Fearless London: World Records Aplenty

Any time you can work Anders Holmertz into a post you gotta do it.

Last summer, I made random, fearless predictions about the World Championships in Shanghai. Some (ok, one) were awesome: I picked Alexander Dale Oen to win the 100 breaststroke when Kosuke Kitajima looked like the favorite. The rest were, shall we say, less than awesome. Russia to win the 400 freestyle relay? James Magnussen changed the balance of power completely for that relay and Russia finished well back in 5th. I failed to remember that there are no great Russian swim coaches actually living in Russia at the moment. In any case, I'm back with some predictions for London. Up first is a combo US Trials/London prediction: there are going to be plenty of world records.


How many is "plenty", you might ask? What am I, a psychic? I guess if I had to pin down a fearless number, I'd go with five.

That's an awfully big number, especially when you consider the avalanche of run on sentences used by Craig Lord to declare that there is no chance of this happening. It's more than have been set since the "shiny suits" were banned. So what gives me so much confidence?

For starters, the two best male swimmers in the world, Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps, both appear to be ready to bring their "A" games to both Omaha and London. Last year's other record breaker, Sun Yang, could certainly improve at still only 20 years old, or have a breakthrough 400 swim. And he's not even the clear favorite in the 400, an event that is poised to be as good as it has been since the epic 1992 showdown between Yevgeni Sadovyi, Kieren Perkins and Anders Holmertz. Meanwhile, the 100 and 200 breaststroke records for men have started to look eminently breakable, although somewhat less so with the unfortunate passing of Alexander Dale Oen.

That's just the men. Couldn't Rebecca Soni finally stop teasing that damn 2:20.12 in the 200? Isn't is possible that Sara Sjostrom could be a little quicker than she was at 15 years old in the 100 fly based on the speed she just showed in Debrecen?

If you don't agree, then I declare you to be a limey, redcoat, german wife marrying, typing in all caps and then blaming it on said german wife blogging blockhead.