Origin of the Fastest 5 km, 10 km and 25 km Open-Water Swimmers-An Analysis from 20 Years and 9819 Swimmers.

Aldo Seffrin,Thomas Rosemann,Beat Knechtle,Marilia Santos Andrade,Douglas De Assis Teles Santos,Lee Hill,Rodrigo Luiz Vancini,Claudio Andre Barbosa De Lira

doi:10.3390/ijerph182111369

Abstract

In elite pool swimmers competing at world class level, mainly athletes from the United States of America and Australia are dominating. Little is known, however, for the nationality of dominating swimmers in elite open-water long-distance swimming races such as the official FINA races over 5 km, 10 km and 25 km—held since 2000. The aim of this study was to investigate the participation and performance trends by nationality of these elite open-water swimmers. Race results from all female and male swimmers competing in 5 km, 10 km and 25 km FINA races between 2000 and 2020 were analyzed. A total of 9819 swimmers competed between 2000 and 2020 in these races. The five countries that figure most times among the top ten in 5 km, 10 km and 25 km races over the years were Italy, Germany, Russia, Brazil and the Netherlands. In 10 km races, considering the all the athletes from each country, male athletes from Germany, Italy, and France presented faster race times than the other countries. In 10 km, female athletes presented no significant difference among the countries. In 5 and 25 km races, there were no differences between countries, for male and female athletes. Moreover, comparing only the 10 best results (top 10) from each country, there were no differences between countries in 5 km, 10 km and 25 km, for male and female athletes. Men were faster than women for all three distances. In summary, male swimmers from Europe (i.e., Germany, Italy, France) are dominating the 10 km FINA races. In the 5 km and 25 km FINA races, there is no dominating nationality, but among the top five countries in the top 10 over the years, three are European countries.

Highlights

As the popularity of open-water swimming (OWS) increased over the years, the 10 km marathon swim race made its debut at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing [2]
From the entire Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) website database of the competitions of 5, 10 and 25 km races, the following data were selected to tabulation and subsequent analysis: nationality, sex, race time, race distance (5, 10 or 25 km), competition date and local
The main findings considering the entire sample were, (i) Germany, Italy and France presented significantly better times than the other countries in the 10 km races for males, (ii) there were no differences among the countries in the 10 km races for females, (iii) there were no differences among countries in the 5 km and 25 km races for both sexes, (iv) there were significant decreases among the race times over the last 20 years in 5 km, 10 km and 25 km races for both sexes, except for females in the 5 km event, and (v) male athletes presented better race times in 5 km, 10 km and 25 km races than females

Summary

Introduction

Competitive open-water swimming (OWS) is a relatively young sports discipline to the Olympic program, but has been a feature of the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) World Championships since 1991 [1]. As the popularity of OWS increased over the years, the 10 km marathon swim race made its debut at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing [2]. The current Olympic program only offers the 10 km event, the FINA. World Championships Ligue Européenne de Natation (LEN) European Championships have an expanded programs including the 5 km, 10 km and 25 km distances, and a recently introduced mixed team relay event [3,4].

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