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Comment by jrudolph | Hacker News Reader

Fantastic analysis. One important question not covered in the article: how are lanes assigend in swimming? In rowing we have a qualification system that is geared to have the best crews start in the middle two of the 6 lanes, then going further out. For all I know about fluid dynamics, swimming in the outer lanes should have a disadvantage (swimming close to the pools boundary adds drag).

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Lanes in swimming are according to speed. If you have the fastest prelim time, you're in lane 4. Second fastest in lane 5, then continuing down to 3,6,2,7,1,8. As for the boundary stuff, at the top meets, they don't have a swimmer in the lanes closest to the wall (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXC4hYnH4n0).

Wow, that is a tiny tiny pool. It's fine for kids, but seeing competitive swimmers racing across 25 yards is just funny. The doubled-up, yet still tiny lane ropes are also cute.

For large international meets they are assigned based on FINA's seeding rules:

http://www.fina.org/content/sw-3-seeding-heats-semi-finals-a...

Finals are seeded 4,5,3,6,2,7,1,8 fastest-to-slowest.

Semifinals are circle seeded (two heats where b is the second heat) 4-b, 4-a, 5-b, 5-a, 3-b, 3-a etc.

Heats are circle seeded for the last (fastest) three heats, and then regular-seeded for the remaining heats.

Basically if the pool had a current, you'd expect to see more 'upsets' from the lanes with less current, or from the lanes with a positive current in the case of the 50m.

Note that, while there is a common perception among athletes that the middle lanes are advantageous (or at the least, preferable), there is not backed up by any scientific evidence:

http://sports.stackexchange.com/questions/1326/in-swimming-i...

Of course, the prestige conferred by the established allocation system should also be considered as a factor explaining preferences as well...

Swimming immediately next to the wall, as in inches from it, can also have advantages. The fastest way of getting from one side of a pool to another is dolphin kicking along the bottom. The water coming off your stroke pushes against the solid surface, effectively giving you more 'grip' than you would have in open water.

In swimming your lane is determined by your seed time. In events with multiple heats it gets more complex, but the fastest people are in the middle lanes.

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