There was a great article by Karen Crouse in the NY Times on Aug 12, which I somehow overlooked. Fortunately Donal Fagan did not overlook. He made this post on the TI Discussion Forum about a week ago. The article provides a rare insider insight into the elements of speed.

From the NY Times:

(Cullen) Jones, a Bronx native, was third in the final, missing a berth to Beijing by 0.16 second. He was pretty sure he knew what went wrong. His hunch was corroborated by the printout, which listed his reaction time on the start; the elapsed time from when he hit the water after the dive to his first stroke; his splits at 15, 30 and 45 meters; and his stroke-rate count.

Jones’s stroke rate was high, indicating he was spinning his wheels, not catching the water as efficiently with each arm pull as he had in the preliminaries when he was clocked in an American record of 21.59 seconds. Garrett Weber-Gale, who took first at the trials, lowered it to 21.47.

“I was rotating my arms too fast,” Jones said.

Or in layman’s terms, he said, “I panicked.”