Glorification or Coincidence?

As you know the week of swimming has finished for the 2008 Olympics. After all the races a total of 23 new world records were broken at Beijing alone. There has been great speculation surrounding the cause of the fastest times including stronger athletes and better swim suits yet there is one more suspicion that hasn't been given a lot of attention. I know it may seem like I have no life but I went online and researched the new world records set by Beijing and the previous record before them. I wanted to investigate my dad's theory that the Chinese have shortened their pool to make their Olympics appear to be the best. I went back to my knowledge of Physics and calculated the time differences per lap between the two times and the old and new velocities of the swimmers to lead me to calculating the change in distance between the two pools (Beijing and where the previous record was set). I averaged these distances for both men and women and figured out what percentage that small distance is of the pool. I'm not saying that this is the sole proof that the Chinese are cheating. I realize the swimmers are probably stronger this year and maybe their swimsuits make them faster but this deserves some attention. It may not make sense at first as to why the Chinese would very slightly shorten their pool as it gives everyone the same advantage. Looking at the opening ceremony, China certainly wanted to make their Olympics one that was not meant to be forgotten. Is it possible that the Chinese shortened their pool to ensure more records were set to make this 2008 Olympics truly unforgettable? And another issue with the pool is how is it measured? The pool must be 50 meters long yet it will probably not measure exactly 50m everytime. In addition where do they measure the full 50m from? Do they measure at every point across the pool or simply one or two? If they only measured at certain points, the pool could be shaped so that some lanes are longer or shorter than others. There are so many questions to be raised over this one pool and the Chinese are constantly being doubted not only about this pool but also with the ages of their athletes. Despite all the controversy one cannot deny that these Olympics won't be forgotten.

from Magister P...Please check out the document that Alley put together on this topic.