That article is a good read, I thought that this paragraph on the first page made a plausible explanation of the lack of popularity of swimming as a spectator sport:
Of all Olympic sports, competitive swimming is perhaps the most resistant to casual analysis. When the contestants are not entirely submerged, they are typically face-down; the strokes they carve through the water tend to look the same, and much of what they do is in any case concealed by the splash of their effort. Unless you have an intimate knowledge of the athletes, there are few physical characteristics to distinguish one form in the water from another, an effect compounded by body shaving and the uniform of caps, goggles and bodysuits. The swimmer, pursuing his obscured course, is not one of us.
That article is a good read, I thought that this paragraph on the first page made a plausible explanation of the lack of popularity of swimming as a spectator sport:
Of all Olympic sports, competitive swimming is perhaps the most resistant to casual analysis. When the contestants are not entirely submerged, they are typically face-down; the strokes they carve through the water tend to look the same, and much of what they do is in any case concealed by the splash of their effort. Unless you have an intimate knowledge of the athletes, there are few physical characteristics to distinguish one form in the water from another, an effect compounded by body shaving and the uniform of caps, goggles and bodysuits. The swimmer, pursuing his obscured course, is not one of us.
