Despite an increasing amount of research devoted to middle-distance events in a variety of sports, information regarding the training methodologies, and competition strategies, of world-class swimmers is limited. There is a lack of evidence of studies on the race analysis, periodization of training, and preparation strategies in the 200-mIM and 400-mIM events. In contrast, there is more information in 100 m or 200 m events in the four strokes of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle 1. The importance of competing in different events for IM swimmers throughout the season is an important component of their preparation for international events 2. Typically coaches plan in the early season an emphasis on the longer distance events, and then closer to competition a shift to shorter distance events 3.
FINA, national federations, and coaches and team personnel have used for many years a standardized scoring system to rank national teams and swimmer performances. The FINA Points system permits comparisons of results between genders, different events and different individual swimmers. The FINA points score system rates each race performance based on the current world record ratified by FINA. A score of 900 FINA points is the threshold usually assigned to world-class performances, with fewer points for slower performances 4. World class swimmers usually score up to 900 or more FINA points in their main event 5. Elite or international-level swimmers scores around 850–900 FINA points in their main event, whereas national swimmers achieve a performance standard under 800 points 6 .The base times are defined for all common individual events and relays, separated for men/women and long course/short course.
König, et al. 7 considered world class level swimmers can be defined as finalists of international events such as the FINA World Championships and Olympic Games. In this case, we narrowed the definition of successful swimmers as a Top-10 ranked swimmer who can improve competition performance time and be in contention for an Olympic medal 8. We now seek to extend these selected reports to a comprehensive and detailed analysis of IM swimming at the international level over an extended period.
The 200-mIM and 400-mIM are the most challenging events in swimming and the complexity in their preparation gives them a special appeal 9,10. Analysis of the last decade of international swimming shows the breadth and depth of various world-ranked IM swimmer profiles. Depending on the IM event (200 and 400m) swimmers should achieve 700–900 FINA points in 100 and 200 meters events of each stroke 9.
To achieve the best performance in the 400-mIM, coaches must ensure that middle-distance front crawl training is a priority given a positive association between freestyle and IM swimming 9. To improve an IM swimmers’ performance, it is important to establish a detailed understanding of factors contributing to competition performance in both the 200-mIM and 400-mIM events for effective training planning, prescription, and monitoring. The number of other events of each stroke (not only IM) in which a swimmer will compete through the season should be a priority for coaches 10, but detailed guidelines are lacking on where to prioritise the different freestyle and form stroke events, and choice of distances for interval training prescription.
The distribution of events in which an IM swimmer can score FINA points commensurate with world-class standard would help understand the profile of the best 200-mIM and 400-mIM swimmers. The aim of this study was to develop a profile of the top-10 world ranked IM swimmers for both males and females, over a representative period of Olympic Games, World Championships and international competitions, according to the FINA points in all events in which they participated.