Photos via Eamon Sullivan on TwitPic

I agree with the17thman – in a recent blog post, he suggested that Australian Swimming Champion and Celebrity MasterChef semi-finalist Eamon Sullivan should take on USA Olympic Gold Medalist and Athletic Foodie Garrett Weber-Gale in a Dual In The Kitchen.

Sullivan boasts a mastery of savory dishes, while Weber-Gale specializes in a lighter, Mediterranean menu. Both stars can be seen cooking on television: Sullivan obviously on Australian Celebrity MasterChef, while Weber-Gale has filmed 13 one-minute episodes of his own cooking tips show “Athletic Foodie.”

They could combine their cooking event with a dual in the pool. Eamon (47.32) would edge Garrett (47.78) in the 100m Free, but would be out-touched in the 50m (Sullivan 21.65, Weber-Gale 21.47). These times are based on Wikipedia entries, but the bottom line is that it would be a pretty even match-up.

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This ScienceDaily article, found via aquadonis on Twitter, talks about a study conducted by an engineering student in which the heights and weights of world record-holding athletes were correlated to their winning times. Both 100m Dash runners and 100m swimming sprints were analyzed. The results added support to an overall trend in athletics — that elite athletes are getting bigger, and at a quicker rate than the population average.

The study was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, and a full version can be found here provided by Constructal.org.

Methods for analyzing the swimming statistics, found in the scientific publication, first show a strong positive correlation between world record speed (m s^-1) vs. time. Next, a slightly scattered correlation of mass (kg) vs. time was identified. When time was factored out, a statistically significant positive correlation between speed and mass was discovered. Similar procedures were followed for the analysis of speed vs. height (below).

Charles, D. J., & Bejan, A. (2009). The evolution of speed, size and shape in modern athletics. J. Exp. Biol. 212, 2419-2425.

According to the original publication:

“The mean height of humans has increased by roughly 5cm from 1900 to 2002 … During the same century, the mean height of champion swimmers and runners has increased by 11.4 cm and 16.2 cm, respectively” (source).

To answer the WHY in the swimmers’ size trend, author Jordan Charles looked to a broader base of research known as the constructal theory. This organizing theory of design in nature describes animal locomotion as “a rhythm of body motion constructed such that the animal achieves a balance between two expenditures of useful energy: lifting weight on the vertical, and overcoming drag while progressing on the horizontal.” Which means that the constructal theory of design actually predicts the body-mass scaling relations in swimmers. It looks like the mechanism causing the trend is a capacity for faster movement if your body scaling closely resembles the most mathematically efficient proportions for balancing vertical and horizontal movement in the medium (land, air, water).

Could the results of this study suggest the future implication of swimmer weight classes? I’m not so sure. Although it’s fun to postulate, the world record to height correlation doesn’t seem so impressive in absolute terms. For example, the study considered the world record of 57.4 set by Johnny Weissmuller in 1924. Weissmuller was actually a fraction of an inch taller than Eamon Sullivan, 2008 record holder at 47.05, and weighed almost 20 pounds more than Sullivan.