Participation rates for competition in Running vs. Swimming
Former Member
How do these compare?
It seems to me that the number of competitors in Masters swim meets is so small compared to the number of "fitness" swimmers (including swimmers in Masters groups).
Then again there are a lot of joggers that likely never do so much as a 5k.
Parents
Former Member
Stats Canada did an adult sports participation survey a few years back. In Canada there were about 750,000 people who swim at least twice a week and list swimming as their main form of exercise. Masters Swimming Canada has about 10,000 members and 25-30% of those participate in meets. I don't have the numbers for running.
I think that road races are a lot more like open water races, with track races being more the equivalent of pool competition. Probably the percentage of runners doing 100m sprints etc, or even doing 5k or 10k races on a track is also pretty small.
I strongly suspect that if you took the participants of a typical 5k or 10k road race and tried to get them to run the same distance in heats of eight on a track the participation rate would drop drastically.
A big part of sports like running and triathlon is an emphasis on endurance rather than sprint speed, and I think that provides a different sort of challenge that swimming competition.
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Former Member
Stats Canada did an adult sports participation survey a few years back. In Canada there were about 750,000 people who swim at least twice a week and list swimming as their main form of exercise. Masters Swimming Canada has about 10,000 members and 25-30% of those participate in meets. I don't have the numbers for running.
I think that road races are a lot more like open water races, with track races being more the equivalent of pool competition. Probably the percentage of runners doing 100m sprints etc, or even doing 5k or 10k races on a track is also pretty small.
I strongly suspect that if you took the participants of a typical 5k or 10k road race and tried to get them to run the same distance in heats of eight on a track the participation rate would drop drastically.
A big part of sports like running and triathlon is an emphasis on endurance rather than sprint speed, and I think that provides a different sort of challenge that swimming competition.
