I just heard that two more universities, Rutgers and James Madison, are ditching men's swimming while spending zillions on football and golf. My own alma mater almost cut women's swimming several years ago. They were saved by alumni fundraising, but not until the swim team put itself up for sale on ebay. Endurance sports get no respect. It makes no sense. I thought open water swimming and triathlons and road racing were on the rise even among young kids. If so, why cut all those sports in college? I guess it's still just a miniscule percentage that participate compared to other sports, like my least favorite youth sport -- travel soccer.
Parents
Former Member
I have no axe to grind for soccer. My kids all played it for several years. My two boys followed the typical path for swimmers - summer league for two years, start year round, now in high school. In general I favor any active sports for our otherwise fat population.
I think the bigger problem is inactivity. We're not losing male swimmers to soccer or basketball. We're losing them to TV, video games, etc.
My sons' high school swim team has 14 boys, 23 girls. One interesting thing is that there are more "fast" boys than girls based on swimming ability. Many of the girls are mediocre swimmers and seem to be on the team as much for the social aspects as the athletics. At least one or two are swimming to keep their weight down.
Back to boys - I think USA Swimming is naive if they think they don't have a problem attracting boys to the sport. I'm not sure they think that. But I think we need to do much much more. We need more visibility for the sport. Phelps, Crocker, Peirsol, Cullen Jones, are all great for the sport. We need to do more to promote how fantastic swimming is - you CAN become rich and famous as a swimmer.
This is a possibly politically incorrect statement - but I think they should find a nice way to highlight how nice it is to train with attractive girls wearing lycra. Keep more older boys in the sport! Just an example of things they can do....
These swimmers, and their parents, are the ones who will stay fans of swimming and give colleges a reason to think twice before they cancel another men's program.
I have no axe to grind for soccer. My kids all played it for several years. My two boys followed the typical path for swimmers - summer league for two years, start year round, now in high school. In general I favor any active sports for our otherwise fat population.
I think the bigger problem is inactivity. We're not losing male swimmers to soccer or basketball. We're losing them to TV, video games, etc.
My sons' high school swim team has 14 boys, 23 girls. One interesting thing is that there are more "fast" boys than girls based on swimming ability. Many of the girls are mediocre swimmers and seem to be on the team as much for the social aspects as the athletics. At least one or two are swimming to keep their weight down.
Back to boys - I think USA Swimming is naive if they think they don't have a problem attracting boys to the sport. I'm not sure they think that. But I think we need to do much much more. We need more visibility for the sport. Phelps, Crocker, Peirsol, Cullen Jones, are all great for the sport. We need to do more to promote how fantastic swimming is - you CAN become rich and famous as a swimmer.
This is a possibly politically incorrect statement - but I think they should find a nice way to highlight how nice it is to train with attractive girls wearing lycra. Keep more older boys in the sport! Just an example of things they can do....
These swimmers, and their parents, are the ones who will stay fans of swimming and give colleges a reason to think twice before they cancel another men's program.
