Anthony Ervin is going to the Olympics for the third time. The most unbelievable fact about that is not that he is 35 years old and swimming as good as ever. We’ve seen that before (see Lezak, Jason). It’s not that he took off nearly a decade from the sport and then returned to Olympic form. No, the most unbelievable part of Anthony Ervin going to the Olympics is that he qualified in the 50 (and 100) despite struggling with what is considered one of the essential pieces of the race: starting. The final was a rare decent start for Ervin, so let’s take a look at before we watch poorer quality video of where he came from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7kLai67fe8
That Ervin is bad off the star tis now news, even when he was an Olympic champion in 2000, he struggled in the early part of the race. However, while Ervin is far from a perfect technician off the blocks, he is hardly worse than many of his competitors. In fact, watching the Olympic final from 2000 is fun for two reasons. The first, to feel old because half the field is using a two foot grab start, the second because despite better than average technique for the field, Ervin is still behind when he breaks out:
The explanation for this is simple, and explains some of why, despite this glaring “weakness” in his game, Anthony Ervin has remained a below average starter at the international level: Anthony Ervin is small! Despite decent height (6’3/1.91m), Anthony Ervin is really skinny for a sprinter (wikipedia lists him at 170lbs/77kg). Compare that to his teammate (and fellow 50m qualifier) Nathan Adrian. Adrian stands 6’6/1.98m, but weighs far more than Ervin (227/103kg). Adrian’s body weight is 134% of Ervin’s. In fact, Adrian had a terrible start in the final in Omaha but broke out even with Ervin despite that.
How does body size matter for a sprinter? Well, there are two important (and anecdotal) reasons. The first is that body weight plays a big factor in how fast you enter the water, given reasonable technique off the blocks. I have observed and times hundreds of swimmers to 10m. Bigger swimmers generally perform better. The second is that body weight influences how swimmers are affect by the wake of others throughout the race. Don’t believe me? Here are a few examples where I believe body weight had a big impact on an important sprinting race.
The first is from the 2008 Olympics, 100 freestyle final:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFG32B-SymM
Eamon Sullivan entered the final having set a world record in the semi-final of 47.05. Had he repeated that time, he would have easily beat Alain Bernard in the final. But he did not. Sullivan swam 47.32 and finished a disappointing second to Bernard. The semi-final was, however, set up just as perfectly for the slight Sullivan (almost the same height and weight as Ervin), whereas the final was not. In the semi, Sullivan’s top competitor was Pieter van den Hoogenband, another sprinter with a famously bad start.
Sullivan could therefore employ the best strategy for slim swimmers who want to win a 100m: get out fast ahead of the waves of the other swimmers and hold on for dear life. Sullivan did just that, splitting 22.4 on his way out. However, in the final, next to the hulking Bernard (hard to pin down a source on his height/weight in 2008 but judge for yourself), he found himself matched on the first 50 and unable to swim in clean water.
The blueprint for such a victory was actually set by Ervin at the 2001 World Championships. Ervin had not even qualified for the 100 at the 2000 Olympics, although he did swim a decent 48.89 leadoff leg on the 4×100 relay. In Fukuoka, Ervin faced off with van den Hoogenband at the height of his sprinter powers, along with Thorpe. Thorpe was dominant at the meet, winning six golds.
Ervin took the race out in 22.6, a full half-second faster than world record pace at the time. He really benefits from the absolutely awful start of Hungarian (shocking) Attila Zubor. As a result, he completely took Thorpe out of the race, and pushed van den Hoogenband out of his typical race strategy another lane below. He had clean water almost the entire race, and despite nearly being caught at the end, hung on for the win.
There have been a lot of highlights in Anthony Ervin‘s comeback these past five years, but his best individual international result in that time has been a silver at the 2014 Pan Pacs. Ervin’s start means that he often performs better in heats or a semi-final where he can break away from his competitors with his speed on top of the water versus finals where he is buffeted from all sides by bigger swimmers. If you’re still not buying this theory, I submit that Ervin swam a faster time in the semi in London (21.62 vs 21.78), Barcelona 2013 (21.42 vs 21.65) while only slightly improving in his 2014 Pan Pac performance (21.75 vs 21.74).
The final wrinkle in the Rio puzzle is that another top sprinter in Rio, Cameron McEvoy, is even smaller than Ervin. It will be compelling to see how these two David’s contend with the field of Goliath’s in men’s sprinting.
Interesting point about the weight distribution. I have also noticed that the suit era was the only time you could consistently win from the middle of the pool in a 50. Before that era, people would risk not making finals (see popov) in order to secure a non middle lane. It seems like the suit era made sprinters forget about that.
I missed analysis of his best time ever(Barcelona semis). In that race, Ervin had 5.4s in the first 15meters.In final, only 5.6s, and that explains a lot of his swim.Bruno Fratus(smaller than Ervin with 1,85) have problems with his start too, and curiously, his best time was 21.37 when he has a great(for his standards) start.Both are light-years behind the power studs like Manaudou,Schoeman and Cielo(prior knee operation) with 5.0-5.1s in the first 15 meters.I believe Dressel has the same power with his start.
Awesome article!
Being heavier does not affect the speed of entry. Everyone accelerates downwards at 9.8 m/s. Thus, entry speed is determined only by propulsion off the block. Speed in the water is determined by how streamlined you are. IDK how weight affects momentum in the water though and the deceleration/drag forces/etc.
weight or mass is a measure for the inertia of an object. If you want to accelerate the object, you need energy – more mass, more energy. The same goes for decelerating – more mass, more energy. That’s the easy way, ignoring the drag forces.
So the question: How big can we make a swimmer, befor he creates too much drag for benefiting from his momentum? I don’t know, it’s probably specific about the height and the body type of the swimmer. But thinking about Manaudou, you can gain a lot of weight for becoming the 15m champion.
He is though perfect for the relay if he gets a head start.
Poor dude always gets run down on that back half of the 100. To Ervin’s credit he only had a jammer to Thorpe’s full body suit and PVDH’s leggings. Throw that full body suit on and he may have pulled it out.
Didnt you get the memo? He did pull it out.
What a stud ! wishing him the very best in Rio – specially on that relay
And that’s why swim races should start from the water. Why should the dive have such relevance in a race that should be about swimming fast?