With Adam Peaty quickly developing as the world’s premiere breaststroker, it begs the question, “are breaststrokers becoming the best athletes in swimming?”
Prior to Peaty, the best breaststrokers in the world improved by bending the rules; ‘cheating’ by adding a dolphin kick or two. When we take a look at Peaty, he is special because he plays it straight. Peaty isn’t cheating; he’s not sneaking in dolphin kicks or taking performance enhancing drugs. I believe Peaty is a pure athlete, which is something that is hard to find in swimming.
You find a handful of pure athletes in our sport with every generation; swimmers that slip through the cracks and don’t end up playing another sport. Swimming has never been the most popular sport, but that doesn’t mean it is not enjoyable or great in it’s own way. So many pure athletes are attracted to the popularity of the other sports, and fade away from the sport. Kris Humphries is a name that comes to mind. At 10 years old, Humphries was a USA Swimming National Age Group record holder, but as he got older, he left the sport to pursue basketball and went on to play in the NBA. He has played professional basketball for the last 11 years. Would Humphries have been as good of a swimmer as he is a basketball player? That is hard to say, but I know several coaches who would have loved the opportunity to work with him to find out how good he could be.
When I watch Peaty swim, I see someone that is quick off the blocks, has incredible turnover, and demonstrates pure athleticism. He has something that not everyone has, and that is why we are watching him run away from the rest of the world.
There are several breaststrokers that are demonstrating this pure athleticism. In America alone, the majority of men’s records falling in the breaststroke events. Today, Kevin Cordes broke the American record in the men’s 50 breaststroke. Even as we look towards the younger generation, we can see that the breaststroke records are falling like crazy. Michael Andrew, Reece Whitley, and Ethan Dang, among others, continue to push the limits of how fast breaststrokers can go. I know that records are falling in other strokes as well, but there seems to be more breaststroke records falling than any other stroke.
I want to believe that the swimmers I mentioned above are the exception, but I am not positive that they are. I believe breaststroke is improving at every level not because swimmers are cheating or bending the rules, but because breaststroke requires the most athleticism, and the best athletes are excelling now that everyone is on a level playing field. Freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly all require a combination of power, technique, and efficiency, but the stroke that is affected the most if an aspect of the stroke is lacking is breaststroke. A swimmer must demonstrate pure athleticism if they want to become a great breaststroker like Adam Peaty. Hard work and determination will take you a long ways, but Peaty’s athleticism is what separates him from the rest of the world.
What do you think? Are breaststrokers becoming the best athletes in the sport of swimming?
It’s the hardest stroke to generate speed. Those that can do it the fastest are worthy of being the best athletes.
Breaststrokers are born, not made. Sure you can “learn” to swim the stroke legally but you don’t hear about many pure freestylers or butterfliers or backstrokers. True Breastrokers are a rare and wonderful breed of swimmer.
This must be a joke… Breaststroke is hardly a stroke to begin with. It’s there for people who can’t swim the other three strokes. If swimming is a sport for the least athletic, and breaststroke is a stroke for the least of the least athletic, then saying they’re the best athletes is absolutely laughable. Sprint freestyle for life.
Easy buddy. I swim breaststroke and freestyle. You just say that because you probably can’t swim it. And on a technical level breaststroke is one of the hardest strokes to swim.
Nah dude. All sprint freestylers can bust out a quick 100 breast with no prior training, but no breaststokers can bust out a 19. in the 50 Free. It’s a fake stroke.
Affected*
real god information I’m doing a school project and i chose who’s the best breastroker and this is the best sight and i swim with the chena swim club
Really all I can say is that Breastroke is the
Only real competitive event in the swimming world.
Sport even… it’s the only real sport, everything else is just a game.
Swimming has come soo far in the past 10 years and it shows truly no signs of slowing down.
Myself and my team mates often give breastrokers a hard time but i know,
Unlike the rest on my team, they are the true athletes. They, unlike and other stroke
Really have to have it all, strength, endurance, breath control… it’s all very taxing.
During training in my squad they’re always the last one’s out, compared to
Others they work harder… simple as… Read more »
I see what you did there… Ross Murdoch
The term “pure athlete” is used repeatedly in this article, and I don’t agree with what readers are forced to infer as being a “pure athlete.” Is a “pure athlete” someone who doesn’t get paid at all to compete? Is it someone who sticks with one sport their whole life? Or is it a person that refuses to push the boundaries of the sport, possibly creating reform in their sport’s rules and styles? Remember: if breaststrokers hadn’t tweeked the technique of the time in the first place (circa 1933, according to Wikipedia), butterfly would not exist! That would be particularly sad for this commenter.
As far as pushing the rules is concerned, those dolphin kicks are becoming legal across all… Read more »
I dunno about who’s most athletic but in the masthead photo the swimmer in lane 3 has a really slow start!