The award for the most ridiculous, self-absorbed, overzealous all sports entertainment network in the world goes to...
ESPN, for the 10th year running.
They have once again proven that outside the 4 major sports, Tiger Woods, and the Williams sisters, you're really not much of an athlete. Unless you count token consideration of Cael Sanderson and -ahem- Sarah Hughes (don't even get me started on figure skating).
No offense to college athlete of the year Sue Bird (UConn BB) 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
Former Member
This is a ramification into the discussion here about the worth of swimming in the media.
Originally posted by kaelonj
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Sorry to drum up an old area, but the comment a ways back in regards to Olympic performance by countries.
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But how many athletes from other nations live and train in the United States...
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As a ramification, there is this answer:
it's a two ways street in opportunities, like the former president Reagan was seeing the free trade in professions.
1) For example, coach Jozsef Nagy (Hun) made Mike Borrowman (US) a 200 meter world record in breaststroke at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, a mark that stands today; Borrowman writes: "No one else wanted to try to understand him or do the work he was demanding.". When Nagy and Borrowman went to train at Curl-Burke Swim Club, the coach Rick Curl learned from coach Nagy what he is implementing today on breaststroker Ed Moses (US).
2) Noemi Lung (Rom) a silver medallist in 400 meter IM at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and one of the 100% products from Romania, is coaching now in Florida.
Anyways, the United States isn't the only place with foreign coaches and sportspeople. Alex Popov and his coach live and workout in Australia. But the Aussies benefit from it that's why they hired a Russian coach for their swimmers. Afterall, the old state system that gave coaches and retired sportspeople nice little apartments and other extras came to a halt with the fall of the old communist system. So, a lot of Russian and Eastern European coaches and sportspeople went to the United States and the rest of the West.
Everybody watch the "...worth of swimming in the mainstream media..." in US today and tomorrow.
You will see again the cliches I mentioned in this thread that make games being travestied as sports, while missing out what the alternative media like www.swimnews.com and www.swiminfo.com report as phenomenal feats in a real sport, swimming:
1) Ian Thorpe (Aus) competing in the CommonWealth Games in Manchester, England, swims a new world record in 400 meter freestyle in 3:40.08.
2)
a) Pieter van den Hoogenband (Ned) and Alex Popov (age 30, Rus), battle in the semi finals of the Europen Champoinships in Berlin, Germany, in 100 meter freestyle in respectively 47.97 (second fastest ever) and 48.70 (faster then his winning times in 1992 and 1996 Olympics);
b) Karoly Guttler (Hun), at age 34, swims 100 meter *** in 1:01.3x;
c) Coman from my country, Romania, wins bronze in 400 meter freestyle, with 3:48.78;
his best is 3:47.xx from the 2000 Olympics, though.
d) many performances in semi finals of 100 meter freestyle women and 200 meter IM men.
d) the meet is broadcast live in Europe each day for three hours, by the TV chain Eurosport;
the battle between Popov and van den Hoogenband is hyped for tomorrow's final:
"Do you have patience?" asks Popov.
Originally posted by aquageek
I see you have to chum the water about sports yet again with your comments about media bias and real sports.
Can't you just let it go and realize some of us like all sort of sports, regardless of your definition of them? Some of us are also relatively happy with 40+ sports channels delivering a vast variety of sport.
Stick to the swimming, leave the jabs behind.
I say again that swimming performances are being under reported -relative to other activities-, in the media here.
No wonder the wrong awards follow this.
I understand about you wanting more swimming coverage. Way back in the 1970's nationals use to be on the main stations. Now nationals and the NCAA's and the Worlds is shown on different cable networks. But local papers will mention about swimming if their is a strong program in the area. The Arizona Daily Star mention about how some of the local swimmers at the Janet Evans meet and the sectional meet. Coming aross the LA Times and the Orange County Register on the internet, I notice there were a couple articles about Lenny K versus Aaron Persoil. The Times preferred Lenny K since he lives in that area and the Register preferred of course Aaron Persoil since he is from Orange County. Sorry about missspelling Aaron's name.
Originally posted by cinc310
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But local papers will mention about swimming if their is a strong program in the area.
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They do mention international events in other areas though, but neglect international swimming.
People's information is a result of these news, believing that's all there is to life.
I saw it many times in US, for example in the years 1999 and 2000, when I was in Tennessee, and I see it in this forum:
a frequent common approach is aware of immediate family and some local community.
A worldly progressive approach is aware of foreign languages, cultures and international news about the best.
To summarize -from many posts- what promotes swimming:
1) awareness about the best; web sites like www.swimnews.com and www.swiminfo.com provide this;
2) going to Masters workouts every day or at least frequently and being in physical shape so that acquaintances see the benefits;
3) going to long term goal competitions;
4) a recognition system.
I see you have to chum the water about sports yet again with your comments about media bias and real sports.
Can't you just let it go and realize some of us like all sort of sports, regardless of your definition of them? Some of us are also relatively happy with 40+ sports channels delivering a vast variety of sport.
Stick to the swimming, leave the jabs behind.
"I say again that swimming performances are being under reported -relative to other activities-, in the media here. "
Ion, don't you mean to add "in my opinion" at the end of this?
I personally feel that the true love of sport is participating it and/or following it even if it doesn't make "SportsCenter". No one swims to become rich & famous ... that's the beauty of true sport. I rather enjoy the anonymity of it.
That's true that most swimmers with the exception of people like Esther Williams, who was a movie star of the late 1940's and 1950's, don't profit from the sport. On other hand, I think its ok for Michael Phillips to have taken endorsements even though he can't swim in college. As for us ,many 11 to 15 year olds can swim faster. So of course we do it for our enjoyment. And I believe that masters swimming has more adults that participate compared to many other sports like track and field.
Like me rephase what I'm talking about. Running from 1 mile and over, there are a lot of adults runners. However, Masters Track and field starts for women at age 35 and up and men for over 40 years old. So many people are denied a chance at running sprint events as an adult until their 30's or 40's. So there are a lot more adults that compete at 50 meter freestyle than the 100 meter dash Also, the field events like hammer and the polt volt ,there are probably alot less adults that do that than swim.
