World record swimming splits?

Question

I have been watching the Olympic swimming trials and they show how much over or under the leading swimmer is from the world record pace. How is this pace calculated. (i.e. do they just divide the total time by the amount of lengths to get the splits or do they actually use the splits from the world record swim)

Answer 1

The previous splits from world record splits are kept.  So, as a swimmer in the Trials swims, they can compare splits.  The previous splits are not an average of the previous world record.  

The splits from our high school championship meet are available online just as are previous world record splits.

Answer 2

yeah, for instance, lets say the 400 free record is 4:00

and a swimmer swims a 59:50 split

thats a record pace even thogh he/she might not keep that pace

Answer 3

In the events files posted by most meets after their conclusion, the actual splits of each swimmer are usually included if they were taken by an automatic timing system. The people on tv are using this information to compare the pace - It would make no sense to use the average in an IM, for example.

However, the line that is moving across the pool at the end is only an average, and that's why as the swimmers start to tire at the end, the line moves faster and faster compared to them.