.36
6. Wilm – 21.52
7. Anderson – 21.64
8. Terebo – 21.96

McKeown, Smith, and Berkoff had been all proper within the combine throughout each the swimming portion and the auxiliary elements of the race. The phase the place they appeared to separate themselves from the remainder of the sector, incomes their spots on the rostrum, was of their begins, turns, and underwaters. The distinction between first and eighth in each this portion and the “swimming” portion was roughly the identical, however the distribution was way more segmented within the “non-swimming” half. The rostrum finishers clumped along with Masse not far behind them, seemingly being the distinction that separated them from the remainder of the sector.

Whole distance swam underwater (measured in meters from the beginning of the breakout):

1. Smith – 30.2
2. Berkoff – 28.9
3. Wilm – 27.9
4. McKeown – 27.7
5. Gastaldello – 26.8
6. Masse – 26.7
7. Anderson – 25.8
8. Terebo – 24.0

Once more, we see the American affect on this phase of the evaluation. Smith and Berkoff each had the perfect underwaters within the subject, thanks largely partially to their success in SCY swimming.

Distance and time from final stroke into the wall:

1. Anderson – 0.21 meters, 0.13 seconds
2. Wilm – 0.28 meters, 0.17 seconds
3. Terebo – 0.54 meters, 0.33 seconds
4. Smith – 0.56 meters, 0.34 seconds
5. McKeown – 0.64 meters, 0.38 seconds
6. Gastaldello – 0.75 meters, 0.46 seconds
7. Masse – 0.83 meters, 0.51 seconds
8. Berkoff – 1.27 meters, 0.80 seconds

Every swimmer has a unique approach that they like to complete their backstroke race, some selecting to get a lot nearer to the wall and others selecting to resubmerge to complete their race. Ingrid Wilm and Iona Anderson each got here very near the wall earlier than they took their final strokes, whereas Katharine Berkoff was additional out when she took her final stroke, submerging 1.27 meters off of the wall and ending her race with a robust kick. Smith and McKeown appeared to favor the center choice, nearer to the wall than Berkoff however with extra of a glide than Anderson and Wilm.

MOUVEMENTS (STROKE)

This ultimate part modeled the whole strokes that every swimmer took through the race, and the next rating exhibits from most strokes to least.

1. Berkoff/Anderson – 77
2. .
3. Smith/Terebo/Gastaldello – 76
4. .
5. .
6. Masse – 75
7. McKeown – 70
8. Wilm – 66

Distance per stroke (most to least):

1. Wilm – 1.092 meters per stroke
2. McKeown – 1.033 meters per stroke
3. Terebo – 1.000 meters per stroke
4. Gastaldello – 0.963 meters per stroke
5. Masse – 0.977 meters per stroke
6. Anderson – 0.964 meters per stroke
7. Berkoff – 0.923 meters per stroke
8. Smith – 0.918 meters per stroke

Smith and Berkoff’s race plan of a better stroke price/fewer meters per stroke in juxtaposition with McKeown’s decrease stroke price/greater meters per stroke once more exhibits that there are a number of methods to achieve the rostrum. Ingrid Wilm, with an impressively low 66 strokes, was sandwiched (in each lane and rank) between Anderson and Terebo, who each took a minimum of 10 strokes extra.

Sadly, no a part of this information accounts for the kick price, probably as a result of it’s way more tough to get an correct studying on the precise quantity of every swimmer’s kick. Simply from trying on the race footage, way more white water is being generated by Smith and Berkoff than Terebo and Wilm.