Local organizers of next weekend’s Swimming World Cup Series start in Budapest, Hungary have added a unique wrinkle to the meet with a “Golden Race,” worth extra prize money (yet undisclosed).
As explained by World Aquatics:
Upon conclusion of the final event, the LOC will invite winners of the individual 100m races (100m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, 100m butterfly for both men and women) to line up for one final showdown. Competitors will start the race based on their winning times in their respective events, in reverse order, with the slowest starting first and the fastest fourth. Start intervals should match the time difference from their individual swim. This means there will be four consecutive start signals, for example:
In short, the top 100 meter swimmers of the meet in each stroke will race on a delayed start relative to their finish time in the individual race, with the swimmer who touches first getting the win.
The event pits the best swimmer in each event against each other at the end of the meet, attempting to equalize the difference between strokes.
The system could be exploited if an athlete with a big lead cruised through the event final, taking the win, but not much more, to soften their deficit in the Golden Race, but in all but two cases, there is a $10,000 ‘crown’ on the line that outweighs the risk of trying to be precise in adding a tenth-or-two to their time. That, plus the other prize money available for wins, should disincentivize that strategy.
Projected Men’s Field
Below are the series-best times in each of the men’s 100m races. World Aquatics documentation doesn’t say what will happen if the same swimmer wins the 100 free and 100 back, but the most likely outcome is that the runner-up with the most AQUA points in the duplicated races will take the spot.
In Athens, the 100 back runner-up was Pieter Coetze from South African in 53.49, worth 897 points. In the 100 free, the runner-up was Dylan Carter of Trinidad & Tobago in 48.62, worth 895 AQUA points. If that tiebreaker is applied, Coetze would get a slot in the challenge.
| Event | Series Fastest Swimmer | Country | Series Best Time | Crown? |
| 100 free | Thomas Ceccon | Italy | 47.97 | Yes |
| 100 back | Thomas Ceccon | Italy | 52.27 | Yes |
| 100 breast | Qin Haiyang | China | 57.69 | Yes |
| 100 fly | Michael Andrew | USA | 51.66 | No |
Projected Women’s Field
Below are the series-best times in each of the women’s 100m races.
| Event | Series Fastest Swimmer | Country | Series Best Time | Crown? |
| 100 free | Siobhan Haughey | Hong Kong | 52.02 | Yes |
| 100 back | Kaylee McKeown | Australia | 57.63 | Yes |
| 100 breast | Eneli Jefimova | Estonia | 1:06.50 | No |
| 100 fly | Zhang Yufei | China | 56.06 | Yes |
how did they set the gap between strokes?
Based on the result of the individual race.
Why not 50’s instead of 100’s? Whoever has to swim the 100 on day 3 is at a disadvantage. 50’s are repeatable and a lot more enjoyable to watch and less likely to have variance in the times with going easier in races to get better starts
Yeah but 100s have more prestige. They’re the pinnacle events at the Olympics. Some will disagree but stroke 50s really are just the least important events.
It’s gimicky and I like it.
100 metre swimmers are treated as if they were the royalty of the sport. At the major Championships they get the opportunity to win relay medals. Here they get the opportunity to pick up more prizemoney through this curious event. The person in World Aquatics who came up with this idea obviously has too much time on his or her hands.
I am guessing you were a miler?
The person in World Aquatics who came up with this idea is likely paid to come up with ideas such as this. You’re faulting a sport you clearly love for trying to create new, interesting events. Regardless, it’s not as if this is happening at a World Championships or Olympics. The time to do this sort of stuff is now.
I do agree with what you said, it’s fun, I like the experimentation, and we need more of this in swimming.
Just one technicality: it was apparently invented/installed by the local organizing committee, not World Aquatics. Which to me makes way more sense.
So essentially a handicap invitational. Exciting! What happens if 1 person wins 2 events
How are they going to do the starts? Good luck telling a swimmer to wait for the fourth beep without flinching. Even with the new light strips in the Omega blocks, I don’t imagine they would do this silently?
Have you never done a staggered start(handicap) race? Maybe they are just common in Australia. We did them every week at swimming club when I was a kid in the 90s(old).
Agree . Easy done
When you have two people leaving within half a second of each other, does this work? I’m genuinely curious, we don’t do this in the states so I’m just wrapping my head around how it works
Lol sucks to be a backstroker having to hold position for like 12 seconds
But they know their handicap and they’ll be second to go anyway.
I doubt these times will count toward anything in the grand scheme of things. It’s meant to be fun.
I used to have an old swimming history book that said staggered started races were around in the early days of organized competitive swimming. They were phased out because the times swum were way faster than normal races so staggered starts were thought to be an unfair advantage.
Curious as to how many of the invitees will agree to participate in this option. Could be a bust.
Hopefully they are all on board for it. Last event. Nothing to lose.