Stats & Speculation Circulate Faster Than Water In Rio Pool: Myrtha Says ‘No Flow’

The story of circulation in the temporary pool has become a perennial. The archive shows three pre-2010 stories in which the issue of swimmers in lanes 1 to 4 swimming faster one way down the pool in lane  1-4 and slower when heading back; with the reverse true for  lanes 5-8. Then we had it again at Barcelona 2013 world titles.

If some of the stats and focus looks overly complex for the measure of what we’re talking about, the general thought is simple enough: if any circular current did exist in a pool, then, largely, it would be negated in terms of providing any advantage on all races over one lap: there you gain, back you lose and the same in reverse for the folk on the other side of the pool.

And so here we are in Rio, the swimming long done and dusted, only reviews and the what’s next to come. Still the stories circulate about circulation in the Myrtha temporary pool that might have screwed results.

The evidence that patterns are present in the pool is there, just as any starry night can throw up its own wonders. But did it all really add up to ‘significant current’ (or current at all)? Last week, when a German website collated a great many statistics that suggested such patterns, the question was raised: what can we read into it.

Well, truth be told, not much. As the numbers below shows, the Rio pool was a place of balance – and having calculated such things for several big meets in temporary and permanent pools, the conclusion must be: very similar, no obvious aberration and nothing in the flow of first to lasts in finals across all solo events that would suggest anything beyond expectation.

The quality of heats swims determines who gets which lane, of course, and more often than …

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