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(Transcrito por TurboScribe.ai. Actualizar a Ilimitado para eliminar este mensaje.) This is Alexander Popov, dual Olympic gold medallist

at Barcelona, dual Olympic gold medallist at Atlanta,

world champion and world record holder.

He was born in Russia, but you might

meet him in Moscow, Rome or Paris, Rio

de Janeiro, San Francisco or Sydney.

He is the man who competes against the

world and belongs to the world of swimming.

He is the man who is making his

sport more popular and attractive, expanding its horizons.

Each year he swims 2,000 kilometres in

training and competes in sprint events more than

a hundred times.

Since his first international success in 1991, when

he became world and European champion, he has

swum 14,000 kilometres, enough to cover the

distance from his home city of Ekaterinburg in

Russia, where he was born in 1971, to

Canberra in Australia, where he now lives.

At 15 years old he was 187 centimetres

tall and swam 55.8 seconds for 100

metre freestyle and 1 minute .07 for 100

metre backstroke.

Three years later he was selected for the

high profile squad of freestylers, led by coach

Gennady Turetsky, where he began his journey to

the top of world sport.

He's called Rocket Man and the Tsar of

sprint freestyle.

He has been honoured around the world for

his achievements, not only in his homeland but

by the United Nations, the French Academy of

Sport and Europe's leading newspapers.

He has won the respect of his peers,

who elected him in Atlanta to represent them

on the International Olympic Committee's Athletes' Commission.

This is Aleksandr Popov, who now stands at

197 centimetres and weighs 88 kilograms, the fastest

man in water.

This was the new Olympic sprint champion before

his Atlanta 100 metre final, the moment when

mental and physical power came together, a clear

mind and readiness comes from a high voltage

in the muscles.

Cool, calm, fighting confidence, the moment of truth

when experience and wisdom become excellence.

The race is the goal and the focus

of his preparation.

Aleksandr Popov, the man to beat in the

final, is in lane four.

He faces very strong opposition from Gary Hall

Jr. of the United States of America, second

fastest in the heats, and Brazil's Gustavo Borges.

Everything in this race comes down to skill

and willpower.

For less than 50 seconds, Popov must show

absolute control.

In 100 metre sprints, every swimmer loses speed

as the race progresses, and the winner is

the one who is most reliable and consistent

in the last 15 metres.

Popov appears to be slower off the blocks

than his opponents, but by the 15 metre

mark he has a narrow lead of three

one hundredths of a second because of his

starting technique.

His speed in the first 25 metres reaches

2.07 metres per second, the same as

his chief rival Gary Hall.

They have the same stroke rate.

As they approach the 50 metre turn, their

speed drops to 2.03 metres per second.

The stage is set for a great contest

for the Olympic crown.

A fast turn is critical for the defending

champion, a rigid and streamlined body coming off

the wall with the first stroke taking up

the speed.

In the third quarter, Popov maintains his stroke

rate.

Hall allows his to fade a little.

Popov gains his first small advantage.

As they drive to the wall, their speed

is almost equal at 1.87 metres per

second.

Any mistake now will cost the race.

Victory is a matter of willpower.

Popov maintains control, in focus, and emerges from

the contest as only the second man in

history to win the Olympic 100 metre freestyle

crown twice.

He emulates the great Johnny Tarzan Weissmuller, Olympic

champion in 1924 and 1928, 68 years before.

Before the race, an Omega timing expert asked

Alex's coach, Gennady Turetsky, if Alex would win.

Gennady replied, everything depends on the reliability of

his technique at the finish, and Alexandra is

as reliable as Swiss timing.

Gary Hall second and Gustavo Borges third, a

magnificent success for athlete and coach, a result

of their seven year partnership, working from knowledge

to experience, from experience to wisdom, from wisdom

to excellence.

After the race, the competitors are brothers in

arms.

Borges was the silver medallist four years earlier.

He congratulates Popov again.

The three fastest swimmers in the world standing

together on the Olympic podium, the embodiment of

the Olympic motto, sitius, altius, fortius, the fastest,

the highest, the strongest.

But what is it that makes Popov the

first amongst equals?

What is the key to his success?

Well, in my point of view, they are

the technique and the fitness.

The key factors in sprint freestyle are rhythm,

range and relaxation.

Coach Turetsky says the key is in Popov's

personality.

The key is in Alex's personality.

He is a natural talent multiplied by constant

ability to afford perfection.

Gennady also has a close affinity with nature.

He believes we have much to learn from

other living creatures.

I think it's important to ask yourself a

question watching nature.

How we can transfer this experience and millions

of years of experience to our particular sport

like swimming, for example.

At any time in history, only hundreds of

a second have separated the best swimmers.

Since 1957, the long course 100 metre freestyle

record has been broken 24 times.

Several swimmers have set new times on more

than one occasion.

Names such as Mark Spitz in the early

70s and Matt Biondi in the mid 80s

were synonymous with freestyle swimming records.

On June the 4th, 1994, Popov created a

new world record of 48.21 seconds for

the 100 metre freestyle, surpassing the mark of

48.42 seconds set by American Matt Biondi

six years earlier.

The standout champions in 100 metre freestyle Olympic

history are Johnny Weissmuller with two gold medals,

Alexandra Popov with two gold medals, John Devitt

one gold and one silver medal, and Michael

Wendon one gold and one bronze medal.

The question is, where are we going in

sprint freestyle?

Is there any limit to world records?

What did people think when Weissmuller won his

double gold?

Would there ever be another as fast as

him?

And what of Jim Montgomery when he broke

the 50 second barrier in 1976?

Where will it end?

And what are man's limits over the classic

Olympic distance?

The noted scientist John Weidler conducted extensive research

on the speed of different bodies in water

and concluded that man at two metres tall

cannot swim faster than two metres per second.

Even if more propulsive energy is used, he

will only produce higher waves, which in turn

will retard speed.

Popov's world record translates into about one body

length per second.

Weidler believes that it would be difficult for

anyone of the same height to swim substantially

faster and he expects that the next world

record will be achieved by a taller person.

Other research led by Russian scientist Dr. Sergei

Kolmogorov found that Alexander has less drag than

other swimmers of his calibre due to his

ability to maintain a more constant speed through

the water as a result of his technique.

As swimmers move through the water, their speed

increases and decreases through the various stages of

each stroke.

The larger these changes are, the greater energy

is used.

To swim faster without using more energy requires

a technique that minimises acceleration and deceleration during

each stroke, creating a smoother and constant movement.

Kolmogorov also found that Alexander's stroke required 30

% less energy than other swimmers moving at

the same speed.

When it comes to movement in water, most

aquatic animals are faster than man.

A human swimmer at optimum speed travels at

only one seventh of the speed of a

seal with the same body mass.

Yet the seal uses just one quarter the

amount of energy of the man.

Horses and other quadrupeds use about the same

stride frequency at all galloping speeds.

They speed up by taking longer strides, not

by increasing the frequency.

In an attempt to go faster, swimmers often

increase stroke frequency, which usually results in less

range of motion.

When animals go faster, they usually increase their

range of motion.

Watching natural swimmers, we can learn a good

deal about propulsion through the water.

Most movements are based on energy produced through

elasticity of muscles, as well as energy storing

systems.

As we look at Alexander in the water,

he impresses with his grace and naturalness of

movement.

At optimum cruise speed, he looks like he's

walking in the water.

Such is the effortlessness of his locomotion and

his ability to balance propulsion and resistance.

Alexander pays close attention to grooving his cruise

speed technique.

This is achieved primarily through what is known

as the kayak principle.

It's based on realizing that two hands in

motion, and if we have a kayak in

our hands, so we can move like this,

and we can see high elbow in recovery

and high elbow in stroke.

And so even I have no good flexibility,

it's still not difficult for me.

So if we start motion, we should start

it simultaneously with two hands, and it helps

to understand that this is simultaneous motion.

And that's what we call kayak principle.

The kayak principle is based on the theory

of using two arms simultaneously to provide continuous

propulsion.

As the muscles on one side of the

body are shortening and contracting, those on the

other side are simultaneously relaxing, lengthening and storing

energy.

Drills which help teach the kayak principle include

swimming freestyle with head up and a dolphin

kick.

We can compare freestyle with man's natural locomotion,

walking and running.

When people walk or run, they use the

elastic forces of their muscles while progress is

restricted by gravity.

In the swimmer's environment, the inertial mass of

water provides the resistance, while the swimmer must

still use elastic forces and the energy storing

capacity of the muscles.

As with walking or running, swimming is characterized

by harmonic and cyclical movements.

The body is a complex structure with all

elements relative to and reacting with each other.

It is important to have an optimum level

of rigidness of the whole body to transfer

the power of muscles into propulsive movements with

correct timing and coordination.

Alexandra uses a phase classification suggested by Professor

Rein Haljan from Estonia.

The technique consists of four phases divided according

to the goals of movement requirements.

In the first phase, the turning motion of

the shoulders initiates arm recovery with the elbow

appearing first above the water.

Catch the water with elbow moving forward and

the hand starting the out sweep.

The goal of this phase is to support

and not lose speed with a rigid transfer

of forces through the back from one hand,

the exit hand, to the other hand, the

catch hand.

This is the pivotal point when the shoulders

are at maximum rotation and the elbow at

its highest.

The back muscles are stretched and the hand

continues its ballistic movement forward simultaneously with the

opposite hand changing motion from an outward and

backward sweep to an inward and backward sweep.

The goal of phase two is to create

optimum propulsion and not lose speed.

The arm recovery accelerates and the hand drives

forward into the water while the opposite hand

pushes back, achieving maximum hand velocity and propulsion.

The goal of phase three is to reach

and maintain maximum speed.

This final phase is minimised in Alexandra's technique

and lasts only until the front hand starts

the active out sweep and the opposite hand

simultaneously exits the water.

The goal of this phase is to reach

maximum velocity.

One of the most important lessons to be

learned from Alexandra's technique is the principle involving

the three R's, a little different from our

school's reading, writing and arithmetic.

It's rhythm.

It's like when we're walking, we naturally keep

correct rhythm but if under any stress, the

first thing we can lose is rhythm and

we can fall down because of just losing

this feeling of rhythm.

The same in swimming, rhythm is very easy

to control through the breathing.

Rhythm is the basis of maintaining all quality

locomotion.

Fatigue and other stresses destroy rhythm.

In freestyle training, Alexandra uses a mix of

fast swims with maximum frequency of strokes and

super slow swimming, SSS, where he experiences balancing

at low velocity without losing rhythm.

Swimming freestyle with dolphin kick and head up

or down also develops rhythm and timing.

This drill aids the freestyler in reducing the

inertial mass of water and develops the essential

hip rocking motion.

As to range of motion, basically a range

of motion is a very individual thing, depends

on anthropometry and flexibility, in particular flexibility of

shoulders.

And if Alex's range is about 2.4

metres, he's tried 2.4 metres, some smaller

athletes, they don't have to copy the same,

they have to have the natural range of

motion because it's also based on elasticity of

muscle system.

There is an optimum range of motion for

each individual athlete depending on their flexibility in

the shoulders, length of body or height, and

stroke timing.

The kayak concept promotes identical timing at varying

speeds together with full shoulder rotation, efficient leg

action and hip movement.

With running animals, speed is increased by an

increase in the range of movement through the

advantageous use of the elastic storage mechanism and

not by an increase in the frequency of

the stride or the stroke.

The objective in swimming is to adopt this

principle.

A rolling or rotating drill is used by

many coaches all over the world.

At first, Alexander kicks six beats on one

side and raises his elbow in recovery.

As he rotates to the other side, he

pitches his recovery hand straight forward with the

lower hand making the catch and retaining a

high elbow.

He glides in a flat body position as

the lower hand pushes backwards.

He maintains good balance in the side kicking

position.

These two drills, dolphin kick with head up

and the side rotating, combine to develop upper

and lower body motion with correct timing.

As Alexander calls it, this is the rock

and roll feeling.

The relaxation is the key for excellence because

if your skill is automatic, you'll be relaxed.

Relaxation decreases the energy cost of locomotion.

The more the athlete swims with correct technique,

the more skill he will have.

Sometimes dry land drills help develop this quality.

More than 60 years ago, Johnny Weissmuller said

that the greatest secret of freestyle sprinting is

relaxation at top speed.

This is the single biggest secret in successful

sprinting.

The best thing how to put all three

things together is to compete a lot.

Mark Spitz had a significant influence on Alexander's

racing and competitive attitude.

Spitz, who was also a mechanical genius on

stroke technique and who saw much of himself

in Alexander, taught the young Russian about the

psychology of winning, making him race tough.

Spitz helped him visualise beating the best in

the world, guiding Alexander to success at the

Barcelona Olympics.

Success in 100m freestyle sprinting is about 20

-25% dependent on the start and turn,

where the average speed is higher than in

the clean swimming phase.

In the Atlanta final, the 15m turn time

for Alexander was 7.13 seconds, a speed

of 2.15m per second.

His race average speed was only 2.05m

per second.

Alexander's starting technique has six essential factors.

His centre of gravity is in line with

the front edge of the block.

On the starting signal, his hips push forward

as the trigger motion.

At the moment of leaving the block, his

body is outstretched in a straight line at

the lowest possible angle to the surface of

the water.

The whole body enters the water as through

a small hole into a tube.

The body remains rigid and streamlined as it

passes inside the tube in a shallow torpedo

-like trajectory.

And the trajectory is long and streamlined, breaking

the surface at the lowest possible angle.

Alexander's six rules to a good race turn

are maintain maximum possible speed in the 5m

leading into the wall, use minimum radius of

rotation, head close to knees, no twist of

feet on the wall, streamlined and rigid body

in the drive from the wall and the

glide, stay down under the following wave, and

keep a low angle when breaking the surface

to maintain maximum speed with the first stroke.

Performance is the only real measure of effective

swimming, and speed through the water is a

combination of rhythm, range and relaxation.

Speed through the water does not necessarily increase

as a result of better propulsion.

Active drag, which works against speed, is increased

through wave creation, body mass, body surface area

and inefficient stroking.

This drag is a major factor in speed

retardation.

Good stroke technique will decrease active drag and

allow a swimmer to slide faster through the

water without the use of more power.

An optimum level of rigidness of the whole

body is needed to better transfer muscle power

into forward propulsion.

In the future, we need to find some

other more successful ways how to be in

a shape and how to develop particular qualities

like strength and flexibility and improve the reliability

of the technique.

And most important thing, how to increase speed.

Gennady believes that the future of sprint swimming

is in creating ways to take advantage of

muscle elasticity and to redevelop the swimming stroke

to enable the body to move as a

single unit, not as a number of independently

moving parts.

In short, to swim faster, technical efficiency becomes

more important than increasing propulsion forces.