I know. That featured image is dramatic, but, addressing the elephant in the room, the GOAT Michael Phelps, is gone. His chapter has closed—even his last record (the 400 IM) has been erased from the books. Where does that leave this storied team? There are many factors converging at this World Champs, and the absence of Phelps is only scratching the surface. Still, the fact that Team USA, for the first time in 29 years, was shutout of gold medals through the first day does get your attention. Let’s talk about it and get some context.
See more reports on this topic:
By Braden Keith: Sunday’s World Record Haul Will Be a Day That Swimming Remembers Forever
By Retta Race: United States Without Day One Gold For First Time Since 1994 World Championships
Australia is one of the few countries with national pride in swimming. It’s not about money or pools, it’s a cultural thing. Back in the days of Ian Thorpe and Kieren Perkins I remember Bob Hawke, the then prime minister, declared a national holiday because of the Olympic results, tapping into the national pride in Australian swimming. I can’t see a USA president declaring a national holiday because of swimming achievements. Let’s see if the world champs results trigger a wake-up call across the nation
The United States has taken the successes of US swimmers for granted pretty much forever (US coaches and swimmers have not). That is one factor of this problem. One way that the indifference manifests is with pools. I think there are fewer pools accessible to children than there were when I was a kid, and the population has doubled since then. The wealth of the country has grown between 5x and 10X since then. But somehow, pools are too expensive while lacrosse, soccer and equestrian (etc, etc, etc) facilities are popping up everywhere. If you are reading this, when was the last time you donated money to build a pool?
This was inevitable. D-1 mens programs are thinning down. Full scholarships for men don’t exist. our best male athletes are going other directions. Even if an athlete is an outstanding swimmer, the motivation to try something else is alluring.
Next, financial rewards keep the modern superstars “hanging around”, blocking up the funnel. Superstars hang around for financial reward on top of love of sport. Developing swimmers can’t move up, so they move on. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, there was little financial reason to continue in the sport. The great American swimmers had to get on with their real world careers in order to make a life for themselves. Recent generation swimmers, in some cases, can get millions in… Read more »
I looked at many of the comments below and don’t ordinarily post. If someone else mentioned this, I missed it. If there is a problem with the rest of the world beating the USA, maybe we should look internally at how many swimmers are training in the USA (ex. Marchand). I’m sure this won’t be a popular comment but it seems to me the NCAA and USA swimming are training some of the best foreign nationals to beat the best US athletes.
There are very, very, very few medalist at this meet who are not Americans but train in the US.
Also, kicking all of the international athletes out of America is an absolute non-starter on every level, so even if that were an obvious root cause – it’s not worth plotting for.
Braden, you make an interesting point so thank you for the reply. That said, what do you mean by a few? Also, what is the number that may have trained at NCAA institutions or in USA Swimming programs previously but now train in their country of origin? What percentage of medals should the US concede by giving attention to foreigners training in US Coached and sponsored programs?
Second, for clarity, I’ve never suggested kicking all the international athletes out of America. I simply stated a fact that over time, USA Swimming and NCAA Swimming programs train a number of highly successful athletes that beat the best from the USA. Are you suggesting that the NCAA and USA Swimming are responsible… Read more »
Maybe they aren’t happy.
The NCAA should stop allowing non college swimmers to train with the college teams. You don’t see this in any other professional sport and it allows swimmers to cruise thru. In most cases they don’t pay for training facilities, coaches, and sometimes are able to travel with the team at no or little cost. That is not how professional sports work and it breeds a sense of unrealistic entitlement and false sense of what is means to be a “pro”.
Until post grads start returning to their club teams or join the few pro teams (or form new ones) I’m afraid this pattern will continue.
IMO
If this doesn’t happen, we won’t have any pro swimmers left. Unless you’re signed with Speedo or TYR, you cannot make enough to support a private training facility & coaching staff on your dime. L take
Maybe. But remember college coaches are being paid by universities to coach college athletes. When you bring in and hold onto post grads/pros the focus is taken away. Professional athletes don’t belong in the college world— can you imagine Tony Brady hanging out and practicing with college kids on a daily basis? It doesn’t allow room for growth.
Some club teams would likely provide no or reduced dues and piggy back off of the club program.
But perhaps if someone can’t make enough money to pay to swim and still live they aren’t really a “pro athlete” anyway?
We didn’t have an abundance of pros before the post grad swimming took off and we did just fine
I know it’s not the same thing, but has some of the same issues: I would love to see the issue of high school age junior divers (junior year equivalents) that train daily with D1 college team be addressed. I assume in the end, it will be good for the National Team, but sure seems like an NCAA issue.
Oh wow, I didn’t realize that this was allowed in any NCAA sport except MAG, which recently made an exception to allow college athletes to train with clubs/allow college coaches to coach/have contact with high school athletes within a club training environment simply because men’s gymnastics is dying and allowing a college athlete to train with a local club when the university doesn’t have a dedicated facility/coach/full team is an attempt to keep athletes competing past high school.
I think they are doing fine
The whole “let’s just wait and see” and the “it’ll be fine it’s still early” attitudes are what is slowly getting us here in the first place. #KeepBuryingYourHeadInTheSand