Participation rates for competition in Running vs. Swimming

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.

Having been a swimmer from the age of 8, and having picked up running in my mid 30s (and maintained it only for about 5 years, until my knees and ankles gave up), I would venture to say that you may be way, way off. With a decent coach, a commitment to some reasonable training, and enough time (i.e. a year), you will almost certainly break 1:00 for 100y free. I wish it were that easy for me. I swam from age 7 to 12. Now I am 40 and going on two years in Masters swimming and I am down to a 1:01. I would like to think I could eventually smash a minute, but right now it feels like a lifetime acheivement goal for me.

At first blush, I'd venture to say that swimming probably gets a higher percentage of active participants at meets. The primary reason I can see is that 90% of swimming is done in a pool. The people have to go past a place to pay, deal with a coach, see a locker room bulletin board, or something, and they usually would have contact with someone to prompt them about an event (swim meet, open water, whatever). In my limited contacts with swimmers over the years, I'd say 50% or more know about swimming events (meets, open water, etc), and about half those compete. Running can be done most anywhere. I'd venture to say it is one of the most visible sports, since in many cases runners are on the side of the road. But it is tough to get a message to someone who runs solo all the time on roads or trails near their home. This doesn't even include the countless numbers of people who use treadmills at gyms...some may just run/jog for a warm-up, while others may do an hour run then leave. In my limited contacts with runners, most do this just to keep in shape, and I'd say less than 5% ever compete in anything. This has not been my observation of swimmers at all. In the pools I've swam at, there are like one or two others that compete in Masters and we are all doing it on our own. Running - I don't know because like you say there are so many and most are doing it for their own fitness desires without regard for competition. But there are 5ks all the time and I think many of them would have at least done one at some point. They wouldn't be afraid of it. I hate running yet I've done a couple myself because it was my company's event. But - I suppose the two really aren't that comparable anyway. A swim meet would be more like a track meet and a track meet would be very intimidating. At the same time, pools are the venue we use. In Masters, no one really cares if you use an in-water start or if it takes you two minutes to finish the 100 free. You might even get as much applause as someone swimming it in 46 seconds. I don't know if it is a goal for Masters to get people competing anyway or just swimming fitness?

Licenses! I was going to write something about how the two sports advertise their races. A swim meet usually post something at the pool, a forum or through the local and national level, but it's really only members that get the information, but a 5/10km race there are fliers, ads in the paper and people see there is something going on and sign up. the number of swimmers vs runners in the average work place also dictates what is talked about during lunch or other coffee breaks. I was also going to say that it's much easier for a runner to decide march 1st that they want to run a 5km on april 1st and do well compared to a swimmer. but I started thinking about what it is that causes problems for me to get my swimmers to race. a competition license or membership! anyone can sign up for a road race. whether you are a member of a running club or run on your own. you pay the fee, get your number and or shirt, show up and race. some races even allow last minute registrations but a pool meet, you need to be a member of USMS (or country equivelent), pay a dues, sign up for the meet usaully 1-2 weeks before and you have to know about the meet in order to sign up for it. other ideas (just throwing them out there) it could also have to do with the amount of time it takes for them. most running races are sat or sunday morning, you come 30-60 minutes before, you run 20-30 minutes, then you go home. there are not too many pool or even OW races I have been to that one could say that. There are also rules to swimming. a motion swimmer might not swim properly and might feel intimidated about being disqualified. it's pretty hard to run a 5km and not have your time count. I also agree with everyone that has compared track meets to swim meets and 5km runs to OW events. the stockholm marathon this past weekend had 14,715 people finish the race. but the 3km cold water river race next month only has 5,358 people signed up so far with nearly 3,300 people sign up for the shorter 1km and 1500m races. Just by comparing times one could venture to guess that most of the people who run the marathon run alot. but with the swimming anyone who can keep their head above water can complete the 3km swim. the winner of the mens race 2:12 the last place man 6:09 nearly 2.7 slower. but the results a progessively slower from 1 to 11407 women 2:31 6:08 similar pattern in times but in the 2009 3km race the times are much farther apart. Men winner 29:52 --> last place time 2.23:37 nearly 4.7 times slower. women 31:18 --> 2:38 for both men and women the times increase evenly until about 1:40. after that you have to wonder what the person was doing for nearly 2 hrs. just as a reference a swim 1-2 times a week breaststroke swimmer can finish the race in :55-1:05. I had a swimmer that picked up swimming only 9 months before, and he was able to swim in in 45:34