Power requirements for swimming a world-record 50-m front crawl.

Huub M. Toussaint and Martin Truijens Peak performances in sport require the full deployment of all powers an athlete possesses. How factors like mechanical power output, technique, and drag, each in itself but also in concert with each other, determine swimming performance is the subject of inquiry in this case study. At constant speed, a swimmer is subjected to the resistive forces of water, that is, drag (F d ) depending on a drag factor K and the swimming speed squared (v; see Equation 1). In order to overcome these resistive forces the swimmer has to generate power (P d , ie, force times velocity) according to