And the ESPY goes to....

For me its all about participation and the benefits thereof (physical conditioning, longer lifespan, achievement, the joy of movement, camraderie, peace and quiet at 5:30am, competition, etc.), not recognition or money. If your objective is recognition, money and fame, very few will achieve their goals, even in the major sports.

Originally posted by Rain Man ... ...but a certain swimmer from Cal who set at least 6 AR and 1 WR over the short course season would have had my vote. Anyone else? Natalie Coughlin, female college athlete of the year as awarded by the USMS discussion crew? -RM Personally, considering that sports are training the physical conditioning, I consider golf a game and not a sport, and I consider baseball a marginal sport. In US, I am appalled to see them taking space in newspapers and TV, making me wonder: so, where are the sports?. I remember when I was in Tennessee in the spring of 2000, in small print in the newspaper was that "...Thorpe..." (no first name and nationality) "...broke the world record in 200 free..." (no education to this being a 200 meter as opposed to the wide spread American belief in yards) "...in 45 seconds." (a blunder because it was in reality 1:45.xx); I have on tape the ESPN coverage of the 2000 US Olympic Swimming Trials as showing a few strokes of the winners, while neglecting phenomenal athletes who prepared for years, stepped on the blocks, then raced until the end. Regarding Anthony Ervin as the male college athlete of the year, and Natalie Coughlin as the female college athlete of the year, yes they have earned it, with gift and work. I would welcome if them, their team mates, and their competitors were getting exposure to mainstream recognition. I guess Swimming World magazine does that, and much more. Promoting the magazine and swimming web sites as alternatives to mainstream media, is slowly changing the culture of the media.

I realize the ESPYs are really, really bad but let's face it, they cover the sports that most Americans watch. We, as dedicated swimmers, think swimming should win every ESPY, but it won't now or ever. Just gain satisfaction in something you enjoy and let ABC and ESPN do their thing, which they generally do quite well when it comes to sports, especially baseball and college football. Now, about this comment about golf and baseball barely being sports. Why don't you try to hit a tiny white ball into a tiny white hole from 500 yards away in 4 strokes. Or, try hitting another tiny ball going 93 mph being thrown at you from a raised mound with a little wooden stick. I love swimming as much as the next guy on this discussion forum but please don't knock all sports and those who participate in them. That just gives swimmers a bad name.

The Epsy is a disappointment. But I'm a figure skating fan and figure skating like synchorzied swimming is much harder than people image. But leaving off Natalie Couglin was unfair. There is too many pro sports involved with the Espy awards Actually, I would have like to see Couglin go against Hughes like she did Kwan in the sullivan awards. Couglin receives most of her media coverage in the bay area similar to Diane Mcmannius who receives it from the Orange County Register. If those swimmers are not from the local area people will ignore them.

Originally posted by aquageek ... Now, about this comment about golf and baseball barely being sports. Why don't you try to hit a tiny white ball into a tiny white hole from 500 yards away in 4 strokes. Or, try hitting another tiny ball going 93 mph being thrown at you from a raised mound with a little wooden stick. ... That's games of technique, not fitness sports: any picture of these, shows unfit participants of the style 5'11" with waistline 36 or more.

Originally posted by aquageek ... I love swimming as much as the next guy on this discussion forum but please don't knock all sports and those who participate in them. That just gives swimmers a bad name. I weigh your plea to be respectful about "...all sports...", against the fact that golf and baseball monopolize revenues (as in overpaid players), monopolize media and TV coverage, while golf is a technical game and baseball barely has some fitness. Golf's and baseball's monopoly is at the expense of swimming, track and field, skiing, which are sports, not games.

Ion, at least swimming is a little more popular than water polo. Outside of your state of California few states have water polo in high school. And water polo during the olympics is either shown real early in the morning or late at nite.

I second. Welcome to the American Sports Landscape. Unless you participate in the Big 4 1/2 (B,B,F, H,soccer), or have the draw (Tiger) or controversy (Williams sisters), respect for et al, will never happen...nice token nod to Sanderson, Bird, bowling, fishing (?!), skiing, horse racing at the end; even then, they threw in Barryoids and Marshall Faulk. Why even bother?

A complete list of the 2002 ESPY Award winners is listed below. Best Male Athlete - Tiger Woods Best Female Athlete - Venus Williams Best Team - Los Angeles Lakers Best Game - Yankees-Diamondbacks World Series Game 7 Best Coach - Phil Jackson Best Record-Breaking Performance - Tiger Woods winning a fourth straight Major Best Play - Derek Jeter shovel throw on errant play in Game 3 of 2001 AL Divisional Series Best Breakthrough Athlete - Tom Brady Best Comeback Athlete - Jennifer Capriati Best Sports Movie - The Rookie Best Moment - Barry Bonds breaking Mark McGwire's HR record Best Driver - Michael Schumacher Best Major League Baseball Player - Barry Bonds Best NFL Player - Marshall Faulk Best NBA Player - Shaquille O'Neal Best WNBA Player - Lisa Leslie Best U.S. Olympian - Sarah Hughes Best Bowler - Pete Weber Best Boxer - Lennox Lewis Best Forum Poster – Ion Beza Best Male College Athlete - Cael Sanderson Best Female College Athlete - Sue Bird Best Male Golfer - Tiger Woods Best Female Golfer - Annika Sorenstam Best NHL Player - Jarome Iginla Best Jockey - Victor Espinoza Best Male Soccer Player - Landon Donovan Best Female Soccer Player - Tiffeny Milbrett Best Male Tennis Player - Lleyton Hewitt Best Female Tennis Player - Venus Williams Best Male Track and Field Athlete - Maurice Greene Best Female Track and Field Athlete - Marion Jones Best Outdoors Athlete - Kevin VanDam Best Action Sports Athlete - Kelly Clark Best Disabled Athlete - Erik Weihenmayer

Putting aside the interesting debate of "sport vs. game" and which has the better athletes in this discussion, one relevant and overlooked point in these sports success is entertainment value. Truth be told, anyone other than a somehwat knowledgable swimmer attending a swim meet (with the exception of NCAAs, Olympics, etc.) is going to be bored to death! If we ever want more mainstream attention and fan interest we need to look at how we can make meets more fun and exciting for everyone (often times including the swimmers). Personally I'd love to have music played, large screen graphics with trivia/athlete profiles (Indy did that a coupe years ago), great announcers always make a big difference, beer and pizza even (I draw the line at cheerleaders, although I nominate Matt S to research that further)? I've had a couple of discussions with folks from USMS about marketing our sport and although there seems to be some interest a lot of people also seem to like the "status quo". In the old forum I was even beat up a little for suggesting the need to send press releases to local media for USMS nationals! My concern is that age group swimming in particular is at risk unless something is done to get more people interested and invloved.