Women’s 100m Olympic Swimming: Comparing Strokes and Eras
Welcome Video
For those interested in how data analytics is used in swimming, please check out this video about how University of Virginia, Mathematics professor Dr. Ken Ono helps the UVA swim team.
Introduction
In Olympic swimming, athletes compete using different strokes, each with unique styles and challenges. Freestyle is usually the fastest (alternating arm strokes and a flutter kick), butterfly is powerful but demanding (both arms moving symmetrically, accompanied by the dolphin kick), and backstroke is swum on the back (arms reach alternately above the head and enter the water directly in line with the shoulders).
This module analyzes results from the women’s 100m events (finalists) from 1964-2024 (where complete results are available) as recorded by Olympics.com. Over time, performances reflect advances in training and technology, rule changes, and the growth of women’s participation. You will compare strokes and quantify changes across eras using boxplots and two-sample confidence intervals. Note that there is a fourth event, the 100m breaststroke, but it is excluded from this module because complete finalist times were not available on Olympics.com prior to 2020.
Data
The data set contains 218 rows and 10 columns. Each row represents a female swimmer who competed in the 100m Olympic event during the period 1968 to 2024. The data includes top 8 finishers from woman racers however, due to lack of records, some of the data is missing.
Download data: olympic_swimming_women.csv
Variable Descriptions
Variable | Description |
---|---|
Location | hosting city of the Olympics that the swimmer competed in |
Year | year that the swimmer competed |
dist_m | distance in meters of the race |
Stroke | Backstroke, Butterfly, or Freestyle |
Gender | gender of swimmer (Female only - see below) |
Team | 3 letter country code the swimmer is affiliated with |
Athlete | first and last name of the swimmer |
Time | time, in seconds, that the swimmer completed the race |
Rank | place of the swimmer in the event out of four |
Era | time period that Olympian swam in, either “early” (1924-1996) or “recent” (2000-2024) |
Data Source
Adapted from
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Materials
We provide an editable Microsoft Word handout along with its solutions.
This Low tech class handout is based on provided summary statistics and graphics and should only require a calculator and the means to look up a t-score and can be modified to fit the instructors needs.
The Tech required class handout assumes students will be analyzing the data themselves to acquire the necessary output.
Sample solutions are based on Mintab output.