We're only four days into the IAAF World Championships, and the USA's performance is already leaps and bounds better than the disappointing showing two years ago in Beijing. There's still a long way to go, but the showing by Team USA is looking more like the one at last summer's Olympics in Rio.
Likewise, USA Swimming had a fantastic World Championships. The Americans won 38 medals, 18 of them gold. That's eight more gold medals than any other country won total, and even if the USA hadn't won a single event, their medal total of 20 still would've been twice that of any other nation.
It's easy to point to the American depth as a reason for this dominance, but, as we saw at the 2015 Track & Field Worlds, simply having a larger pool of athletes to choose from doesn't guarantee success. That depth obviously comes into play, but there are plenty of other factors, as well. Timing being the biggest one.
Back in 2015, I theorized that part of the problem in Beijing was that there was too much of a gap between the U.S. Nationals and the World Championships. The U.S. Nationals are always held in the same general late June/early July timeframe. The 2015 World Championships weren't until the end of August. That's two months later! Meanwhile, last year's Olympic Trials were roughly a month before the Rio Games, and the early August start to this year's Worlds meant the gap was about six weeks.
Last year's Swimming Olympic Trials were held the week before the Track & Field Trials, but, since swimming is in the first week of the Olympics and track & field is in the second, the amount of time between the competitions was roughly the same. This year, things were reversed. The swimming Nationals were actually a week after the track & field Nationals. Then the swimming portion of the World Championships were at the end of July. There was a grand total of three weeks between the last event in Indianapolis and the first event in Budapest. Some might argue that's too close, but the results obviously prove differently.
Rowdy Gaines, NBC's swimming analyst, shared his theory about this during the Rio Games, and what he said actually makes a lot of sense. His argument was that since just making the U.S. team is hard enough, once you get to the Olympics/World Championships, the pressure is off. Getting there is so difficult that competing on the world stage is actually the easy part. Meanwhile, for athletes from other countries (some who know they're going to the Olympics/Worlds for months ahead of time), wearing the national colors amplifies the pressure. And all that time to think about it probably doesn't help, either.
He's absolutely right. How many different events at the U.S. Nationals are good enough to be World Championship finals? How many potential World Championships medalists end up getting left home, simply because of the quality the competition they need to beat just to get to Worlds? Case in point, last year Keni Harrison set a world record in the women's 100 hurdles a week after not making the Olympic team. Three other Americans, meanwhile, swept the medals in Rio.
The depth of talent is one thing, and it's definitely a luxury most other countries don't have (the U.S. always has the largest team for a reason). But it's not the only reason why the U.S. does so well at international meets, either. I think the length of time between Nationals and the international championship also makes a huge difference.
No one is going to dispute that the U.S. team is the hardest team in the world to make (in pretty much any sport). So while most elite athletes aim to peak at Worlds or the Olympics, American athletes have to peak at Nationals just to get to that meet. Then they have to peak again at Worlds, which might be easier said than done. But, if the events close enough together, they can peak for Nationals and try to maintain that top level long enough to still be in prime shape for the global championship.
I'm not saying maintaining your peak for 5-6 weeks is easy, either. But it's definitely easier than peaking, tapering down your training, then trying to do it all over again (probably without the proper recovery time). It's also not the smartest training method for everyone to try and do this. College athletes who compete all year and have to peak several times (that's why U.S. Nationals are always at the same time, it's usually two weekends after NCAAs). For them, resting/training without competing is generally the preferred (and smarter) approach during those few weeks.
Regardless, whatever USA Swimming and USA Track & Field are doing is working. And it would be incredibly naive to think it's because the Americans are simply better athletes or train better. There's definitely something to the scheduling, too.
And I think Rowdy Gaines is right. Making the team is the hard part. Once they get to the world stage, that's when the fun starts. When you're loose and having fun, good things happen. Need proof? Just check the swimming and track & field results from Rio, Budapest and London.
No comments:
Post a Comment