There seems to be 2 classes of swimmer at the Olympics. One is elite swimmers and the best in the World. The other, there to make a good story. But the media, doesn't seem to be able to separate the two and pretend that these are elite competitors overcoming the odds to excel in their sport. In reality, they aren't even anywhere near elite at the High School level and in some cased aren't even an average High School level competitor.
I saw the story of Yusra Mardini, a Syrian swimmer on the refugee Olympic team. In the 100M butterfly, she won her heat with a time of 1:09.21 http://abcnews.go.com/International...usra-mardini-wins-heat-100m/story?id=41169590. Great story, but when I saw she was a Syrian refugee in Germany and the problems Merkel is having in Germany with Syrian refugees, I began to wonder if this is an Olympic athlete story or the placement of a hand picked athlete to a political cause? My main reason for questioning was that her time was about 10 seconds slower than the qualifying standard. And then there was the story of a 13-yr old winning her heat under similar circumstances so I thought I would look into it further.
So how good is 1:09.21? After all it won a heat at the Olympics. Let's compare this time to the Texas High School championships for 5A, which is the smallest class in swimming. First, for an equal comparison, we need to convert her time to yards https://swimswam.com/swimming-times-conversion-tool/ as 1:02.35.
In the Texas meet, the winning time was 56.13 and the worst time in the competition was 1:00.22. http://www.uiltexas.org/tournament-results/swimming-diving/2015/5a/index.htm. The Olympic heat winner was over 2 seconds slower than the worst time at the Texas state meet in the smallest class and almost 4 seconds slower than the last place swimmer in the largest class http://www.uiltexas.org/tournament-results/swimming-diving/2015/6a/index.htm. So not only would this have been last place among 32 competitors, but not even competitive at the state High School meet.
Again, she won her heat, but another swimmer from Qatar swam 9 seconds slower in 1:18. That swimmer is propped up as the first female Olympian from Qatar and her converted time of 1:10.27, is 8 seconds slower than the worst time at the Nebraska state High School meet. http://huskers.com//fls/100/1516Swim/index.htm
Same thing for the 13-yr old Nepal swimmer. She won her 100M backstroke in 1:08.45 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/olympics...pals-gaurika-singh-making-waves-at-the-tende/ and was touted with "not be her last race against "elite" competition." But how elite is this?
The time would convert to 1:01.66 over 100 yards. She would have beat only one of the 32 High School swimmers at the Texas meet http://www.uiltexas.org/tournament-results/swimming-diving/2015/5a/index.htm.
Going and looking at Olympic qualifying, there is a thing called Universality Places where a country can just send anyone to the olympics if no one has met the qualifying times. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swimming_at_the_2016_Summer_Olympics_–_Qualification In some swimming events, that makes up a substantial amount of the competitors.
It appears that Universallity Places are not meant for the best athletes in a sport, but whoever can help make the best political statement.
I saw the story of Yusra Mardini, a Syrian swimmer on the refugee Olympic team. In the 100M butterfly, she won her heat with a time of 1:09.21 http://abcnews.go.com/International...usra-mardini-wins-heat-100m/story?id=41169590. Great story, but when I saw she was a Syrian refugee in Germany and the problems Merkel is having in Germany with Syrian refugees, I began to wonder if this is an Olympic athlete story or the placement of a hand picked athlete to a political cause? My main reason for questioning was that her time was about 10 seconds slower than the qualifying standard. And then there was the story of a 13-yr old winning her heat under similar circumstances so I thought I would look into it further.
So how good is 1:09.21? After all it won a heat at the Olympics. Let's compare this time to the Texas High School championships for 5A, which is the smallest class in swimming. First, for an equal comparison, we need to convert her time to yards https://swimswam.com/swimming-times-conversion-tool/ as 1:02.35.
In the Texas meet, the winning time was 56.13 and the worst time in the competition was 1:00.22. http://www.uiltexas.org/tournament-results/swimming-diving/2015/5a/index.htm. The Olympic heat winner was over 2 seconds slower than the worst time at the Texas state meet in the smallest class and almost 4 seconds slower than the last place swimmer in the largest class http://www.uiltexas.org/tournament-results/swimming-diving/2015/6a/index.htm. So not only would this have been last place among 32 competitors, but not even competitive at the state High School meet.
Again, she won her heat, but another swimmer from Qatar swam 9 seconds slower in 1:18. That swimmer is propped up as the first female Olympian from Qatar and her converted time of 1:10.27, is 8 seconds slower than the worst time at the Nebraska state High School meet. http://huskers.com//fls/100/1516Swim/index.htm
Same thing for the 13-yr old Nepal swimmer. She won her 100M backstroke in 1:08.45 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/olympics...pals-gaurika-singh-making-waves-at-the-tende/ and was touted with "not be her last race against "elite" competition." But how elite is this?
The time would convert to 1:01.66 over 100 yards. She would have beat only one of the 32 High School swimmers at the Texas meet http://www.uiltexas.org/tournament-results/swimming-diving/2015/5a/index.htm.
Going and looking at Olympic qualifying, there is a thing called Universality Places where a country can just send anyone to the olympics if no one has met the qualifying times. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swimming_at_the_2016_Summer_Olympics_–_Qualification In some swimming events, that makes up a substantial amount of the competitors.
It appears that Universallity Places are not meant for the best athletes in a sport, but whoever can help make the best political statement.
