May/June cover of USMS Swimmer

Originally posted by aquageek Man, do I know that feeling, do I ever... Please! Who took the crown for the 500 Free race with Gull again??? Anyhow, triathloning gets more coverage because it involves three sports. It attracts people who might only run, might only bike, and maybe a few who only swim (especially open water swimmers I suspect). Swimming is just swimming. That's all...nothing else. It is quite boring to the average viewer. In a tri race you have changing scenery due to the fact that it is outdoors and the contestants are actually traveling someplace with the labors of their skeletal and cardiac muscle tissue. I am not certain but another aspect of tri racing is that the contestant can be seen, actually his face can be seen during all but the swimming portion. The crowd or TV viewers can see the effort, stress, pain that is being experienced by the athlete. Lastly, there is the marketing portion of the whole sport. Bicycles are something that most everybody can operate and with a little help can probably operate quite well. They can also be used right from your front door. Same goes for running. The latest and greatest running shoes can be had and used by the average Joe who watched a tri race yesterday afternoon on TV. Swimming does not offer the same advantages. If you don't already swim what are the odds that watching a meet is going to drive you to start swimming? Probably not as great as those of the tri race. I could be way off base here but these are my initial responses/knee jerk reactions to the question posed above.

Originally posted by aquageek Man, do I know that feeling, do I ever... Please! Who took the crown for the 500 Free race with Gull again??? Anyhow, triathloning gets more coverage because it involves three sports. It attracts people who might only run, might only bike, and maybe a few who only swim (especially open water swimmers I suspect). Swimming is just swimming. That's all...nothing else. It is quite boring to the average viewer. In a tri race you have changing scenery due to the fact that it is outdoors and the contestants are actually traveling someplace with the labors of their skeletal and cardiac muscle tissue. I am not certain but another aspect of tri racing is that the contestant can be seen, actually his face can be seen during all but the swimming portion. The crowd or TV viewers can see the effort, stress, pain that is being experienced by the athlete. Lastly, there is the marketing portion of the whole sport. Bicycles are something that most everybody can operate and with a little help can probably operate quite well. They can also be used right from your front door. Same goes for running. The latest and greatest running shoes can be had and used by the average Joe who watched a tri race yesterday afternoon on TV. Swimming does not offer the same advantages. If you don't already swim what are the odds that watching a meet is going to drive you to start swimming? Probably not as great as those of the tri race. I could be way off base here but these are my initial responses/knee jerk reactions to the question posed above.