200m Individual Medley
The Times of Men and Women
What is the 200-meter Individual Medley?
The 200-meter individual medley is an Olympic sport that involves four types of swim strokes in the following order: Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Freestyle (any stroke except for the prior three). Each swimmer will swim individually, and are timed. They swim 59 meters of each stroke, then touch the wall and turn to begin the next stroke. Men and women compete on their own.
History
This event has occurred since 1954; however, it was left out of the Olympics between the years of 1972 and 1984. There was no given reason for this.
Records
Ye Shiwen of China (pictured above) holds the record for the fastest time in the Olympics among women, her time being 2.07.57 (or 127.57 seconds).
The Purpose of This Investigation
By finding a trend line, we will be able to see the progess of men versus women in this particular sport.
Are competitors getting better at the sport, or worse? Which gender is performing better? When will both men and women have the same time?
This study will answer all of the above questions and analyze the trends.
The Tables and Graphs
The Data
This chart shows the times of gold-medalist men and women relating to the year.
The Data Continued
The Data Continued Further
Scatter Plot
The pink x's signify women's times and the blue squares signify men's times.
Lines of Best Fit
The red line corresponds to women and the blue line corresponds to men.
The Intersection
The intersection has the coordinates (-67, 861.33).
Predictions and Inferences
That event already (theoretically) occurred in 67 B.C. (as shown by the x-coordinate, -67). The y-coordinate is approximately 861.33 seconds. It represents the time in seconds that men and women would have shared in the year 67 B.C.
It unfortunately seems that women and men will never have the same time in a certain year ever again. 67 B.C. was most definitely not an Olympic year, so we wouldn't have witnessed this occurence.
Women and men appear to be getting faster at very similar rates (as the lines are almost parallel). However, the men continually have faster times and will continue to outperform women.