RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN STROKE EFFICIENCY MEASURES AND FREESTYLE SWIMMING PERFORMANCE: AN ANALYSIS OF FREESTYLE SWIMMING EVENTS AT THE SYDNEY 2000 OLYMPICS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between measures of stroke efficiency and performance in the freestyle swimming events of the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Measures of variables describing swimming performance were determined from overhead video of the races according to the Australian Institute of Sport protocol. All performances by swimmers in the finals and semifinals were included in the analysis for the 50, 100 and 200 m events and performances for finalists only were analyzed for longer events. A within subjects, repeated measures linear-regression analysis was used to determine relationships. The lack of relationships determined for SI with either swim velocity or performance time in the longer events indicated that the SI was not a good indicator of swimming efficiency for women's freestyle events. In contrast, a predominance of these relationships in the longer events indicated that the SI was possibly an indicator of swimming efficiency for men's freestyle events. SL was not found to be a good predictor of swimming speed or an indicator of swimming efficiency for the freestyle events.