b u l l e va r d
Making a splash: Notice the way the water flows over the special suit worn by world-class triathlete and 2008 Olympic Champion Jan Frodeno of Germany
winning formula
Stroke of geniuS
A racing suit may shave time (in tandem with an all-over body shave) but it’s a swimmer’s mental strength that lets him win in the water
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Down by the pool “Size does matter,” says Chris Nesbit, England’s head swimming coach for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi this October and the man who steered Katy Sexton of Great Britain to gold in the 200m backstroke at the 2003 World Championships. “Look at the world-record holders. Michael Phelps is 6ft 4in, and going back to the 1980s Michael Gross was 6ft 7in. You need heart and lung endurance, and shoulder and thigh strength to make it. A swimmer like Ian Thorpe, for example: he was a big guy who could really cut through the pool too. His kinesthetic feel of the water [the repeated tactile learning of a successful stroke] eliminated excess drag. But the biggest decider on whether you succeed in swimming is your attitude and desire to win. “By the time someone gets to the starting block, to a large extent both mentally and physically, the job is done. If it’s a 50m sprint race, good swimmers will have rehearsed it in their heads countless times, because they’ve only got 20-22 seconds of racing. We’ll go to Delhi as a team and support each other, but at the end of the day, swimming is an individual’s sport. “It’s tough mentally, but the surprising thing about swimming is that I believe it does far less damage to your body than other