This piece originally appeared online at Guardian News and Media's Sport Blog on December 12, the opening day of the World Championships in Istanbul. It is reprinted here without permission and with minor changes, or rather, reversions to original copy in light of British editors, even at the most reputable of news outlets, being largely unlettered in sports besides football, cricket, and rugby.
Elite swimmers from all continents returned to competitive waters for the first time since the Summer Games today as the Short-Course World Championships got underway in Istanbul.
With so much emphasis placed upon the Olympic cycle, athletes may have been forgiven for taking a sabbatical, but the short-course contest offers a chance for swimmers to exchange 50-metres for 25 and race in the faster format.
While the distances remain the same, disciplines alter. Because competitors are allowed 15m underwater coming off each wall, the mindset of racing in a short-course pool differs so completely as to render the event almost a different sport altogether.
The dolphin-kick technique popularised by Michael Phelps means swimmers can achieve greater speeds by staying beneath the surface for as long as possible, so much so that rules were introduced in 1988 to ensure swimmers travel no further than 15m underwater on the dive and turns. Expect to see records broken throughout the week as competitors exploit the rules to their own advantage.
International eyes will turn toward Ryan Lochte to see if he can reproduce the success that garnered 13 gold medals in his last three outings in this competition. In so doing, he adopts the mantle of the United States' most decorated swimmer in the wake of Phelps, who retired after the 2012 Olympics. Unsurprisingly, Lochte is similarly renowned for his underwater kicking abilities, a trait that secured him countless titles on the American collegiate circuit, and will undoubtedly propel him into contention for each of his six individual events.
Competitors well-versed in the technicalities of short-course racing understand the value of their opposition. So often in the sport, where the margin between first and second place is rarely more than a fraction, swimmers race the clock. Not so in the 25m pool. Elite swimmers will talk of using the person in the lane next to them, hugging the lane-rope and surfing the rough water for his or her own gain.
The more experienced racers will conserve energy in the heats and semi-finals, feign illness or injury, get carried through on a literal wave of other competitors' speed, and secure an outside lane for the final, all with the view of passing undetected. Almost a thousand athletes from 162 participating nations are hoping to make the top eight of their respective specialty where the cat-and-mouse tactics of the prelims count for little.
Team USA look to dominate in the pool and yet again top the medal table. Swimming in 25-yard pools is commonplace in the US, where imperial measures still make up an uncomfortable marriage with the metric system, and competing in Olympic-size pools presents a break from the norm for Americans.
Hannah Miley and Olympic silver-medalist Michael Jamieson are among the 19-strong team representing Great Britain over the next five days, both of whom have lately enjoyed success in the shorter format. The Glaswegian came away victorious from the recent University and College Sport Championships in Sheffield with golds in all three of the breaststroke events. Elsewhere, Miley posted a new European record to win the 400m Individual Medley at the European Short Course Championships in Chartres last month.
