A ninth lane, where someone like me swims.

Seriously. Here, for example, are the results from the Men's 50m Freestyle on Friday:

1	07	MANAUDOU Florent	21.34	-	+
2	05	JONES Cullen	21.54	+0.20	+
3	04	CIELO Cesar	21.59	+0.25	+
4	06	FRATUS Bruno	21.61	+0.27	+
5	03	ERVIN Anthony	21.78	+0.44	+
6	08	SCHOEMAN Roland	21.80	+0.46	+
7	02	BOVELL George Richard	21.82	+0.48	+
8	01	SULLIVAN Eamon	21.98	+0.64	+

First place was 21.34. Eighth place was 21.98. Not even a second's difference. A sixth of a second. Boom.

There's no perspective to that. We may sense, a bit, how fast they're going, but we don't see it because they're all racing against the other seven fastest swimmers in the world.

People at home, slumping on their couches, look at Eamon Sulivan and think he's the worst when he's the 8th best in the world. And he'd be the best, the fastest in the world, but for .65 of a second.

With me in lane 9, probably doing the sidestroke, suggesting, as George Orwell once wrote of an outdated missile, “nothing so much as a man riding along on a bicycle and whistling,”you'd see how fast all of these athletes really are. You'd get results like this:

1	07	MANAUDOU Florent	21.34	-	+
2	05	JONES Cullen	21.54	+0.20	+
3	04	CIELO Cesar	21.59	+0.25	+
4	06	FRATUS Bruno	21.61	+0.27	+
5	03	ERVIN Anthony	21.78	+0.44	+
6	08	SCHOEMAN Roland	21.80	+0.46	+
7	02	BOVELL George Richard	21.82	+0.48	+
8	01	SULLIVAN Eamon	21.98	+0.64	+
9	09	LUNDEGAARD Erik	1.01.99	+40.65	+

We'll all have a greater appreciation for Eamon Sullivan in lane 1.