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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Elite Sports and Performance Enhancement
Volume 6 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1496878
This article is part of the Research Topic Swimming Competitions Analysis: State of the Art and Future Improvement View all 3 articles
The variability of competitive performance and pacing strategies in different rounds of the 400 m and 800 m freestyle swimming races at the 2017-2024 World Swimming Championships
Provisionally accepted- 1 China Institute of Sport Science, Beijing, China
- 2 School of Physical Education, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China
Introduction: This study aims to analyze the competitive performance and pacing strategies (PS) of medalists and non-medalists in different rounds of the 400 m and 800 m freestyle at the World Swimming Championships.The 2017-2024 World Swimming Championships and 161 elite swimmers were selected. First, intra-athlete coefficients of variability (CVs) were evaluated using linear mixed effects modeling and changes in competitive performance (∆); second, descriptive statistics of position lap time; finally, a computer algorithm was used to obtain PS, then a two-way ANOVA was performed.Result: i) The PS was effective in 87.5% of the swimmers in the finals compared to the heats (CVs>0.5%), but 73.8% of the males and 86.8% of the females showed an improvement in performance prior to the finals (∆<0); ii) Gold medalists had an average position no lower than the top 2 and established themselves in the top 3 positions more than 90% of the time, aiming to remain in the top 3 until the final 100 m if they were to win a medal; iii) The female swimmers in 400 m were more in the heats utilize the inverted-J (race velocity change curve profile as inverted-J), men for the faststart-even, in the final, female remain the inverted-J, men change to the U-shaped (race velocity change curve profile as U-shaped), and in the 800 m, the swimmers were unified adopt the U-shaped.The elite swimmers who qualified for the finals performed better in the heats and semifinals because their PS were more effective. Others, however, did not have a chance to reach the finals because their PS efficiency was lower, and their competitive performance improved less or even regressed.
Keywords: Swimmers, freestyle race, competitive performance, Pacing strategies, heats and finals
Received: 15 Sep 2024; Accepted: 17 Oct 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Fang, Li and Cheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yunpeng Li, School of Physical Education, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, 550002, Guizhou Province, China
Yan Cheng, China Institute of Sport Science, Beijing, China
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