Short Vs Tall Swimmers 

Swimming is a sport determined by just a few hundreds of a second. Swimmers can become Olympic Champions for a lifetime by just a 0.01 difference. It is very close!

This being said, professional swimmers have looked to take advantage of all variables they can control, one of them being a natural gift: height.

Some of the tallest swimmers that have participated at the Olympics are: 

Matt Grevers – USA 

Height: 203 cm

Gustavo Borges – BRA

Height: 203 cm 

Yannick Agnel – FRA 

Height: 202 cm

(SwimSwam, 2021) 

Something that Matt Grevers and Agnel have in common is that they both won Olympic Gold at the 2012 London Olympic Games. In their respective races they both dominated the entire field. Matt broke the Olympic Record in the 100 backstroke, while Agnel posted the fastest time in the textile suit era. Until this day, no swimmer has been closer to Agnel’s winning time of the 200 freestyle in 2012.  

Does Swimming make you taller? 

The answer is: NO. SWIMMING DOES NOT MAKE SWIMMERS TALLER.  It helps with the coordination of the body, however, the height is related more to genetics. 

The height gives swimmers a big competitive advantage and therefore they are able to swim times that might look impossible for other people. 

Men’s 100 free final at Tokyo 2021: 

12.5% of swimmers in the final were shorter than 190 cm. Sprinters are characterized to be taller and the Olympics were not the exemption (Olympics, 2021). 

Watch the video to see more details!

Last updated May, 2022