Mutual of Omaha Duel in the Pool

Jeff, I agree with everything you are saying. Years ago Swimming Technique magazine had an article about the comparison of the two starts and listed the pro and con view points of each one. They interviewed swimmers and asked them why they preferred one over the other. One of the points they made was just because you have a faster reaction time does not necessarily mean that you have a better start. Body entry into the water, streamlining after entry with kicking, and distance to the surface after entry before taking a stroke. I have a tape of Athens and I will watch Ian Thorpe and see how he does with his grab start in comparison. One thing I have noticed is that I don't see a lot of people in the distance events using the track start as much as I see sprinters using them. That seems logical because the start is a bigger % of the race for sprinters than distance people.

I prefer the track start for the sole reason it doesn't require the flexibility of the hamstrings that the traditional start does. Alternatively, I could be doing both wrong.

Some one needs to compare the times and finally look to determine if the track start gets peole inthe water sooner. My guess is that it doesn'treally matter which start you use but how you feel about your start that counts.

Swimgal, I doubt it was a question of money. FINA is most likely not hurting financially. Though I do believe that Mutual of Omaha and USA Swimming offered a lot of advertising money. No one could say no to that.

Originally posted by aquageek I prefer the track start for the sole reason it doesn't require the flexibility of the hamstrings that the traditional start does. Alternatively, I could be doing both wrong. I completely agree, as one who was not blessed with flexibility. I also switched to a track start back in high school because it kept me from false starting on blocks with a heavy slant. Like people have said, you do what is most comfortable for yourself. I was at Duel in the Pool this year, and also watched it on TV, and I have to admit that neither was really "exciting" in the traditional sense. Didn't even compare to the energy last year in Long Beach at Trials, but there wasn't as much on the line either. It didn't help that it was a total blowout, with the American men so dominant over all the Aussie men except Hackett. But, the live announcer (not the NBC ones) was fantastic. I don't know if he's with Novaquatics (the host) or NBC, but he had the crowd cheering for one thing or another the whole time. If he's not with a broadcast company, he should be. I thought NBC's coverage was great though. I've personally loved swimming since I was a kid, but in my experience, most swim meets are roughly as exciting as watching water boil. NBC mixed it up with interesting backgrounds on different swimmers (from BOTH teams no less), and I thought it was great that they always interviewed the winner, even if an underdog won the race. They made it clear that the US has a team beyond the Michael Phelps Show, and I have to appreciate that. I do, however, think it's a little weird that this meet found the $ to get a major broadcast, and Worlds did not.

Article Courtesy of Eurosport Busy calendar brings calls for change The world swimming championships ended on Sunday with pleas from coaches and swimmers for a return to staging the event once every four years. "We'd really like to encourage the world championships to be once every four years," said U.S. coach Dave Salo. "It's just such a crowded calendar. "You've got short-course worlds coming so quickly after the Olympic games and this meet coming so quickly, you don't get a chance to take a breath and I think that we're in agreement that we'd like to see a calendar that's better managed." While the championships produced nine world records and plenty of thrills, they were missing many of the top attractions, including Olympic champions and world record holders Ian Thorpe of Australia and Pieter van den Hoogenband and Inge de Bruin of the Netherlands. Michael Phelps, winner of an unprecedented eight medals in Athens, provided the event with a badly needed "big name" but the American produced a mostly lethargic, uninspired performance that left questions about his ability to dominate the sport. He still won five gold medals and a silver, but failed to put his mark on the competition the way he had in Athens. Some of the problems were of his own doing. The Olympic champion and world record holder in the 400 metres individual medley and 200 butterfly, Phelps dropped both from his world championship programme and replaced them with the 100m and 400m freestyle, looking to experiment during his buildup to the 2008 Beijing Summer Games. CLUTTERED CALENDAR Phelps' coach Bob Bowman felt it was time to take control of an increasingly cluttered swimming calendar. "I personally think we should have one world championships in between the Olympics just like we use to do, that would be the best," said Bowman. "It's just to hard to get up every year. "The year after the Olympics no matter what you do, if you are very successful in the Olympics, it is next to impossible to match that the next year." Relief for the world's top swimmers, however, would appear far away. Pointing to the record number of swimmers and countries (143) in Montreal, FINA president Mustapha Larfaoui dismissed any suggestion that world swimming's governing body might return to staging the championships once every four years. The 2007 championships will be held in Melbourne, Australia while FINA announced at the opening of competition that the 2009 worlds had been awarded to Rome. "I think it's the exact opposite," said Larfaoui. "We have a large number of athletes and swimmers wanting to compete." The president also said the troubled Montreal championships, which FINA had stripped from the city then returned a few weeks later after receiving financial guarantees, were a success despite running an estimated $4 million deficit and failing to meet modest attendance targets selling just 160,000 tickets.

In One Year: One Swimmer: 26,208 goggle adjustments 2,184 practice hours 17 swim suits 1 shot of Glory Then we hear a "take your mark, beap" Then we see Katlin Sando raising her arms up in victory from the 800 Free Relay in Athens. Mutual of Omaha Proud Sponsor of USA swimming. I saw this on TV today. What do people think of this ad.

Originally posted by Jeff Commings Swimgal, I doubt it was a question of money. FINA is most likely not hurting financially. Though I do believe that Mutual of Omaha and USA Swimming offered a lot of advertising money. No one could say no to that. Yes, that's what I meant, with regard to raising money. Sponsors, not FINA. I wonder if FINA's even allowed to pay for coverage. Anyway, CBC and Eurosport both covered Worlds, so I'm surprised it was such a hard sell in the U.S. Although maybe Mutual of Omaha's contract precluded NBC from airing Worlds... could be that either they or NBC thought that back to back weeks of swimming was too much, and Duel may have been on the TV schedule first. PeirsolFan, thanks for posting that article. Interesting. A little overkill to call Phelps lethargic and uninspired... it wasn't an Athens performance, but when you can have an off meet swimming off events and still win that many medals, "lethargic" should not be used as a descriptor of your performance. If memory serves, he swam a best time in winning the 200 free. The only thing uninspired was the complete lack of publicity for the event in the US.

Good questions raised about FINA and the financial status of swimming. Just not popular enough for NBC. 160,000 ticket sales is considered a flop in their eyes. It's not a rock concert! :P

One of the reasons why the World Championships was not on a major network was because it was cancelled for about 3 weeks back in January of this year. ESPN and ESPN 2 were ready with signed contracts to broadcast the meet. When FINA cancelled the meet in Montreal and opened up bids in Athens, Berlin, and Moscow, ESPN canncelled its coverage. After 3 weeks of cancellation, FINA brought back the meet to Montreal because supposedly the financial concerns were worked out. By that time the summer schedules were pretty much booked up and no major networks wanted to risk with this after the initial cancellation. I believe if the meet would not have been cancelled originally, you would have seen the same coverage that was provided by ESPN and ESPN 2 for 2003 in Spain. FOX Sports announced it was covering the meet but did not make an announcement until a week before the meet that it would be covered on there College Sports Net Network. I happen to see both the CBC coverage and the last half of the FOX College Sports Net and Fox did a great job. They showed everything live and even carried all of the awards presentations up until 8:00 PM each night. They had 2 hours coverage for all of the 8 days the meet was going on. They showed all of the 800 and 1500 Free which you never get to see on regular TV. They did not interupt any event and had no highlights of events. They showed everything like you were at the meet. I don't if this is the future of swimming on TV, but I enjoyed the coverage.