Simple. You have absolute power to change any technique rules, start/finish rules, age up rules, sky is the limit as long as the rules pertain to swimming. What would you change and why?
Leonard:
I think one of the reasons why Women have different events in the Olympics such as not having a 1500 Free and having the 800 Free instead is the old thinking that Women cannot handle the physical stress in athletics that men can handle. I remember back in the 1960's society did not want women participating in sports. Thats why you very rarely saw women past 18 in competitive sports. It was a myth perpetuated by society back then and today the IOC has moved very slow in getting events changed at the Olympics because of this old thinking. I do not think any of the swimming nations or anybody for that matter believe this at all. Look at what FINA has done with the World Championships and having a 1500 Free for women.
Also you have to remember the times back then. This was before the passage of Title IX and the congressional acts that allowed equal opportunity in High School and College sports. The attitude was pretty male chauvinistic back in those days. Why I even remember that swimming workouts for girls/women should not be as hard as boys/men when I was about 10 years old because they could not handle the physical stress that boys/men could. This theory and myth started to go out the window as the 1960's progressed but you still had people that actually believed this.
The other day on the TV station ESPN classic they had a show that was taken from 1972 or 1973 and had an interview with Bobby Riggs, the old tennis player that really believed this theory and myth. He said that in no way was a women equal to a man in anything and that man is the king of everything. And to proof his point he as an old man would play a tennis match and guarantee the superiority of man over women in sports. He said he would take on all women challengers. He played against Margaret Court and won the match as an old man and said see I told you so.
One of the networks got suckered into buying into this myth and they paid lots of $ to stage a challenge match against Bill Jean King at the Astrodome in Houston. It was sold out and on worldwide TV. Everyone knows what happened to Bobby and he had to eat his words on the world stage. The bottom line of all this is not just the tennis match but the attitudes that people had back then. This story would be a joke today and no network would go near this.
Leonard:
I think one of the reasons why Women have different events in the Olympics such as not having a 1500 Free and having the 800 Free instead is the old thinking that Women cannot handle the physical stress in athletics that men can handle. I remember back in the 1960's society did not want women participating in sports. Thats why you very rarely saw women past 18 in competitive sports. It was a myth perpetuated by society back then and today the IOC has moved very slow in getting events changed at the Olympics because of this old thinking. I do not think any of the swimming nations or anybody for that matter believe this at all. Look at what FINA has done with the World Championships and having a 1500 Free for women.
Also you have to remember the times back then. This was before the passage of Title IX and the congressional acts that allowed equal opportunity in High School and College sports. The attitude was pretty male chauvinistic back in those days. Why I even remember that swimming workouts for girls/women should not be as hard as boys/men when I was about 10 years old because they could not handle the physical stress that boys/men could. This theory and myth started to go out the window as the 1960's progressed but you still had people that actually believed this.
The other day on the TV station ESPN classic they had a show that was taken from 1972 or 1973 and had an interview with Bobby Riggs, the old tennis player that really believed this theory and myth. He said that in no way was a women equal to a man in anything and that man is the king of everything. And to proof his point he as an old man would play a tennis match and guarantee the superiority of man over women in sports. He said he would take on all women challengers. He played against Margaret Court and won the match as an old man and said see I told you so.
One of the networks got suckered into buying into this myth and they paid lots of $ to stage a challenge match against Bill Jean King at the Astrodome in Houston. It was sold out and on worldwide TV. Everyone knows what happened to Bobby and he had to eat his words on the world stage. The bottom line of all this is not just the tennis match but the attitudes that people had back then. This story would be a joke today and no network would go near this.
