It is amazing how expectations change depending on the subject. Events labelled outstanding for one person are described as a failure for some other soul. Success can be a heavy burden. Both views can, of course, be right. For example Lewis Clareburt has received a spectacular amount of praise for his 4:14.42 400 IM Commonwealth Games bronze medal swim. I see his photograph is now advertising the New Zealand Open Championships on the Swimming New Zealand website. The national federation appears to be unaware of the potential harm of their adulation, especially when their support is more fickle than a Trump wedding vow. One minute it’s Burmester, then it’s Boyle and Snyder and now Clareburt is the poster child. He would do well to remember that the NZ federation would jump into bed with anyone if it added a dollar to their NZ Sport cheque. Fortunately for Swimming New Zealand prostitution in New Zealand is a legal activity.

Compare that to a swimmer like Michael Phelps who has swum faster than Clareburt’s Commonwealth time on twenty-nine occasions. Six of those faster swims were when he was the same age or younger than Clareburt. A swim of 4:14.42 would certainly not earn him a spot advertising the national championships. He would need to be ten seconds better than that in order to earn Clareburt’s scale of adulation.

I was further reminded of how difficult life can be for the very best when I read the following report in the Guardian newspaper.

For months pundits have suggested Ledecky’s career might be on the decline. Oh, she has won world titles and NCAA Championships in the past twelve months but not always in world record times. According to some that was sign enough that the best of Ledecky was in the past. It seems not. Last night she put the doubters right.

And what a swim it was – 15:20.48. I decided to look at how Ledecky’s swim compares with New Zealand’s best 1500 efforts – first of all the men. The table below lists the current New Zealand record and the national championship winning time from 2011 to 2017.

Men’s National Record

Men’s National Championships

As you can see the men’s New Zealand national open record is 4.98 seconds faster than Ledecky’s swim. With the exception of 2015, when Capp set the record, Ledecky would have won every men’s New Zealand 1500 metre championship. Her average margin of victory would have been a comfortable 8.56 seconds, or about 14 metres; not even close. In this event, at least, the evidence suggests that the world’s best woman is faster than our best men.

The same comparison with New Zealand women’s times is shown in the tables below.

Women’s National Record

Women’s National Championships

It is important to realise that when it comes to women’s 1500 metre swimming in New Zealand we are talking about some classy swimmers. Lauren Boyle is a short course world record holder (15:22.68) over the distance. She is a World Championship’s silver and bronze medallist and a Pan Pacific Game’s silver medallist. Emma Robinson also adds class to the distance events. At the Rio Olympic Games she competed in the 800m freestyle finishing 16th in 8:33.73.

But even these two struggle in the face of the Ledecky onslaught. Boyle’s New Zealand open record is 19.66 seconds, about 31 metres, behind the Ledecky swim. Imagine that Lauren Boyle wins a World Championship silver medal in a national record time and is 31 metres behind Ledecky – not because Boyle was a bad swimmer, but because Ledecky is unbelievable.

In the New Zealand national championships Ledecky’s swim would have won each title by an average margin of 74.03 seconds. That is about 120 meters. In a 50 metre pool Ledecky would have lapped the average national championship winner including class swimmers like Boyle, Robinson and Baker.

The world of top swimming is crashing onwards. The same 1500 malaise affects every event. Women’s breaststroke in New Zealand is a pathetic joke. Men’s butterfly is no better. And so it goes on. The direction Johns and Cotterill have chosen is leading New Zealand nowhere. Does anyone really believe either of those guys knows how to close the gap on Ledecky? Neither of them would have the slightest clue where to start. Both of them are out of ideas and out of sight. Something needs to change. It is not working the way it is just now.