On January 29th and 30th, the North Sydney Pool in Australia will serve as host for an innovative swimming event that will bring together some of Australia’s greatest champions, both past and present, for the “Summer Swim Series.” The meet will feature 4 squads captained by former Australian greats Michael Klim, Susie O’Neill, Linley Frame, and Matt Welsh, and will use a team-scoring format. Among the headline participants are Marieke Guehrer, Emily Seebohm, Geoff Huegill, Kenneth To, Eamon Sullivan and Brenton Rickard. Also competing will be the recently un-retired Libby Trickett in her return to competitive swimming. She has spent the last several weeks in altitude training in Mexico, and has said that she is already feeling fit and fast again.
The event will include a loaded, 68-event schedule over two days, including a “mixed-medley relay” which is an event that is gaining a lot of popularity after last summer’s Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. It will also feature a race that is an Australian specialty: the ‘mystery medley.’ In this race, the swimmers complete an IM, but have the option of swimming the strokes in any order they choose. A yet-undisclosed amount of prize money will be split amongst the team that has the lowest cumulative time after the entire event schedule.
Another cool feature of this meet is that swimmers will be limited to wearing only ultra-traditional suits: specifically briefs for the men, and suits that don’t cover any of the legs of the women. The captain of the gold team, Susie O’Neill, pointed out that while Australia has been suffering from flooding, and that most of the Australian swimmers competing have been chipping in to help the cleanup effort, she is still there to win the meet.
“Many of the swimmers have already donated time and money to the flood relief cause, and will do so again during the Summer Swim Series, but we’ll also be there to win it, and get one over Michael and the others,” the former butterfly queen stated.
Here’s the big question that comes out of this: could this meet format serve as a foundation for a professional swim league in the United States? It’s clearly an exciting format, and the Australians have convinced nearly all of their superstars to buy in. What’s more, the team captains have traded barbs in the media, all in good fun of course, to help drum up excitement and interest in the meet. Of course, something like this will always be a huge hit in swimming-mad Australia, but I think it’s something that could work here stateside as well. Because there’s money involved, swimmers will surely take the meet seriously, but at the same time, the spectacle will surely make the environment very fan-friendly.
Here’s a breakdown of the four rosters:
2011 Summer Swim Series – Teams
TEAM FRAME (Pink) – Captained by former world champion Linley Frame
Libby Trickett, Alice Mills, Kylie Palmer, Sophie Edington, Rebecca Kemp, Ellen Fullerton, Katie Goldman, Matthew Abood, Kyle Richardson, Kenrick Monk, Bobby Jovanovich, Nicholas Schafer, Geoff Huegill, Kenneth To, Ian Pope (Coach), Glenn Baker (Coach)
TEAM O’NEILL (Gold) – Captained by dual Olympic gold medallist Susie O’Neill
Marieke Guehrer, Kelly Stubbins, Bronte Barratt, Grace Loh, Sarah Katsoulis, Alicia Coutts, Emma McKeon, Nicholas Ffrost, Daniel Arnamnart, Christian Sprenger, Andrew Lauterstein, Travis Nederpelt, Kris Taylor, Te Haumi Maxwell, Peter Bishop (Coach), Stephan Widmer (Coach)
TEAM KLIM (Green) – Captain by dual Olympic gold medallist Michael Klim
Sally Foster, Emily Seebohm, Blair Evans, Whitney Ireland, Leiston Pickett, Madeline Groves, Brittany Elmslie, Eamon Sullivan, Patrick Murphy, Braiden Camm, Brenton Rickard, Mitchell Patterson, Grant Irvine, Leith Brodie, Matt Brown (Coach) Grant Stoelwinder (Coach)
TEAM WELSH (Blue) – Captained by five-time world champion Matt Welsh
Alexandra Purcell, Kotuku Ngawati, Meagen Nay, Belinda Hocking, Leisel Jones, Stephanie Rice, Angie Bainbridge, Ashley Callus, James Magnussen, Thomas Fraser-Holmes, Ashley Delaney, Craig Calder, Chris Wright, Robert Hurley, Rohan Taylor (Coach), Michael Bohl (Coach)
If I had to pick, my money would be on Michael Klim and his Green Team. Based on the meet format, which is heavy on sprints, it’s hard to pick against a squad with Eamon Sullivan and the versatile Emily Seebohm, but don’t sleep on Matt Welsh and his Blue Team, which has a nice mix of young stars of the Australian National Team (Kotuku Ngawati, Thomas Fraser-Holmes) as well as wiley vets like Leisel Jones and Ashley Delaney.
Full Format Details from Swimming Australia
I think some aspects of the competition could be applied here but really wonder if there is any real commercial potential. Swimming has a much larger market share in Australia than in the USA where it barely registers except for the Olympics. I think more likely is a model that could be used, on occasion, to supplement the income of the professional swimmers.
Unless you can get TV sponsorship don’t see how its viable…the best way to get TV sponsorship is to pervert the idea, introduce non-swimming media stars/athletes and put them in dangerous situations.