Olympics due to changes in the Olympic swim program.)
Women's
50 FREESTYLE; 100 FREESTYLE; 200 FREESTYLE; 400 FREESTYLE; 800 FREESTYLE; 100 BACKSTROKE; 200 BACKSTROKE; 100 BREASTSTROKE; 200 BREASTSTROKE; 100 BUTTERFLY; 200 BUTTERFLY; 200 INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY; 400 INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY
Men's
50 FREESTYLE; 100 FREESTYLE; 200 FREESTYLE; 400 FREESTYLE; 1500 FREESTYLE; 100 BACKSTROKE; 200 BACKSTROKE; 100 BREASTSTROKE; 200 BREASTSTROKE; 100 BUTTERFLY; 200 BUTTERFLY; 200 INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY; 400 INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY
1. Chart the improvements made from one Olympiad to another in each event by place. (Example: Which third place finisher made the greatest improvement from one Olympics to the next?)
2. Chart the percentage of improvement in an event from one Olympics to the next.
3. Did there appear to be an Olympic swim meet that clearly outperformed the others for your events.
4. What factors may have caused some Olympics to be better than others? This would include venue or site, equipment, boycotts, medical advances, technical advances, nutrition, performance enhancing drugs, illegal drug use, etc.
5. Did the women's events appear to improve at a faster rate than the men's?
6. Was there a greater improvement in certain distances?
7. Was there a greater improvement in certain strokes?
8. Between what two Olympics did there appear to be drastic improvements?
9. What factors might skew the media's portrayal of an Olympics in terms of performance?
10. Did the performances in your selected events in the 2004 Summer Olympics raise the bar for Olympic swimming?
11. Using your research,data, your findings to the above questions, and other information which you discovered, make a claim as to which Olympic year was the greatest for each event. Your claim must take into account improvement from one Olympiad to the next, quality of performances among the top three finishers, countries that were involved and why their performances may or may not traditionally standout, and did the event exceed all previous performances in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.