Matthew Centrowitz won the 2016 Olympic 1500m final in Rio de Janeiro [see race above].
Why was his race so illustratively educational for marathon swimmers?
Because he ran tactically and trained specifically to win this race [explained by the NBC announcer in the video]. While the race began at a slow pace, Centrowitz ran his last 400m in 50.6 seconds – a blistering fast-closing sprint. He had trained to sprint that distance and to win precisely a race like the 2016 Olympic final.
Centrowitz’s specificity of training reminded TOWER 26 coach Gerry Rodrigues very much of the racing tactics and training strategies that Maarten van der Weijden of the Netherlands used to win the 2008 Olympic 10K Marathon Swim in Beijing and what his fellow Dutch countrywoman Sharon van Rouwendaal used to win the 2016 Olympic 10K Marathon Swim in Rio de Janeiro.
Weijden once said, “I train to win if I am equal to another swimmer at 5 meters from the finish, at 50 meters from the finish, or 500 meters from the finish” – which is precisely what he did. Rouwendaal, similar to Ous Mellouli at the 2012 London Olympics, took off at a specific point in the race (on the second-to-last lap in both cases) because they had trained to be prepared to swim such a race.
Similarly, while Kristóf Rasovszky of Hungary was preparing himself by training in a river for the 2024 Paris Olympics marathon swim in the Seine, other swimmers were primarily (or exclusively) training in a 50m rectangular pool. So Rasovszky was prepared to round the turn buoys in the fast-flowing water of the Seine [see his rounding of the last turn buoy of the 10K Marathon Swim below], while many of his competitors were experiencing these conditions for the first time in the Olympic final.
Since the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim was introduced at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a total of 30 medals have been awarded. Of these 30 medals, 20 have been won by 5 countries (Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Great Britain), while 13 swimmers from different countries have won Olympic 10K Marathon Swim medals.
- Netherlands: 5 medals, 4 gold + 1 silver
- Hungary: 4 medals: 2 gold + 1 silver + 1 bronze
- Germany: 4 medals, 1 gold + 2 silver + 1 bronze
- Italy: 4 medals, 2 silver + 2 bronze
- Great Britain: 3 medals, 2 silver + 1 bronze
- Brazil: 2 medals, 1 gold + 1 bronze
- Australia: 2 medals, 1 silver + 1 bronze
- Russia: 1 gold
- Tunisia: 1 gold
- Greece: 1 silver
- USA: 1 silver
- France: 1 bronze
- Canada: 1 bronze
It is the specificity of training to race and win that we believe has led to so much Olympic success for the Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, and Italy. Add to their passion and focus on the sport and their willingness to race as many elite competitions – of any distance – as possible, and that combination ultimately leads to the Olympic podium.
Pool versus Open Water Coaching
Similar to elite pool coaches who think about and train their athletes on dives, breakouts, turns, body position, breathing patterns, pacing, and streamlining on all four strokes, so too do elite open water swimming coaches think about and train their athletes on starts, pacing, positioning, physicality, drafting, buoy turns of all angles, feeding, bilateral breathing, officiating (yellow and red cards) and racing tactics of their athletes – in addition to the tendencies, strengths, weaknesses, and tactics of their competitors in various open bodies of water.
The environment of open water swimming competitions is vastly more dynamic and much more reactive compared to pool swimmers competing in a single lane environment. The elite open water swimming coaches in the Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, and Italy study what their own athletes do – and how their athletes can gain an upper hand over their competitors in every situation.
That knowledge requires years of first-person observation and study of the competition in all types of situations – colder water, warmer water, tranquil conditions, windy conditions, fast-flowing currents, incoming tides, small surface chop, larger waves and swells, swimming with a yellow card, swimming into the sun’s glare and in the rain.
© 2025 Daily News of Open Water Swimming
“to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline“
A World Open Water Swimming Federation project.