The purpose of this article was to investigate whether swimming world records are beginning to plateau and whether the inequality between men and women's swimming performances is narrowing, similar to that observed in running world records. A flattened "S-shaped curve" logistic curve is fitted to 100-m, 200-m, and 400-m front-crawl world-record swimming speeds for men and women from 1 May 1957 to the present time, using the non-linear least-squares regression. The inequality between men and women's world records is also assessed using the ratio, Women's/Men's world record speeds. The results confirm that men and women's front-crawl swimming world-record speeds are plateauing and the ratio between women's and men's world records has remained stable at approximately 0.9. In conclusion, the logistic curves provide evidence that swimming world-record speeds experienced a period of "accelerated" growth/improvements during the 1960 - 1970s, but are now beginning to plateau. The period of acceleration corresponded with numerous advances in science and technology but also coincided with the anecdotal evidence for institutionalised doping. Also noteworthy, however, is the remarkably consistency in the women's/men's world record ratio, circa 0.9, similar to those observed in middle and long distance running performances. These finding supports the notion that a 10 % gender inequality exists for both swimming and running.

Sodium bicarbonate ingestion has been shown to improve performance in single-bout, high intensity events, probably due to an increase in buffering capacity, but its influence on single-bout swimming performance has not been investigated. The effects of sodium bicarbonate supplementation on 200 m freestyle swimming performance were investigated in elite male competitors. Following a randomised, double blind counterbalanced design, 9 swimmers completed maximal effort swims on 3 separate occasions: a control trial (C); after ingestion of sodium bicarbonate (SB: NaHCO3 300 mg . kg (-1) body mass); and after ingestion of a placebo (P: CaCO3 200 mg . kg (-1) body mass). The SB and P agents were packed in gelatine capsules and ingested 90 - 60 min prior to each 200 m swim. Mean 200 m performance times were significantly faster for SB than C or P (1 : 52.2 +/- 4.7; 1 : 53.7 +/- 3.8; 1 : 54.0 +/- 3.6 min : ss; p < 0.05). Base excess, pH and blood bicarbonate were all elevated pre-exercise in the SB compared to C and P trials (p < 0.05). Post-200 m blood lactate concentrations were significantly higher following the SB trial compared with P and C (p < 0.05). It was concluded that SB supplementation can improve 200 m freestyle performance time in elite male competitors, most likely by increasing buffering capacity.

The extent to which aerobic processes contribute to energy supply during short duration sprint swimming is not known. Therefore, the energy contribution to a maximal 30 s fully tethered swim (FTS), and repeated 4 × 30 s high intensity semi-tethered swimming bouts (STS) with 30 s of passive rest at 95% of the 30 s FTS intensity was estimated in eight elite male swimmers. Blood lactate concentration and pH after the 4 × 30 s test were 12.1 ± 3.6 mmol/L and 7.2 ± 0.1, respectively. Accumulated oxygen demand was estimated to be 50.9 ± 9.6 mL/kg and 48.3 ± 8.4, 47.2 ± 8.5, 47.4 ± 8.3, and 45.6 ± 6.8 mL/kg for the 30 s FTS and 4 × 30 s bouts, respectively. Accumulated oxygen uptake was 16.6 ± 3.6 for the 30 s FTS and progressively increased during the 4 × 30 s bouts 12.2 ± 2.1, 21.6 ± 2.5, 22.8 ± 1.8, and 23.5 ± 2.0 mL/kg (P < 0.01). The estimated aerobic contribution therefore was 33 ± 8% for the 30 s FTS and 25 ± 4, 47 ± 9, 49 ± 8, 52 ± 9% for bouts 1-4 during the 4 × 30 s STS test (P < 0.01). The results underline the importance of aerobic energy contribution during single and repeated high intensity swimming, which should be considered when prescribing swimming training sets of this nature.

We studied the effects of oral creatine supplementation on sprint swimming performance in 14 elite competitive male swimmers. The subjects performed a single sprint (1 x 50 yards [45.72 m]) and repeated sprint set (8 x 50 yards at intervals of 1 min 30 s) before and after a 5 day period of either creatine (9 g creatine + 4.5 g maltodextrin + 4.5 g glucose day(-1)) or placebo (18 g glucose day(-1); double-blind protocol) supplementation. Venous and capillary blood samples were taken for the determination of plasma ammonia, blood pH and lactate. Mean times recorded for the single 50 yard sprint were unchanged as a result of supplementation (creatine vs control, N.S.). During the repeated sprint test, mean times increased (P< 0.01, main effect time) during all trials, but performance was improved as a result of creatine supplementation (sprints 1-8: control pre-, 23.35+/-0.68 to 26.32+/-1.34 s; control post-, 23.59+/-0.66 to 26.19+/-1.48 s; creatine pre-, 23.20+/-0.67 to 26.85+/-0.42 s; creatine post-, 23.39+/-0.54 to 25.73+/-0.26 s; P < 0.03, group x trial interaction). Thus the percentage decline in performance times was reduced after creatine supplementation (control, 12.7+/-5.7% vs 11.0+/-5.5%; creatine, 15.7+/-4.3% vs 10.0+/-2.5%; P< 0.05, group x trial interaction). The metabolic response was similar before and after supplementation, with no differences in the blood lactate or pH response. Plasma ammonia was lower on the second trial (P< 0.05, main effect trial), but this could not be attributed to the effect of supplementation (group x trial interaction, N.S.). A further urinary analysis study supported these findings by demonstrating an approximately 67% (approximately 26 g) retention of the administered creatine in this group of swimmers after an identical supplementation regimen. In summary, our results suggest that ingesting 9 g creatine per day for 5 days can improve swimming performance in elite competitors during repeated sprints, but appears to have no effect on a single 50 yard sprint.