The laws of fluid dynamics, sensuality, epistemology and superstition have contributed to spreading the conviction among swimmers that it warns them about the braking effect produced by hairs in the aquatic environment.
Mark Spitz defied these apprehensions in 1972. Since then there has been no
record holder in memory.
achieved world cup with mustache.
Tomas Ceccon was this Monday the daring one who broke with psychological inertia.
He did it calmly, with balance, keeping the same stroke frequency from the first meter to the last of the 100 back final at the World Championships in Budapest.
A prodigy of accuracy that allowed him to accelerate in the last pitch to overtake Ryan Murphy before touching the last wall in 51.60 seconds.
No less than 25 hundredths faster than the world record that Murphy himself set at the Rio Games in 2016.
The long Italian —he measures 1.96— from Thiene, province of Vicenza, was eccentric in every gesture.
He turned towards the scoreboard and when he saw the lights that marked him as the hero of these World Cups, he neither climbed the lane rope, nor lashed the water, nor howled, as all winners tend to do, imitators of the effusions of Michael Phelps .
He merely pouted and remained submerged calmly for a moment before going back the way he had come.
Murphy hadn't swum so fast in three years.
His departure was barbaric.
He entered the water first and emerged from the turn first, ready to finish the race in the last 70 meters.
Ceccon kept his cool.
Contrary to biomechanical and physiological norms, which force swimmers to increase the frequency of strokes to the extent that fatigue translates into a greater sinking of the body in the water, the Italian took 34 strokes in the first 50 and just 33 in the second, when the normal would have been 35 or 36.
“He has swum with an extraordinarily low frequency,” observed Raúl Arellano, the biomechanist for the Spanish federation.
“That is very rare and due to an exceptional technique.”
Ceccon saved energy after the flip with up to nine dolphin kicks, 15 meters underwater in which he avoided the surface, which offers more resistance than depth.
The contrast of the harmonious progression of him with the cumbersome and foaming Murphy in the thunderous final meters was evident.
Where the American struggled against the liquid, Ceccon slid like a surfboard.
“Evolution towards speed”
Ceccon's feat does not seem accidental.
Nicolò Martinenghi tried it with the gold in 100 breaststroke.
Italy is the European country that most resists the supremacy of the United States.
He gets it thanks to his phenomenal sprinters.
Contrary to Spain, where the trend suggests that each individual exploit their own possibilities, the Italians have created a true team.
“We have had an evolution towards speed”, explains Claudio Rossetto, the coach who discovered Filippo Magnini and transformed the culture of his country.
“We started in the year 2000. Until then we won titles in distances of 200 and 400 meters.
We found satisfaction in the middle ground.
Now Thomas Ceccon or Alessandro Miressi, and many others like them, have shared a method and have grown together.
If they hadn't competed with each other in practice they wouldn't have evolved like this."
Under the guidance of Alberto Burlina, his tutor in the swimming pool at the Federal Center in Verona, “the teacher”, in the words of Ceccon, the swimmer developed as an excellent free swimmer and a fabulous backstroke swimmer.
"He was lucky to train continuously throughout the pandemic in Verona, which was a happy island in 2020, thanks to the support of the federation," said Burlina.
"Despite not being able to compete, he was forged with the group of sprinters from Rossetto."
With them he won silver in the 4x100 relay at the Tokyo Games and bronze in Budapest.
Thanks to them he refined the sense of the fight that made possible the first world record in these World Cups.
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