Why Does the Fastest Swimmer Anchor a Relay?
Its obvious right? Ok but before you read on, say the answer to yourself. Is it because he is the most able to make up any lost time by the earlier teammates? Because in the anchor leg you know exactly what needs to be done? Now what about this argument: The total time is just the sum of the individual times. So it doesn’t matter what order they swim in. That would be true if everyone was swimming (running, potato-sacking, etc.) as fast as they could. But it is universally accepted strategy to put the fastest last. If you advocate this strategy you are assuming that not everyone is swimming as fast as they can. For example, take the argument that in the anchor leg you know exactly what needs to be done. Inherent in this argument is the view that swimmers swim just fast enough to get the job done. (That tends to sound wrong because we don’t think of competitive athletes as shirkers. But don’t get drawn in by the framing. If you like, say it this way: when the competition demands it, the