Below are the number of entrants for each event at the Junior Nationals for 2008. What do these figures mean for men's swimming long term? The number of boys in the sport trails girls quite siginficantly in many events. In relays where a team tends to show its depth, boys are out numbered by girls nearly 2:1
If things continue or get worse we've got problems ahead of us in 2 Olympics.
It's a good thing collegiate budgets aren't cutting mens swimming these days.... :-)
ncsassociation.homestead.com/PsychFINAL.htm
.............Women Men
1650/1000... 78.. 75
Med. Relay... 97.. 51
100 free... 264.. 140
100 ***... 179.. 102
200 back... 173.. 111
200 fly... 149.. 91
800 fr rly... 81.. 43
50 fly... 170.. 106
50 ***... 151.. 82
200 free... 252.. 159
400 IM... 183.. 106
400 free rly... 84.. 45
100 back... 194.. 152
500 free... 188.. 112
200 ***... 152.. 82
100 fly... 242.. 161
200 fr rly... 84.. 45
50 back... 135.. 115
200 IM... 268.. 169
50 free... 282.. 153
800/1500 fr... 98.. 67
400 med rly... 105.. 54
Interesting discussion. I'm sure there are many factors that can account for the differences. Here are my observations of swimming here in rural Nevada. In the past, most of our boys dropped out of swimming by high school so they can play high school sports. Even though Nevada has high school swimming we are one of the few 4A schools that doesn't have a team so the age group club was their only opportunity to compete in swimming. So the 15 and over kids on our age group team was mostly girls and one or two boys that would stick it out in spite of peer pressure. Then one of our boys who had stuck it out through high school walked on the swim team at Arizona. He was a good athlete and if he had quit swimming he probably would have been a good high school football or basketball player (he did play on the golf team). Instead he chose swimming. Now he's a senior at U of Arizona and has qualified for the NCAA's both last year and this year and also has qualified for the Trials. His success has been a factor in keeping more of our high school age boys active on our club and we now have more boys than girls. Sometimes it takes a role model they can relate to to keep them interested.
Interesting discussion. I'm sure there are many factors that can account for the differences. Here are my observations of swimming here in rural Nevada. In the past, most of our boys dropped out of swimming by high school so they can play high school sports. Even though Nevada has high school swimming we are one of the few 4A schools that doesn't have a team so the age group club was their only opportunity to compete in swimming. So the 15 and over kids on our age group team was mostly girls and one or two boys that would stick it out in spite of peer pressure. Then one of our boys who had stuck it out through high school walked on the swim team at Arizona. He was a good athlete and if he had quit swimming he probably would have been a good high school football or basketball player (he did play on the golf team). Instead he chose swimming. Now he's a senior at U of Arizona and has qualified for the NCAA's both last year and this year and also has qualified for the Trials. His success has been a factor in keeping more of our high school age boys active on our club and we now have more boys than girls. Sometimes it takes a role model they can relate to to keep them interested.
