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No-one is concerned about all the water vortices created in the pool by your competitors ? I suspect these would also add quite a bit of unfairness.

niftich 10y ago
It's not clear whether lane placement affects results, but it's true that the middle lanes are often favored, and qualification systems tend to place better-performing swimmers towards the middle. Here's two non-professional discussions on the matter: [1] https://www.quora.com/In-competitive-swimming-why-are-the-inner-lanes-3-4-and-5-usually-the-fastest-Do-better-swimmers-qualify-to-get-them-Is-there-an-advantage-And-if-so-how-is-that-fair https://www.quora.com/In-competitive-swimming-why-are-the-in... [2] http://sports.stackexchange.com/questions/1326/in-swimming-is-there-a-competitive-advantage-to-being-in-one-lane-or-another http://sports.stackexchange.com/questions/1326/in-swimming-i...
- Qantourisc 10y ago
  I was more thinking along the lines of random-currents-bad-luck though. Al tough the out most lanes might have a small effect.
dredmorbius 10y ago
The wave-eating lanelines do an excellent job of removing most of the effects of wakes. Turbulance from actual strokes is pretty minimised. Worst case is probably in the butterfly where the wake is maximised. Many other pool features, including both vents (bottom-mounted and highly deflected/diffused) and gutters (in the 1970s - 1980s usually large, below-deck, now often a set of ground-flush slats into which waves are absorbed) also minimise pool turbulence.
maerF0x0 10y ago
granted anecdotal, but when I was a swimmer lore was that center lanes were the fastest due to currents. They do a lot to counter these things though, special lane ropes, deeper pools etc. If you ever watch a lesser event (like non-olympic) they put less effort into dealing with the turbulence. see: https://youtu.be/Igf8PagbGKU?t=1m9s https://youtu.be/Igf8PagbGKU?t=1m9s as an example. look 3-5m behind those guys and see how crazy the water is and its spilling all over the other lanes. Also when they flip turn we used to wonder if it was better to go under your forward current that you were pushing just a second prior.

niftich 10y ago

It's not clear whether lane placement affects results, but it's true that the middle lanes are often favored, and qualification systems tend to place better-performing swimmers towards the middle. Here's two non-professional discussions on the matter: [1] https://www.quora.com/In-competitive-swimming-why-are-the-inner-lanes-3-4-and-5-usually-the-fastest-Do-better-swimmers-qualify-to-get-them-Is-there-an-advantage-And-if-so-how-is-that-fair https://www.quora.com/In-competitive-swimming-why-are-the-in... [2] http://sports.stackexchange.com/questions/1326/in-swimming-is-there-a-competitive-advantage-to-being-in-one-lane-or-another http://sports.stackexchange.com/questions/1326/in-swimming-i...

Qantourisc 10y ago
I was more thinking along the lines of random-currents-bad-luck though. Al tough the out most lanes might have a small effect.

dredmorbius 10y ago

The wave-eating lanelines do an excellent job of removing most of the effects of wakes. Turbulance from actual strokes is pretty minimised. Worst case is probably in the butterfly where the wake is maximised. Many other pool features, including both vents (bottom-mounted and highly deflected/diffused) and gutters (in the 1970s - 1980s usually large, below-deck, now often a set of ground-flush slats into which waves are absorbed) also minimise pool turbulence.

maerF0x0 10y ago

granted anecdotal, but when I was a swimmer lore was that center lanes were the fastest due to currents. They do a lot to counter these things though, special lane ropes, deeper pools etc. If you ever watch a lesser event (like non-olympic) they put less effort into dealing with the turbulence. see: https://youtu.be/Igf8PagbGKU?t=1m9s https://youtu.be/Igf8PagbGKU?t=1m9s as an example. look 3-5m behind those guys and see how crazy the water is and its spilling all over the other lanes. Also when they flip turn we used to wonder if it was better to go under your forward current that you were pushing just a second prior.