Ludovic SEIFERT, Brice GUIGNARD, Adrien LÉTOCART, Mohamed Amin REGAIEG, Alexandre GUIMARD, Didier CHOLLET, Rémi CARMIGNIANI, Nicolas POULEAU, Arnaud CHARENTUS, Pierre-Marie LEPRÊTRE
Journal of Sports Science & Medicine - 2026;25(1):211-220
The 2024 Paris Paralympic triathlon required swimming with and against the current which requested to adapt stroke mechanics. To understand how a Paralympic triathlete champion might adapt his stroke mechanics under varying current conditions, this study aimed to 1) determine the range and optimal stroke rate (SR) and index of coordination (IdC); 2) examine the flexibility of SR, IdC and associated total energy expenditure. The para triathlete performed two front crawl tests: 10 times 25m incremented in swimming speed (S), from which S-SR and S-IdC relationships have been modelled to detect two regimes of functioning and the most effective SR; then, 6 times 50 m at the speed of the 800 m freestyle using 6 different SR conditions: spontaneous SR (SR s), SR s imposed by tempo trainer, SR s+3, SR s+6, SR s-3 and SR s-6 cycles. Total energy expenditure was computed from post-exercise oxygen uptake and blood lactate measurements. In test 1, the highest effective SR equals 44 cycle.min-1, which corresponds to the preferred SR in 800 m freestyle competition. In test 2, the para triathlete struggled to perform the high SR conditions, which was associated to higher total energy expenditure; conversely, the para triathlete naturally decreased SR. It is advised to modulate SR around the preferred SR to optimise efficiency under varying current conditions.
