Originally Posted by
_ForceD_
Depending on the race organizer of that Oly you mention, and certainly if the course isn’t ”certified” (I can’t find any USAT rule regarding course length certification)…you might take the swim distance with a grain of salt. I volunteered once at a “USAT certified” Oly. When I got to the venue early that morning, the director asked me to go out in the boat with him to set the marks for the swim. He didn’t have any GPS, or other measuring device/system. At one point he just said “This looks good. Throw it out here.” (meaning the turn buoy marker and anchor). I thought to myself there’s NO WAY that’s 1500 meters out-and-back. And sure enough, all the competitors reported really fast swim times. So unless a racecourse ‘length’ is somehow certified (as opposed to an event certification) its length is a crapshoot. — Dan
I did a "Cal Tri" sprint once, it was one of those "super sprints" with the 400 yard swim. They lined up all the competitors, sprint and Oly. I was standing next to some dude I knew and asked, "does that look like 400 yards to you (between buoys.)" We both estimated it to be about 250-300, max. I decided to just go balz out and swam like a madman. I don't see how any of these organizations are measuring the distances correctly.