[Farm93]

It definitely seems like there's a hole in Stanford's swimming contributions in the Olympics this year. Perhaps it's just the luck of the draw. I was wondering if the admissions office strict requirements of the eraly 2000's contributed to this as well. Even with strict requirements, you can probably build strong Olympic sports programs overall, but you might miss out on the stars.

Aren't we also missing the middle distance runners that have been from Stanford in the past? Haven't we historically had good runners in the 1500m to 5000m distances? People like Gabe Jennings and Michael Stember?

USA middle distance runners are generally like USA divers.  They may represent the USA in the Olympics, which means they are GREAT athletes, but unless things change USA middle distance runners, like USA divers, are not exactly going to start the Olympic competition as gold medal favorites.  It can happen, but I would be more willing to bet that the 2020 USA 400 IM champion gets multiple gold medals before I would bet that the 2020 USA 5000M champion will get any medal.  And that assumes the USA 5000M champion even has a qualifying time to be eligible for the Olympics.

Since this silly university as a stand alone country thing is based on people bringing home Olympics hardware, schools with the best american swimmers will find a way to the top of the university medal standings.

Phelps alone puts Michigan right at the top for example, he did attend classes so I would guess that is good enough to count him in the UofMich standings. Meanwhile Lochte does major lifting for Florida's standing in the list.  A great swimmer and a university is right up there.

Kerri Walsh, for example, is great but she is only one half of a team that will bring home one Olympic medal.  If the haul is the goal, swimmers are the athletes a program needs.

[Farm93]

It definitely seems like there's a hole in Stanford's swimming contributions in the Olympics this year. Perhaps it's just the luck of the draw. I was wondering if the admissions office strict requirements of the eraly 2000's contributed to this as well. Even with strict requirements, you can probably build strong Olympic sports programs overall, but you might miss out on the stars.

Aren't we also missing the middle distance runners that have been from Stanford in the past? Haven't we historically had good runners in the 1500m to 5000m distances? People like Gabe Jennings and Michael Stember?

USA middle distance runners are generally like USA divers.  They may represent the USA in the Olympics, which means they are GREAT athletes, but unless things change USA middle distance runners, like USA divers, are not exactly going to start the Olympic competition as gold medal favorites.  It can happen, but I would be more willing to bet that the 2020 USA 400 IM champion gets multiple gold medals before I would bet that the 2020 USA 5000M champion will get any medal.  And that assumes the USA 5000M champion even has a qualifying time to be eligible for the Olympics.

Since this silly university as a stand alone country thing is based on people bringing home Olympics hardware, schools with the best american swimmers will find a way to the top of the university medal standings.

Phelps alone puts Michigan right at the top for example, he did attend classes so I would guess that is good enough to count him in the UofMich standings. Meanwhile Lochte does major lifting for Florida's standing in the list.  A great swimmer and a university is right up there.

Kerri Walsh, for example, is great but she is only one half of a team that will bring home one Olympic medal.  If the haul is the goal, swimmers are the athletes a program needs.