And the ESPY goes to....

One thing I can say about these other sports is that one doesn't need to be tall. There are few swimmers on the national team near normal height. I myself was probably only an average swimmer because of my height around 5'4". The other sports like hockey and golf let people of normal succeed. Sports like gymnastics and figure skating enable short people to succed.

Swimmers also have bad behavior as well but not as extreme as Tonya Harding. Someone told me that has a general interest in sports that years ago a woman in the olympic village asked Matt Blondi if he was a basketabll player, and he and his friends made fun of the woman for not knowing he was a famous swimmer. Also, swimming on one team where we had a lot of really good swimmers as a kid, many of the better swimmers kind of made fun of me. So swimmers are not immune to rude behavior.

The format of preliminaries, finals, is dreadfully boring. Also, good swimmers rarely last more than a few years, so the general audience does not get too familiar with the swimmers. In other sports like basketball or baseball a good player will often play professionally for 20 years. Excitement and some sort of perceived personal relationship (if only through the newspaper) is what makes a sport popular. As much as I hate to say it, on-deck seeding may be participant friendly, but not spectator friendly, especially when events are seeded by time, and not by age group. But the swimming organizations have known this for quite a while (even if USMS hasn't quite got it.) That is why you are seeing some pretty exciting new meet formats. One example is the team competition between Australia, U.S., Europe, and the rest of the World that occurred last year. Another example is the pro SCM circuit that seems pretty successful, at least in terms of world records and attendance (and taught me something; I did not think swimmers could swim so fast so often.) Another format that I have heard about is elimination rounds of sprinters. You get a lot of good 50 meter freestylers together. They swim against each other in small groups. The winners of these groups swim against the winners of other groups, and the winners of these groups swim against the winners of . . . and the ultimate winner gets some money. You can do variations, such as different strokes or multiple strokes, single or double elimination, or vary the amount of rest between races. Relays are good for excitement - in college meets they are by far the most exciting part of the meet. If swimming were to utilize natural rivalries some interest could be generated. In USMS, for example, a Pacific - NEM relay competition would be fun. But advertising won't really do it - the event itself has to be exciting. As an aside, USMS has an advantage that swimmers are around for a long time. Wouldn't it be fun to track all of the really fast Olympians as they mature and age?

Aside thinking about Gary Hall Jr's problems. He isn't the first swimmer to smoke pot. Years ago I remember a top swimmer name Zachery Zack who was a sprint freestyler in the late 1960-'s and early1970's. In those days being got with pot met losing your swimming career. The AAU kick him out. Anyone else remember this guy.

Well Ion, the aussies are as crazy about swimming as some high schools in California are about water polo. Its just that most places in the world are not that crazy about swimming. Swimming is least more popular as a particapting sport today than the late 1960's. In those days, the state of California particulary in the Santa Clara area dominated the sport. Sptiz, Meyer, and so on from Santa Clara or Arden Hills. Granted there were good clubs in the midwest and back east in those days. But the 1960's and the 1970's were the height of California in swimming. Now we see the best male swimmer not coming from California but Maryland. So as particapting sport the other states are getting their share.

The Krayzelburg interview below says it how it is (especially the last two paragraphs) - it was like this 40 years ago already when I swam competitively. He should get into masters where he can swim instead of having to watch. Relatively new to masters myself, one of the things it has going for it is that there are no heats, semi-finals & finals - boring to watch and painful to go through - I don't miss it at all - and I was a sprinter - just imagine having to go through 1500 eliminations! Olympic Champion Krayzelburg Can't Stand Watching April 09, 2002 MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. triple Olympic gold medallist Lenny Krayzelburg says American swimmers get little recognition and the sport is unpopular in their country. "Swimming is not popular in America, it doesn't make any money," Krayzelburg was quoted as saying in Tuesday's edition of Russian daily Izvestia. "The U.S. national championships are held in empty arenas, just like in Russia, if you don't count friends and relatives." Krayzelburg was born in Ukraine but moved with his family to the United States at the age of 12. He underwent shoulder surgery last year but did some commentating for television at the Moscow world short-course championships which ended on Sunday. Asked if he had any influence in the American sporting community, Krayzelburg, who won gold in the 100 and 200 meters backstroke and medley relay at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, replied: "What makes you think that? "I am a triple Olympic champion, but only in swimming, and swimming in America is not the type of sport in which people pay attention to those who compete in it. "In America, they pay attention only to those who can fill 20,000-seat arenas to capacity." "In America, only a handful of swimmers can make a living by doing what they do, all the others have to have other jobs. "But I think I make more money than anyone else in swimming in America." Krayzelburg says he wants to stay in the sport until the 2004 Olympics in Athens and then turn to television journalism. "I want to become a TV sports journalist and I have already done some work for small cable companies in America," he said. "But I don't want to become a swimming commentator. Anything else, but not swimming," he added. "I don't like watching swimming, it's very boring. "Maybe some finals are a bit interesting but the rest is completely rubbish."

I think, the interview with Lenny Krayzelburg misdiagnose swimming as not having enough content value to US spectators, because "...it's boring.". He should stand up to US TV bosses, with a better swimming attitude than that. Golf is on US TV, and that's akin to watch the grass grow. Swimming as it is now, has way more substance than that, but is not packaged as a big entertainment in US. That's mainly because the culture worships money, and to be considered 'worthy', swimming needs to give out prize money, way more at the US Swiming level, and start doing it at the USMS level. For example, as a beginning, the US Swimming recently put out a one million dollars prize money for the American who can beat the world record in 1500 meter free in Olympics and get a gold medal. USMS needs to institute some prize money too, then you will see the US TV buzzing around USMS meets. Originally posted by Paul Smith ... The other thing that needs to take place (which no one responded to, I guess complaining is better than providing solutions!), is a fundamental change in how we "don't" provide entertainment value at our meets. Got any ideas? ... Aside from prize money, I think the example given by Cynthia about Matt Biondi (US) when he laughed at a journalist who didn't know he is a famous swimmer, is another recipe of entertainment understood by TV: Biondi's brash attitude made that journalist and friends being 'offended', so they remember him now. Anthony Ervin (US) went faster than Biondi ever did in 100 meter free and 100 yards free, but like Sampras (US) in tennis, he is a gentleman in the shadows, while the TV bosses look for bad boys to fuel entertainment. In Australia, confidence that swimming is top, works in a smaller market than the US, thanks to sponsorships and cocky swimmers attitude, and last year Gary Hall Jr. (US) considered moving there in order to be immersed in a swimming culture. In US, alternative media to the mainstream media, like the Swimming World and Swim magazines are , like the web sites are, plus prize money and a confident, brash attitude about the substance of the sport from participants like us, these have chances to instill a swimming culture in US that attracts sponsorship and attention.

That is about as ludicrous an analogy as one can make. We all know the Australians are absolutely nuts about swimming. It's their national pastime. But, that certainly doesn't mean American have to emulate those Aussies, does it? When your other competing sports are cricket and Australian Rules Football, even the 1500 metre swim looks like the NCAA finals. Did you know that Bay Watch was the most watched show in the world? But, it was mostly an amusing little comic adventure for 99.9% of Americans. I'm not jumpin' on the Bay Watch bandwagon and I'm not going to do a lot of things that people the world over get all crazy about. Hey, it is common in many places to eat horse meat but don't serve up Mr. Ed to me, no thanks. We have our national pastime and it's called baseball. We also have great swimming and tons of pools. Go take a dip and stop worrying about what those Aussies are up to. Might I also point out that every single American child must play soccer - it is a requirement. I know this because my 3 year old daughter takes ballet and swims and I am getting some hate mail and crank calls. For 35 years we've been told soccer will sweep the nation and it never has save every few years for the World Cup. I looked up the definition of sport last night. The definition varies but one called it a source of diversion. Given that, I consider this discussion forum a true sport.

You have on more than one occasion taken a thread and turned it into your own personal ramblings not content to cease until you have swayed majority opinion your way. Most often they wisely give up. Stop being so ridiculous, you refuse to accept any opinion other than your own, and I doubt you even read what most of them are saying anyway. Swimming is not a big sport in this country. Never has, maybe never will. I don't think Masters' Swimming of all places needs to hand out prize money. USA-S maybe could, but where will they get it from? Television revenues? Get serious, name a network that is going to offer up gobs of money to air a sport that to an average viewer... 1. Makes no sense, where's the scoring? 2. Can't do on their own, what percentage of the population do you think can swim butterfly? It's also a timed sport, which never have fared well with American sports viewers. It's like Track and Field, but everyone can at least run, and that's why a little more Track is seen on TV than swimming. Thanks for turning what was supposed to be a little pro-swimming jab at ESPN into a less-than-comical hack job claiming that the Australians know it best because they realize swimming is the only sport in the world. But truth is they love their football and rugby just as much, if not more. Move to Queensland then. Maybe they'll give you some prize money to swim 2:13 in the over-35 age group 200m free. -RM

I seem to recall someone else suggesting this about 3,000 pages back. During the Olympics, there are athelets profiles (usually geared to those who have overcome... something... to get to where they are). I think it makes the coverage in general more fun to watch - you feel like you get to "know" the competitors better... then again, I have heard people complain that they wanted less athlete life stories and more action. Is it you can't win for loosing? And re Gary Hall, Jr. I suppose we could get into having to draw a line between typical (I know he'snot the only youngster to do weed) no-no's, and serious problems that are more life-threatening than doing a bong. But we'd need to go to sociology today's forum for that. :) But he also was the swimmer, I seem to recall, who got a lot of attention for his air-guitar playing that drew some nice, and some not so nice media attention and rivalry between us and the Aussies. I suppose if the playful jabbing is kept on a friendly level, that kind of attetion can help draw people to watch something they might not normally, as long as the competitors don't over do it and draw negative attention. That would stand, of course, for any sport... not just swimming.:p ;)