Braden Keith, SwimSwam

January 20, 2020

When one of the most successful sprint coaches in swimming history digs deep into sprinting, we would all do well to listen.

Former Auburn head coach Brett Hawke posted a series of posts on Instagram over the weekend about men’s sprinting, covering topics including who he think will win the 100 free at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and how he thinks the World Records in different sprint events will be broken.

Hawke, who now works as development director and clinician for Fitter & Faster, resigned as the head coach at Auburn in 2018. Hawke spent 9 seasons as the lone head coach at Auburn, and before that time worked as co-head coach and assistant coach with some of the fastest sprinters in history, including World Record breakers Fred Bousquet and Cesar Cielo, and 3-time Olympic medalist Matt Targett.

Hawke has also named his favorites for Olympic gold in the 100 free at the 2020 Olympic Games. He picked two Australians, Kyle Chalmers and Cate Campbell, to win the events. The 44-year old Hawke, who has been an American citizen since 2009, represented Australia at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympic Games. He has also been on several Brazilian international coaching staffs via his work with Cesar Cielo and Bruno Fratus, among others.

Chalmers is the defending 100 free Olympic gold medalist, though to win gold he’d have to beat the 2-time defending World Champion and the world’s best male swimmer Caeleb Dressel, who beat Chalmers by .12 seconds and very-nearly got the World Record last summer in Gwangju. Campbell, meanwhile, is the 2nd-best 100 freestyler in history, but has been unable to put her best individual swims together at the biggest meets. Her only individual Olympic medal came in 2008 in the 50 free, and at last summer’s World Championships, she took silver in 52.43, which put her .39 seconds behind Simone Manuel for gold.

See Hawke’s insights and predictions below:

How to break the 100 free World Records:

 

Read the complete article here

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