I am looking at the results of the 100-meter freestyle men's prelim and what a finish that race was!

[Update: It was a prelim race, I thought it was a final.]

Only .06-of-a-second separated the winner in the prelims, Nathan Adrian, from Ryan Lochte and only o.1-of-a-second separated, Lochte, from third place finisher, Matthew Targett.

Wow, it was a very exciting [Prelim] race.

Nathan went out in a 22.86 and came back the the slowest in a 25.24 to finish in a 48.10 but he had enough at the end and out touched, Lochte, who went out in a 23.41 but came back in a 24.75 finishing with a 48.16. Nice pacing, Ryan!

[... deleted]

Prelim Results: [Link]

Tomorrow is the Swim-off between Cullen Jones and [Garrett Weber Gale.]

Zimbio has a great photo gallery of nationals here: [Link]

50-Free drama at Nationals: Cullen Jones and Garrett Weber-Gale tied at 21.55 - Will go head-to-head in a swim-off!

Cullen Jones/Garret Weber-Gale: Here we have two superheroes from that famous Beijing Olympic 4x100 relay swimming to see who gets to go to the 2009 FINA World Championships in Rome.

Whoever wins, "it's ciao, baby, see me in Roma at Universal Sports!"

So, who do you root for?

It's like Superman versus Captain America, John Wayne versus Clint Eastwood or Shaft versus Philip Marlowe! Two national heroes who not only did Michael Phelps right in that 4x100 relay but did our country as well.

And then there is Nathan Adrian! From Swimming World:

[Nathan] Adrian claimed the A final heat with a time of 21.52, breaking through the 22 second barrier for the first time as his previous best stood at a 22.00 from prelims. The time moved him into the top 10 all time in the world.

"I just try to swim fast and get to the wall first," Adrian said. "To be honest, I was taking it a step at a time. Now, I am going to try to set goals for Rome at this point."

Meanwhile, SwimMAC Carolina's Cullen Jones and Longhorn's Garrett Weber-Gale tied for second with matching 21.55s. The finish set up a swim-off for the second spot for the World Championships team will occur on Saturday.

[Link]

The article has lots more drama with references to past swim-offs, and great swims by Cesar Cielo, who posted a time faster than both Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones, and Frederick Bousquet, who was out-touched by Great Cesar Cielo.

(I almost spelled Great Ceasar's Ghost)

Fast guys look up when they swim freestyle - the head pushes less water when they do so!

[Update and Rebuttal]

From Anonymous:

"... Almost all of these guys are between 45-to-80-degrees down -- you have to take it from the body-line in the water - NOT the water surface. The second and third US swimmer is going back and forth with the head - you can see how is looking for the wall 6 or seven strokes out. The 3rd French guy - Frederick Bousquet - has maybe the highest head position - maybe at 45-degrees from the body line.

Look at Sullivan - first Aussie on the second lap - that is DOWN, although according to Clay, this would be considered "up" ...? "

Link to NBC Video: [Link]

Original Post below:

That is Ryan Lochte looking up during the 400-LCM IM.

SCAQ Olympian, Clay Evans, has been telling me for several years that looking while doing freestyle is the de facto standard for fast people. Above is a Reuters photo of Ryan Lochte storming the 400 IM at Nationals today.

Note his head position.

I spotted this photo at Universal Sports in a USA Swimming Nationals Day One gallery - a must see: [Link]

If you look at movies of Ian Thorpe, Stefan Nystrand, Alain Bernard, Natalie Couglin, Laure Manaudou, et al. they are not looking down but rather looking up.

Here is where it gets fun, Clay, gets so frustrated trying to get this point across that he hires a carpenter to make him this wooden "gizmo" to prove that a "heads-up" position while swimming freestyle is superior.

I think he spent a couple-hundred-bucks doing it too.

He calls me up and for three weeks straight and he tells me, you have to come out and film this "plank" I had made and put it on the blog. So I finally come out but I forget the camera.

The plank is about 5-feet tall, 18-inches wide, and 6-inches thick. The top portion of the plank has a "head portion", which is simply 12-inches or so of more plank that is on a hinge so the "head portion" can be fixed in a "looking up" position or a looking down."

(You are probably lost so I will film it this weekend.)

So we pull this 80-pound plank with hinges and and such and we push the plank across the water the with the "head portion" of the "gizmo" looking down and the plank buries itself a bit trying to compress the water in front of it which it can't do and consequently goes slower.

Then when we put the "head" position up a specified number of degrees and I was astonished! The back end of the plank came up, the "chest portion" moved down and the plank moved three times farther when pushed.

Clay referenced that surfboards are curved upwards, boats, etc and so should people who swim freestyle.

I then swam a 25 with my head down and then with my head up and I swam faster. Consequently I set a personal best at the Mission Viejo Natadores Masters Meet looking almost up at the "+" at the other end of the pool.

I will film it and show you.