The Demise of Mens Swimming in the US

Like UCLA right?! No storied program there... I didn't say all programs Paul. I said many programs! And to be honest, most of that is speculation on our part because none of us could get a true answer as to why men's swimming programs were cut. We would probably get an answer, but not the truth.

Geek, You are pretty crotchety today. John....I was thinking the same thing. So I called his wife up (yes she exists and no she isn't a blow up doll) It appears she's been so fed up with his indulgence in spending his kids college tuition money on tri gear that she secretly changed the angle on his $7000 bikes seat and swapped hi bike shorts out for a pair twice as tight...apparently he hasn't figured out yet as evidenced by his attitude of late! :mooning:

That's rich, and true. For something I rarely ride, I sure do spend a lot of money on the dang thing. Oh, and I don't have to save for my daughter's education. As girls, they have more opportunities and scholarships available than boys. Gracias, Title IX. I've had it with both of you freakishly tall and gifted swimmers. I told my wife to no longer accept your calls. In return, please have your wives stop calling me for a little bit of "Geektime."

How to all these numbers compare with other sports....say something like Track & Field. I can't remember the last time I saw something like that on TV (other than marathon coverage blips on the news). Certainly, next to swimming, I'd say track is probably the other major piece of the Olympics, and a sport that isn't widely recognized here in the US. Since I run and get Runner's World, it certainly sounds like the sport isn't dying, at least at the longer distance levels (5k and higher). But I hear very little about short events.

Before I got to the end of the thread I thought to myself, "Wow, swimmers must be pretty well educated as a group if the name Savaronola can be dropped casually in a thread like this! Nice reference! What if Mr. Smith were right, and doomed to be a Cassandra? (Perhaps we should start a thread for culture geeks....)

I find it rather hard to believe that the significant increase in boys participation in swimming the last 20 years is from fat boys. Maybe that's why Phelps, Lochte, Pierson, etc joined swimming, maybe you are on to something there. Were they all tubby kids? Maybe USA Swimming needs to go on a fat recruiting road trip. I will agree with you that there is very little chance the US can maintain their current level of dominance. That is because we have a once in a half-century (or better) crop of freakishly great athletes now, that simply won't continue. Also, globalization of all sports has leveled the playing field. Not to mention, women are now participating around the world. Wait, stop the presses, women participating, the end of men's sports as we know it!!! An alternative reason for the long tail of boy's records is the relative maturity of boys swimming versus girls. I've thought of another band the forumites trapped in the 70s should embrace - Bruch Springsteen. You can adopt Glory Days as your group's rallying song for glory faded.

My personal opinion; boys these days are far more interested in playing video games. You think I'm joking? I just had a conversation with the head coach of a Div I top 10 team and one of the biggest problems they have with the men's college swimmers as well as the boys on their club team is an almost insatiable obsession with spending hours playing this stuff....to the point that its talked about constantly at practice, in the weight room, etc. etc. It takes a lot of commitment, hard work, patience and focus to be an athlete on any level and more and more it seems fewer kids (mostly boys) have it. I have a boy, 20 tomorrow, and I totally agree with this. I am glad to see the group that is coming over to play these days(I hope they do not think they can take my TV when the move out day comes), is taking breaks and going out running.

Chris, Well.... for one thing USS is an entirely different flavor of the sport than Collegiate swimming. I have never seen a USS team with the intensity of support and team unity like that of a collegiate team at NCAAs. It's just not the same thing. Yes great swimmers come from both areas, but colleges probably won't make the shift to support local teams in their name. Too much ego at stake in the athletic dept. Geek, Now the article that Paul posted has conflicting data with you. It says there's only a 30 % increase in membership for boys since the late '80s. That would mirror the general population growth of the US if that is true... i.e. a flat lining compared to the general population. "Membership statistics for USA Swimming paint an identical picture. Nearly 20,000 more boys are members of USA swimming now than in 1988, a 30 percent increase, though the expansion from year to year has been uneven and dwarfed by the girls' 92 percent increase during that time. At present, girls outnumber boys nearly 2:1 (138,701 to 82,651). So, yes, Leonard is correct, competitive swimming in the United States is slowly but surely becoming womanized. But is this something new? And is it something to worry about? " The issue isn't in my opinion a "womanizing of the sport" ..... it's an imbalance of boys to girls that needs to be corrected just as Title IX sought to correct imbalances. Contrary to what happend after Title IX, the right answer here for US swimming is obviously not to negatively impact girls but to positively increase the number of boys. John Smith

Smith - get the Wii, you'll understand. We just got the Wii.....and I want it to stay when move out day comes!

In the last 15 years that I have been a parent of swimmers, I have always noticed more girls than boys. Boys tend to gravitate to the team sports, girls like the social aspect of this. But around here swimming is having a hard time attracting both. There is a serious situation with pool time, i.e. new pools are not getting built, old pools are being shut down. This makes the available pool time not good for busy teens with homework and a social life. My DD's practice was 7:45-9:15 last winter. We live outside of town, so it was late by the time she got done flirting with the boys after practice and finally in the car, home, showered. It was hard on us, it was hard on her. She is seriously considering quitting although she really misses the exercise and her friends. I think this is even more magnified for boys, especially those without a HS team and only club team options. They want to hang with their HS friends, not attend practice at odd ball hours because that is when the pool is available. Also, the college situation is NOT good. One of the factors my son considered when quitting at age 17 was that the colleges he was looking at had cut their men's swimming. He saw no point in working that hard, because there was no swimming after HS, and his senior year he wanted more freedom. Do not discount what the college's have done with Title IX..it is a factor. Interestingly, he has checked into where he can get back into the water to swim. After 3 years off, he seems to want to go back on his own terms and is looking at triathalons.