Is Swimming Ready to Dive into the Professional Arena?

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This submission to “Shouts from the Stands” is from Hagai Ashlagi

Can Swimming transition into a genuinely professional sport?

Prologue to you, the reader, yes – you. One favor to ask – postpone your judgment until the conclusion. Some may find themselves shaking their heads while reading segments of this article. Thus, your prior patience is appreciated.

1. A sport whose most significant highlight occurs once every four years (for instance – during the Olympic Games) cannot be, and is not a commercially prosperous professional sport.

Numerous sports far surpass swimming in Olympic success. Tennis boasts four grand slam events each year; Road Cycling features three grand tours, five single day “monuments,” and an annual world championship. Winter sports such as skiing and biathlon have an annual world cup and world championships. This is even before acknowledging team “ball” sports like Basketball, Soccer, Rugby, etc.

Even marathon running, with its six “marathon majors,” and triathlon with its long distance and middle distance/T100 events, maintain a competitive circuit year-round.

For sports to achieve commercial success, they must either have several annual competitive peaks or engage in annual league play that includes all top athletes, culminating in a championship.

Whether due to the mindset of coaches, swimmers, or the management of the sport, swimming hardly manages one annual peak, which lasts only eight days. With all due respect, that is insufficient to uphold a commercially viable sport.

2. For a sport to be professional, it must be overseen by skilled managers.

Possessing an international federation (World Aquatics, in the case of swimming) is acceptable. However, such federations rarely manage to genuinely commercialize and professionalize a sport. Particularly when the federation is led by a mid-level politician from a country with no competitive athletes in that sport – as seen with the Kuwaiti chairman of World Aquatics.

Sports can only achieve professional and commercial triumph under proficient management. All the prior examples are applicable here as well. The NBA, NFL, Wimbledon, and the Tour de France are not managed by sports institute politicians. While political affiliations may exist, the management remains professional and commercially focused.

3. The NCAA’s role is not to advance swimming towards professionalism.

Colleges serve as educational institutions, with student athletes being integral to that. The fact that NCAA schools compensate coaches generously and run competitive swimming programs is extremely valuable, commendable, and crucial to US swimming. However, the NCAA is not on any immediate course to integrate any form of extensive professionalism within the collegiate system. It is simply not its responsibility.

4. To genuinely become commercial and professional, tournaments, leagues, and stadium-like venues (in pools and open water) must be included in swimming’s future.

Would you purchase a ticket to watch David Popovici, Kyle Chalmers, Pan Zhanle, Jack Alexy, Luke Hobson, and Leon Marchand duel from one bank to the other over a bridge in London spanning the Thames?

Would you tune in to witness a two-way finals race crossing the Seine river in Paris, featuring Ariarne Titmus, Summer McIntosh, Katie Ledecky, Siobhan Haughey, and Mollie O’Callaghan competing for a substantial prize?

What about a 50 m straight line sprint between McEvoy, Dressel, Proud, and Crooks, from piers 26 and 25 in New York City along the Hudson? Or a 50 m breaststroke on the same course between Adam Peaty and Qin Haiyang?

I would watch each of them.

Swimming must evolve. Major prize annual events should be made consistent so that the sport can generate interest throughout the year.

5. To foster global interest, swimming must be conducted in meters.

I appreciate the US collegiate system, but if more US swimmers aspire to be professional, it is time for the NCAA to embrace the metric system.

During the summer, US swimmers train and compete in meters. World records are registered solely in meters. If the Budapest 2024 world short course championships revealed anything, it is that swimming in yards is costing NCAA swimmers countless opportunities for world and national records.

There is no disputing that World Records attract global interest and revenue. Both video viewership and sponsorships – institutional and personal, benefit from it. NCAA swimmers, tournaments, and collegiate programs are foregoing these revenues. Yards are financially disadvantaging NCAA swimmers and consequently shortening their careers. It is time for the NCAA to find a way to gradually transition at least Division I programs to meters.

6. Excessive underwater time is uninteresting and undermines the need for the various strokes.

In short pools, the 15 meters of underwater fly kick after every turn detracts from viewership and contradicts the very purpose of distinct strokes. With all due respect, observing 60 underwater meters out of 100 meters/yards repeatedly in a short-course pool has shown to not generate enough POPULAR interest (not referring to YOU SwimSwam enthusiasts). The underwater time needs to be restricted. Perhaps to 15 meters post-start and 10 meters post-turns. The strokes should maintain their significance, and the viewing experience ought to be enhanced. (Consider how Volleyball and Table Tennis revamped their scoring systems to make them more engaging.)

These ideas are by no means set in stone. However, when we reflect on the progress swimming has made in the past 25 years since the Sydney Olympics towards becoming a genuinely commercial and viable professional sport for its athletes and spectators (I would argue – very little, if anything), you might contemplate some of these suggestions, or at least generate your own ideas on how the true commercialism and professionalism of the sport can be realized ahead of 2050.

About Hagai Ashlagi

 

A previous age group swimmer, and currently a masters and open water competitor;

Legal advisor for a professional European Basketball League and a partner in “The Aquatic League” – An open water swimming league in the Mediterranean.