What does it mean when we look at the performance of the US men's swimming team at Beijing without Phelps....... i.e. without the man carrying the team? Is he merely the "Vince Young" of a slightly above average football Team?
We essentially lose the 400 free relay, 100 fly (Ian moves form 4th to 3rd), 200 IM and 400 IM (Lochted moves to silver), 200 free and 200 fly. That's makes 6 less golds and one extra bronze.
The US would effectively only win 2 individual events...... the 200 and 100 back.
Is Phelps a true representation of the state of US men's swimming or and exception?
www.nbcolympics.com/.../index.html
I don't know how to say this without coming across as a complete bigot, but here goes. I think this push to include traditionally non represented folks in swimming (or chose your under-represented sport of choice) solely for the sake of "taking it to the streets" seems rather pointless if you don't intend on changing the basic nature of the sport to begin with.
Accessibility and affordability are the two big handicaps for swimming participation. Both are expensive. Getting a bunch of under-represented kids to swim lessons once a week at a pool 20 miles away won't do it unless you build more pools, reduce the cost of swimming and make it less dependent on a very organized and affluent two-parent household base.
Three-day away swim meets cost a lot of money and require multi parent families and they are still a colossal pain to figure out logistically. This does not in any way mesh with inner city youth. It takes almost nothing to play basketball or football but swimming is different.
Obviously, the same thing can be said about tennis, golf, lacrosse, and increasingly baseball.
I don't know how to say this without coming across as a complete bigot, but here goes. I think this push to include traditionally non represented folks in swimming (or chose your under-represented sport of choice) solely for the sake of "taking it to the streets" seems rather pointless if you don't intend on changing the basic nature of the sport to begin with.
Accessibility and affordability are the two big handicaps for swimming participation. Both are expensive. Getting a bunch of under-represented kids to swim lessons once a week at a pool 20 miles away won't do it unless you build more pools, reduce the cost of swimming and make it less dependent on a very organized and affluent two-parent household base.
Three-day away swim meets cost a lot of money and require multi parent families and they are still a colossal pain to figure out logistically. This does not in any way mesh with inner city youth. It takes almost nothing to play basketball or football but swimming is different.
Obviously, the same thing can be said about tennis, golf, lacrosse, and increasingly baseball.
