Can the center lane really have advantages for swimmers?

TL;DR

This study statistically investigates whether center lanes in swimming competitions provide an advantage, analyzing over 59,000 records from Japanese nationwide competitions over 10 years, and finds no significant evidence supporting the advantage.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive statistical analysis of lane bias in swimming, challenging the common belief that center lanes offer an advantage.

Findings

No significant lane advantage found for center lanes.

Large dataset over 10 years supports the conclusion.

Statistical hypothesis tests used to analyze lane bias.

Abstract

In swimming competitions, the center lane is considered to be the best lane. The main objective of this study is to discuss the validity of the assertion, "good swimmers should be placed in the center lanes because these lanes has advantage." This study extracts the (positive) lane bias in the center lanes from many records utilizing statistical hypothesis tests. The data is collected from nationwide competitions of Japan over 10 years. The data set contains more than 5900 swimmers and 56000 records. No significant evidence was obtained on the lane advantage of the center lanes.