Just how fast are triathlon’s fastest swimmers? Could they outswim a shark? We crunch the numbers to find out… <\/p>
There\u2019s no doubt about it. Triathlon\u2019s top swimmers are speedy, and would leave most of us wallowing in their wake if we were to try and race them.<\/strong><\/p>\n But how does their swim speed compare to that of other water dwellers? That\u2019s a question we\u2019ve been pondering, so we\u2019ve spent an afternoon becoming experts on how fast sharks, penguins and other sea creatures can swim in the water.<\/p>\n In this instance, we\u2019re going to compare them against the swim speed of one of the triathlon\u2019s most impressive swimmers \u2013 Britain\u2019s Lucy Charles-Barclay<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Whenever she\u2019s racing, you can pretty much guarantee Lucy will be at the front of the field, and she currently holds the swim record at Kona<\/a><\/strong>. But just how fast can she swim? And is she fast enough to outpace a shark?<\/p>\n Before comparing her swim speed to some of the planet\u2019s marine inhabitants, we first need to establish how fast Lucy swims.<\/p>\n To do so, we\u2019ve looked at some of her quickest swims from recent events, plugged them into a calculator and established her average swimming speed across the distance. Here are the results:<\/p>\n Of course, they\u2019re just average<\/em> speeds, rather than top speeds. So we reached out to Lucy\u2019s team for her best swim times in the pool.<\/p>\n A time of 27:43secs over 50m (freestyle) results in an impressive swim speed of 6.56km\/h<\/strong>. Is that quick enough to outswim a shark?<\/p>\n Well, it all depends on what type of shark we\u2019re talking about. The shortfin mako is considered to be the fastest shark in the world<\/a> <\/strong>and is capable of reaching top speeds in excess of 70km\/h.<\/p>\n Needless to say, Lucy won\u2019t be winning any races against this sharp-toothed animal any time soon. But what about other types of shark?<\/p>\n Great white sharks are also speedy operators in the water and are capable of hitting speeds of 50km\/h<\/a>, <\/strong>so it\u2019s a no there.<\/p>\n However, there is one shark species that would struggle to keep up with the four-time Kona silver medallist\u2026<\/p>\n Greenland sharks are thought to be the slowest sharks in the water<\/a><\/strong>, averaging speeds of just 1.2km\/h. That means not only would Lucy leave one in the dust, but many age-groupers would, too.<\/p>\n Seahorses are among the slowest animals in the sea, with an average speed of 0.0015km\/h, so it\u2019s fair to say most of us would beat one in a race.<\/p>\n Another animal Lucy would be likely to beat is a right whale, with one study<\/a><\/strong> reporting average swim speeds of 1.3km\/h within its habitat or a mean net speed of 3.5km\/h when moving between habitats.<\/p>\n She might also be able to beat emperor penguins over a 50m race, with the birds thought to swim at between 6-9km\/h, though they can move much quicker than that if they choose to.<\/p>\n Their slower, smaller relatives, the blue penguin, can reach speeds of 6km\/h, but average 2-4km\/h, meaning they\u2019ll struggle to keep up with Lucy when she\u2019s swimming at full tilt.<\/p>\n Top image credit:<\/strong> Alexander Scheuber\/Getty Images for Ironman; Unsplash<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> <\/body><\/html>\n Just how fast are triathlon’s fastest swimmers? Could they outswim a shark? We crunch the numbers to find out… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":24023,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/can-lucy-charles-barclay-swim-faster-than-a-shark.png",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/can-lucy-charles-barclay-swim-faster-than-a-shark-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/can-lucy-charles-barclay-swim-faster-than-a-shark-300x200.png",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/can-lucy-charles-barclay-swim-faster-than-a-shark-768x512.png",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/can-lucy-charles-barclay-swim-faster-than-a-shark-1024x683.png",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/can-lucy-charles-barclay-swim-faster-than-a-shark.png",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/can-lucy-charles-barclay-swim-faster-than-a-shark.png",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Just how fast are triathlon's fastest swimmers? Could they outswim a shark? We crunch the numbers to find out...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/24022"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How fast can Lucy Charles-Barclay swim?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
How does that compare to a shark?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What other sea creatures can Lucy Charles-Barclay outswim?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n
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