With the names of the United States’ dream basketball team clouding sports paparazzi at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, many Americans have an easy time forgetting some of their greatest competitors playing abroad.
Dwayne Wade, Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and Dwight Howard might seem like three fantastic players to be running the court dawning the stars and stripes, but the best American athletes don’t Wade, they swim.
The world’s best swimmers consistently come to America to advance themselves and swim with, as Russian Olympic Swimmer and Federal Way King Aquatic Club racer Svetlana Karpeeva said, “[the] fastest swimmers in the world.”
She couldn’t have been more right, not only does the United States consistently break its own records, but it houses some of the most marketable persons in the world. Among them, 41-year old Dara Torres, who is currently competing in her sixth Summer Olympics this year and won a silver medal with her relay team in the 4 x 100m relay.
Oh, and then there is Michael Phelps, who, like Rosie O’Donnell, is in a league of his own.
A 23-year old from the University of Michigan, Phelps set a world record after just turning 15-years old in 2000, and then set several more world marks before turning the age of twenty. He earned six gold medals and two bronze medals in the 2004 Summer Olympics, and only a few days into the 2008 Games has already won two gold medals, one breaking his own world record in the 400m individual medley, and the other in a team relay. Dare I say what he did at the national level?
Not only is he the fastest swimmer in the world, but Michael Phelps is a marketing phenomenon. Phelps is sponsored by, get ready, Speedo, Visa, PowerBar, Omega, AT&T, Rosetta Stone, Hilton and Kellogg’s, and he has been plastered on countless magazines. The guy is a stud, and marketers know it.
But Phelps’ never-ending airtime and countless achievements haven’t translated into much popularity for the sport. Although it is more-publicized than Women’s Fencing or the Equestrian races, swimming still plays second-tier, even in America, to sports like soccer and basketball. The latter has superstars, and the former is the world’s game, but in the United States both have continually disappointed, while swimming has been recently consistent and strong.
The sport, although repetitive at some points, is also very entertaining. The gold the American 4 x 100m relay team won this year was just eight milliseconds faster than France’s silver. And although it does get confusing and overloading when eight swimmers are just as fast as one another a lane apart, the Americans usually get the airtime. And if you just can’t stand watching the entire 3:08:24 minutes it took the American relay team to win the race, you can always put your TiVo on 1-speed fast forward. I did it, and it was fantastic.
There is no reason that America shouldn’t like this sport. Sure we celebrate teams, not individuals, but Tiger Woods is still the equivalent of a moving national landmark. Phelps, comparatively, is just as good as Woods is. Phelps puts the Russian and French swimmers to shame (always good television), much like Woods does on the links.
Though in television, Phelps has something that Woods doesn’t: a true head-to-head competition. Nothing could be more grabbing than watching him race an up-and-coming British competitor with a big ego and a thick accent, right?
Meanwhile, we idolize Bryant, Wade, and James, and forget about Hoff, Hoelzer, and Lochte. I don’t profess myself to be a swimming aficionado, but there is something I find more appealing in watching this than I do a basketball game. On the court, the Americans (usually and hopefully) dominate, in the water, anything can happen.
No touchdowns, no free throws, no limited time, just head-to-head competition for several minutes. In some cases, a minute or two can decide a person’s life: what they for their entire lives have practiced for and dreamed of. One fourth-place showing, one no-show, decides it all. One gold medal decides it all. No second chances. What isn’t to love about that?
Comments
I hear a case more for racing in general than for swimming in particular. Almost everything you mentioned is in track and field as well, most notably the sprints. Only difference is that swimming has a superstar in his own class, while track and field does not have that single, defining athlete at the moment.