How Fast Do Olympic 10K Swimmers Train?

How Fast Do Olympic 10K Swimmers Train?

Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

Three-time Olympic medalist Ous Mellouli of Tunisia and Japanese 2-time Olympian Yasunari Hirai were training at high altitude in Flagstaff, Arizona with coach Bill Rose of the Mission Viejo Nadadores.

How fast do these athletes train for their upcoming Olympic 10K Marathon Swim final in Copacabana Beach at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games?

This was one of their main sets, totaling 6,000 high-altitude meters below.

4 sets of 15 x 100 on 1:20 in a long course 50m pool; #1-3 swum smoothly, #4 swum at 1500m race pace. The splits, times and stroke counts are shown below on the last set:

1st 100: 31.3 at 50m / 1:00.4 (29.1 on second 50m) 35,37 strokes
2nd 100: 30.7 / 1:00.0 (29.3) 35, 36 2:00.4 cumulative time
3rd 100: 30.9 / 1’00.7 (29.7) 35, 37 3:01.1
4th 100: 31.4 / 1’00.1 (28.7) 36, 37 4:01.2
5th 100: 30.3 / 59.2 (28.9) 36, 37 5:00.4
6th 100: 30.7 / 59.6 (28.9) 36, 37 6:00.3
7th 100: 30.8 / 59.9 (29.0) 36, 37 7:00.2
8th 100: 30.6 / 59.9 (29.2) 36, 37 8:00.1
9th 100: 31.4 / 1’01.6 (30.2) 36, 37 9:01.7
10th 100: 30.1 / 58.3 (28.2) 36, 37 10:00.0
11th 100: 30.7 / 59.7 (29.0) 37, 37 10:59.7
12th 100: 29.7 / 59.2 (29.5) 36, 38 11:58.9
13th 100: 31.0 / 59.7 (28.7) 36, 37 12:58.6
14th 100: 30.8 / 59.3 (28.5) 36, 37 13:57.9
15th 100: 29.1 / 56.7 (27.5) 14:54.6

This is especially impressive as the athletes were swimming at 6,909 feet (2,106 meters) in altitude.

Copyright © 2016 by World Open Water Swimming Association
Steven Munatones