THEMA - Anything Can Happen

As the 22nd World Championships loom on the Singapore horizon and the form guides begin to take shape with myriad predictions on the wing before the entries close, let's take a look back at this week half a century ago.

We're in Long Beach, California, and a World-record spree leads us into the 2nd World Championships in 1975. All seasons and outcomes are unique but history is also loaded with reminders that no bull run or buoyant season of plenty can ever stand as a precursor to certainty in pursuit of glory.

All red threads lead and link to 1975 in this week's Forum. We're back in a year that marked:

• the end of the Vietnam War with the fall of Saigon and the evacuation of American personnel;
• the rise of the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot: they gained control of Cambodia, initiating a period of brutal communist rule. 
• the foundation of Microsoft by Bill Gates and Paul Allen
• attacks on Gerald Ford: the U.S President survived two assassination attempts in 1975
• the inaugural ICC Cricket World Cup, held in England
• Margaret Thatcher's elevation to leader of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom
• The assassination of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia
• the advent of bell-bottoms, wide-legged pants that flared out from the knee, and platform shoes, as fashion statements, while Playmobil was the toy to have, CB Radios were a personal communication hit, and Mood Rings that changed colour based on the wearer's body temperature were all the rage with must-have tie-dye clothes

And, in swimming, the mid-1970s was a time when goggles were still a novelty and a growing trend in international competition, five years after Britain's David Wilkie had become the first swimmer to wear a pair in major competition, at a home Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1970 (see History of 100, and link to our tribute to David below).

The decade would see electronic timing become standard, and mark the early evolution of wave-breaker lanes and compression suits, all of which, alongside the use of banned drugs, most obviously seen in women's racing, largely (but not exclusively) as a result of the GDR 's systematic doping program, contributed to a riot of World records in the age of innovation in the sport.

By the time Mark Spitz retired after his seven Olympic gold medals at Munich 1972, he'd set a record 26 World records in pools 50m long. None of Spitz's standards survived the 1970s. However, towards the end of the decade, swims such as Australian Tracey Wickham's 4:06.28 in the 400m free - a World championship record set in 1978 that would not be broken until 2007 - would remain in the all-time top 10 for decades to come.

The 1975 and 1976 seasons delivered an assault on the World-record books, the Montreal Olympics alone accounting for 29 new global marks at a Games that marked not only the advent of the GDR but a result on the men's side never seen before or since: the USA won every gold in the pool barring Wilkie's in the 200m breaststroke.

That USA squad included Shirley Babashoff and Tim Shaw. For very different reasons, they left Montreal with less than it looked like they might get a year out.

Only one thing is certain: anything can happen...