Just wondering people's thoughts on the, as Fort put it, People Magazine-ization of swimming. Does promoting a sport to reach the masses and create national interest necessarily mean selling a part of one's soul? I tend to think it does. Look at beach volleyball. They are really popular now. Not the men, thank you. But the women. Why? The skimpy suits. The hugging and butt slapping. The cheerleaders. Though I keep reading the explanations about the women's suits and how they aren't the main reason for the popularity of the sport, I'm not stupid. If it's not about the sex-factor, why doesn't men's beach volleyball enjoy the same support/ratings?
Fortunately, so far, swimming hasn't had to go that route. But, as Susan Von der Lippe pointed out in a Floswimming article at Trials, some of the swimming events have become more of a circus. For swimming to be so popular, it seems that Phelps has to become a celebrity. Things have to appeal to the masses--who don't want a serious story. They want flash. They want controversy. Gary Hall Jr. fits into this picture well. I argued to my family that, as much as I don't appreciate the antics of Hall, he brings some something flashy to swimming. And people like to watch that.
So, how much soul-selling do we need to do to appeal, as a sport, to the masses?
Parents
Former Member
One of the problems with swimming as a spectator sport relative to volleyball is that a swim meet is sort of like a volleyball tournament where each game is decided on the first serve and then new teams are brought in. All the popular sports have much more complexity and interplay between competitors and last longer than swimming does.
Perhaps if you took all the swimming events and combined them into one long relay which could be swum in any order it would make more interesting viewing.
One of the problems with swimming as a spectator sport relative to volleyball is that a swim meet is sort of like a volleyball tournament where each game is decided on the first serve and then new teams are brought in. All the popular sports have much more complexity and interplay between competitors and last longer than swimming does.
Perhaps if you took all the swimming events and combined them into one long relay which could be swum in any order it would make more interesting viewing.
