Can the center lane really have advantages for swimmers?

Abstract

In swimming competitions, the center lane is considered to be the best lane. The main objective of this study is to discuss the validity of the assertion, "good swimmers should be placed in the center lanes because these lanes has advantage." This study extracts the (positive) lane bias in the center lanes from many records utilizing statistical hypothesis tests. The data is collected from nationwide competitions of Japan over 10 years. The data set contains more than 5900 swimmers and 56000 records. No significant evidence was obtained on the lane advantage of the center lanes.