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I was curious what everyones favorite race that they saw all time was.
Mine would have to be Misty Hymans Gold Medal, American Record, and just off the world record in the 200 Fly at the 2000 Olympics. Susie O’Neill (correct me if I am wrong on the name), had set the world record and was considered untouchable, and Misty dropped all that time. I was in the dorm T.V. room thinking the Misty was going to fade, then in the last 50 meters I knew what upset was coming, and I was jumping up and down screaming. Everyone else there thought I was nuts.
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I would have to go with Stewart vs. Gross at the 1991 World Champs:
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@Its all and ACT wrote:
Mine would have to be Misty Hymans Gold Medal, American Record, and just off the world record in the 200 Fly at the 2000 Olympics. Susie O’Neill (correct me if I am wrong on the name), had set the world record and was considered untouchable, and Misty dropped all that time. I was in the dorm T.V. room thinking the Misty was going to fade, then in the last 50 meters I knew what upset was coming, and I was jumping up and down screaming. Everyone else there thought I was nuts.
That race was just unbelievable. I was the same way – whoever the announcer was (Rowdy Gaines?) kept repeating over and over how it was going to be a race for second because no one could beat O’Neill. Misty just never went away – it was an awesome finish. Definitely one of the best I’ve seen.
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@Its all an ACT wrote:
I was curious what everyones favorite race that they saw all time was.
Mine would have to be Misty Hymans Gold Medal, American Record, and just off the world record in the 200 Fly at the 2000 Olympics. Susie O’Neill (correct me if I am wrong on the name), had set the world record and was considered untouchable, and Misty dropped all that time. I was in the dorm T.V. room thinking the Misty was going to fade, then in the last 50 meters I knew what upset was coming, and I was jumping up and down screaming. Everyone else there thought I was nuts.
Yeah, that is a great race. I worked at the Richard Quick National Swim Camp this summer and Richard showed it at the end of each session as part of a motivational speech type thing. Her reaction to winning the race is priceless. It’s just pure joy, shock, and excitement. You can see part of the race here:
Misty’s Perfect Race -
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Those are all awesome, but seeing a race in person is SO MUCH better, so i will have to use this bias to vote for mine:
50 free, NCAAs, Minneapolis, ’05, prelims. This heat had a lot of studs, but Burnett jumps off the blocks and is gone. He dominates a race in the 50, we’re talking nearly a body length. The time, as always, takes a second to pop up on the board and comes up with 18.7, the entire crowd goes nuts! Standing ovation, he’s jumping around, the swimmers in the water have open mouths in amazement, it was the coolest thing i have ever seen.
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I really enjoyed the men’s 800 free relay at the most recent Olympics. Watching the Americans maintain a lead up until Thorpe, who despite being a bit off was still the 200 free gold medalist. Then watching Thorpe make up almost the entire lead on the first 50, and yet Keller keeps on to win. This would be my favorite recent race.
Dipping a bit farther back, I enjoyed the 400 free relay in Atlanta with Hall and Popov both dropping 47s.
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I think that 50 was Bousquet, not Burnett. Burnett’s got a pretty impressive 200 free record under his belt, so I’m sure he’s not sweating the mix-up!
Awesome races mentioned. That 200 fly was amazing. Misty always took it out hard and faded. I saw an interview where she said at the 150 she said to herself, “This time I don’t die.” Badass.
800 free relay was great, too. If you have the dvd USA swimming sent out with Olympic and Trial highlights from 04 it is on that. It is all the straight NBC feed, in fact, they still chop the 1500 to pieces with the break. Anyhow, as soon as the guys see they have won, you can hear them celebrate, and Lochte clearly screams “F@&* Yeah!!!” Hilarious.
Those races were both great to watch, but they could have been better if I was patient enough to wait for the stupid tape-delay broadcast instead of watching splits appear on Omega.
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@lirpa wrote:
I think that 50 was Bousquet, not Burnett. Burnett’s got a pretty impressive 200 free record under his belt, so I’m sure he’s not sweating the mix-up!
Yes, i was wrong, but thanks for the correction! For once i was concentrating more on work than posting and look where it got me. I would have spelled Bousquet wrong however, so I am glad you could spell it for me.
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WOw I have never actually seen that swim. FREDDY B is off like a rocket after that turn. He makes the other guys in that heat look bad almost. Pretty unbelievable.
No Question Misty’s 200 fly race was the best in history. You want to talk about a tough girl. She just took that race out so hard everytime.
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If only there was video out there of the mile, Montreal, ’76.
As for races I’ve actually seen, it’s definitely the 4 IM at Seniors in Fort Lauderdale ’02. The coolest pool I’ve ever swum in (slow, yes, but awesome nonetheless), with two of our toughest competitors pushing themselves and each other to a level we didn’t think was possible at the time. I thought that record would last for ages.
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My favorite race was probably the Dolan/Namesnik duel in the 400 IM in Atlanta. I was a big fan of both of them at the time and it was a great race, with Dolan passing Namesnik on the last 50 to win by 0.35. They trained with each other every day and from what I hear didn’t really like one another, but were able to achieve great results from that competition. It was really a tragedy when Eric passed away last winter.
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@swim5599 wrote:
The mile in Montreal would have been something. Goodell, Hackett, and the Australian whose name I can’t ever remember. Read about it, but that is not quite as cool as seeing it. Somebody has to have it somewhere
Stephen Holland. None of them were 18 yet – Goodell should have had the chance to give Salnikov a run for his money in ’80…add him to the list of US swimmers who were S.O.L. b/c of Carter…
Some dedicated swimming fan ought to set up a YouTube account of nothing but great races. I’ve seen quite a few videos from Athens, but not much else.
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Stephen Holland thank you. I often wonder what a guy like Goodell could have done if he was around and swimming at this time. That guy worked like a freakin animal. I guess it helps to have Schubert as a coach, but reading that book gave me chills. Absolute monsters all those guys were including Tim Shaw, who was probably the most physically gifted of them all.
Yeah Grevers going 19.8 would have been something.
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I was/am a distance swimmer, so my favorite races lean towards the distance spectrum. I think that 14+ minutes builds the suspense to an incredible pitch. The Aussies are on to something in liking the distances so much.
One of my favorites all time is the 2004 1500m final. It pitted Hackett vs Jensen of the USA and Davies of Britain. I watched it again just last week on a video. Hackett surged out to a huge lead by the 300, but Jensen and Davies methodically hammered away at the lead. At the 1400, less than one second separated Jensen and Hackett, because Jensen had been reeling him in. But Hackett dropped the hammer and won it. What is amazing is what Jensen did to get second: dropped his PR by 11 seconds. What was amazing in retrospect is why Hackett cried after winning: he was swimming on a collapsed lung. In my mind, that is the most courageous and gutsy swim of all time. Hackett, Jensen and Davies all went under 14:47, which is the deepest top 3 of all time. Hackett proved himself the greatest distance swimmer ever. The Games may have belonged to Phelps, but the large brass balls were Hackett’s.
My second favorite race on TV was the 1988 Olympic final in the 1500. Vladimir Salnikov had been the only man under 15:00, but he was getting a bit older. In the race were also Uwe Dassler (DDR, gold medal in the 400), Stefan Pfeifer (W Ger) and Matt Cetlinski. Cetlinski dogged Salnikov the entire race, and Salnikov was dying, but Salnikov reached for the reserve and won in 15:00.4, with Pfeifer and Dassler just beating Cetlinski, who swam an amazing race (he also finished 4th in the 400, but won gold as part of the 800 FR). What was so great was that Salnikov had the guts to go out on top as the best d-man of his time. Aparently, Salnikov was so well-liked in the entire Olympic movement, that later that night at the athletes’ dining hall, he received a standing ovation from every athlete there.
I’ve seen some amazing races on the D-III level, as well. I was just discussing it last week, but the 800 FR final in 1993 at Emory was amazing. Hope College had 4 swimmers that had scored in the big heat of the 200 free, and UCSD only 2 in the console. Hope was crushing UCSD at the 600, as they should have, with 3 guys averaging 1:41.00. UCSD’s Travis Miller swam the anchor and just reeled the Hope anchor in. It was stunning how much ground he made up, but also the reaction of the Hope swimmers as they watched the race fall apart. Miller ended up winning, and split 1:37.9. The place went crazy.
A week earlier, the Emory women’s 200 MR almost held off the Kenyon relay. The first three Emory swimmers all outsplit the Kenyon swimmers, but Karla Ainsworth split an amazing time to win. Emory was winning for 198.5 yards, and the place was going absolutely nuts with cheering. There was silence at the finish as everyone turned to look at the scoreboard, and then some more wild cheering as Kenyon won.
Ah, many recollections…
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@swim5599 wrote:
Yeah I have seen some great D 3 races, but none better than Boss v Cole, Boss’s freshmen year. COle in the lead for 75 yards but not by much. Boss pulls out maybe one of the greatest pull outs I have ever seen and goes on to win 54.69 54.72. Pretty awesome
Was that after Cole went 47.4 in the 100 fly? or am i thinking of something different? Sounds great though
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I love those great distance races also. One of my favorites which few would see or hear about, but I like to talk about. We had a Kid come onto the Gustavus Team as a sprinter. Pretty good swimmer, but he would not make the conference roster as a sprinter. He was told that if he wanted to make the conference roster he would have to swim distance, so he switched to the distance program. I don’t know if the kid had ever raced over 200 yards in his life. He worked his butt off and made the Roster. In the 1650, something he swam maybe once or twice before, he swam half the race with the heat, then he dropped the hammer and took off. From there on he domintated that heat. I don’t remember if he made the top eight, I don’t think he did, but I know there was a possibility going into finals that night. We had the lead going into the final day, but I think that swim helped put the final motivating touches on us beating St. Olaf’s stringe of 20 consecutice conference titles, I remember I was extremely jacked about it and so where my teammates because we kept talking about it. He did not set records or anything, but what makes the race awesome, beyond the swim itself, is what lead up to it and what he had to do to accomplish his goals. I like seeing the best swim of all time, but swims like that are just as great to me.
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@Psimon3 wrote:
Although I didn’t get to see it as I was one of 7 individuals getting his ass handed to him at the time of the swim but Joe Hudepohl’s High School record setting 200 freestyle stands very firm in my mind
You were in that race? That’s awesome… remember when he raced Cody in Baywatch? Thats was tight.
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@silentp wrote:
@Psimon3 wrote:
Although I didn’t get to see it as I was one of 7 individuals getting his ass handed to him at the time of the swim but Joe Hudepohl’s High School record setting 200 freestyle stands very firm in my mind
You were in that race? That’s awesome… remember when he raced Cody in Baywatch? Thats was tight.
I got to know Joe while he was in High School (a VERY humble individual, you’d almost expect him to be cocky but he wasn’t). I saw him the summer after that dumb race and he said they had to film it 6 times, becasue Joe couldn’t stop laughing becaue the rest of the Stanford men’s and women’s team kept ragging on him after each finish.
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david walters at virginia senior champs this past winter was pretty impressive. His 200 free, he hits the wall at the first 50 in 22.34. His final time was something like 1:35.07, which is i believe the fastest time swam in a USS sanctioned meet by a 18u. Any way, David was completely alone, yet managed to hit the nearly textbook perfect splits of 22.34 46.22 1:10.55 1:35.07.
Another good one was Janet Evans former national reccord in the 500 free. The fact that here reccord went so long with out being touched should say something, especially since between then and now freestyle has undergone a pretty major change in body posistion. By that Merit, when kate broke that reccord this winter at the Chen center woudl be another candidate.
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wow you guys know a lot about swimming history. for myself. i loved the 800 free relay when keller held off thorpe, that was sweet. but i would much rather be racing than watching. my favorite race was always the 400 free relay, and this last year at nationals, even though we couldnt quite catch kenyon, was my favorite race ever. that is one i will never forget, ever.
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Yeah that 400 FR this past year was something else. THe only thing that would have made that better would have been if WHeaton pulled that off. That was a great three team race Wash U, Kenyon and Wheaton. With some sick splits from Triebe and Gyorfi on the end. 44.4 and 44.6 if I remember correctly.
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