2025 World Championships
- July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
- Singapore, Singapore
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During day 3 finals of the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, Olympic Champion Cody Miller joined SwimSwam’s livestream to give his insight on the competition. During the women’s 1500 Freestyle, which was unsurprisingly won by Katie Ledecky, the question was asked: Should swimmers be able to see the world record line during the race? Miller and SwimSwam Co-Founder Gold Medal Mel agreed that it would help Ledecky in races where she’s left the field behind and is swimming on her own.
No, those who are closer to the line will have the advantage to go faster and pace, whereas those who are not as fast will not have that advantage.
Nope. It’s right there in the rules
Hard no
No
I want to approach this from a different angle and maybe @Keith or @Coleman can answer this:
Is using a techie goggle allowed? It is possible to use a goggle that shows the swimmer their pace, last 100, average and a whole lot of information while swimming, like a HUD Display.
But I am not sure if it is legal to use in a race or not.
It’s not legal to use tech like that in a race. Maybe some day.
Not allowed to use any technology that gives feedback during a race.
So something like tritonwear is ok, but something like a tempo trainer is not.
My thoughts from an average distance swimmer:
Maybe have it displayed the last 300 of the 1500 and 200 of the 800.
Although I would have been trying to not get lapped by the line :-).
In track and field they have lights installed around the track that flash the world record pace with multiple lights to show your ahead, on pace or behind it. It helps many of the athletes pace themselves when needed. I don’t think it demoralizes anyone and for the athlete as well as the audience, it provides relevancy to the quality of the swims they are witnessing. Go for it!
Yeah but they don’t use pace lights in championship races. That is forbidden. Track has tons more regular season stepladder races than swimming does. That is the primary usage and it creates great interest level. There are far more record attempts in Diamond League meets than 10 years ago prior to the lights. It also makes the job of pacer much easier. They look down at the lights instead of forced to rely on feel and a watch.
This thread focuses on world record line. Track often has 2 or 3 sets of lights at the same time. The secondary lights are typically for national records or qualifying standards.
This weekend is national finals in track and field at… Read more »
Can see it be a positive but at the same time it could be incredibly demoralizing if a swimmer is observing their splits compared to the line and realize how far off they are compared to what they expected from training
YES!