MUTUAL OF OMAHA DUEL IN THE POOL

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The 'Mutual of Omaha Duel in the Pool' is a swimming event begun in 2003, and held every other year.
The event pits the big swimming stars of the United States against the big stars of Australia, started as an idea by USA Swimming to keep the developing rivalry between the two countries going, and to see which of the two teams is better.
There was rumored to be a Duel in 2006, which is said to pit the U.S. against a team from China, after an earlier report stated that the event would pit the U.S. against a team of European swimmers, like golf's Ryder Cup. This did not occur.
The 2007 Mutual of Omaha Duel in the Pool between the U.S and Australia took place in Sydney, Australia on April 3, 2007. The United States won their third straight Duel in the Pool, every single time it had been held. The United States again dominated despite the event being held in Australia.

Contents

Rules

Points system

Event history

Event trivia

References

Rules

The Duel in the Pool is made up of 28 total events — four relays and 24 individual races — all held in an Olympic-size pool.
All rules regarding relays and individual races are applied at this event like they are in the Olympic Games and the FINA World Championships.

Points system

Each race awards points based on finishing position. In the relays, all winning teams receive 7 points, while the losing teams receive no points. Individual races are set up differently, however, as 11 total points are up for grab in each race. That system is set up like this:

★ First place: 5 points

★ Second place: 3 points

★ Third place: 2 points

★ Fourth place: 1 point

★ Fifth and sixth place: No points awarded
The total number of points given in the event is 292. The first team to reach 146.5 points, or the team with the most points at the end of the event, is declared the winner. In the event of a tie, the tie will be broken with a 4x50-meter coed medley relay. The winner of this event gains one point, and both teams must select two men and two women to race. In the two editions of the event so far, this event has not needed use.

Event history

Event	Location	Winner	Runner-Up	Final score
2003	Indianapolis, Indiana, USA			196 - 74
2005	Irvine, California, USA			190 - 102
2007	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia			181.5 - 129.5
2009	Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
2011	San Francisco, California, USA
2013	Denver, Colorado, USA
2015	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Event trivia

★ The event winner receives a traveling trophy, and swimmers who break a world record in the event earn a $25,000 bonus.

★ Only two world records has been broken in the event to date — Michael Phelps, 17 at the time, broke his own world record in the 400-meter individual medley at the inaugural event in 2003 and Libby Lenton of Australia became the first woman to break 53 seconds in the 100 metre freestyle in 2007..

★ NBC is the exclusive event broadcaster in the U.S., but they opt to show the event on tape delay by airing it on a weekend with event coverage split into two days.

★ In 2007 Australian swimming star Libby Lenton became the first woman to beat the 53 second mark in the 100 metre freestyle, beating the previous world record by 0.31 seconds with a time of 52.99. At the time she was racing against American Michael Phelps, who clocked in at 48.72 seconds. However, due to the nature of the relay in question not being an official event, her time will not be recognized as a world record.^[1]

References

1. Libby Lenton's 52.99 Not Ratified as World Record by FINA (Swimmingworldmagazine.com)