Hi Slowtwitch Fam,
The topic of growing swimming/triathlon/running to "mainstream" sports that the world cares about more than once every four years is something that I am very passionate about (and you can argue that triathlon, at least at the Olympic level, doesn't yet capture the world's attention at the Olympic Games), so excuse the long post as I've wanted to get these thoughts down for a while. I personally believe that the broadcasts and productions of these sports in non-Olympic competitions has a huge impact on the public's perception and growth of triathlon/swimming/running. Specifically, I think the commentating has been especially sub par over the course of the past year, and is really important as to how the "average" viewer perceives the sport.
Something that we have seen to know for a while, but the governing body of those sports can't seem to grasp, is that "standard" triathlon races, swim meets, and track meets do not make for good TV and broadcasts. I understand keeping the Olympics and World Championship races more traditional, and I think that is very important for the integrity of those sports, but why keep that same format of racing throughout the rest of the year at your major professional events? I know that triathlon has been doing those mini sprint races for decades that have been very popular and fun to watch, but as far as I'm aware they haven't gotten the proper backing, funding, and broadcasting from national bodies.
So my main question is, how does the triathlon/endurance community feel about the quality of broadcasting in triathlon/swimming/running? What are the main things that can be improved? Are you satisfied with the marketing/outreach efforts of the main governing bodies?
I'm going to focus specifically on swimming now, as that is what my specialty is and what's been on my mind the most lately. USA Swimming had an incredibly successful Rio games, with lots of potential superstars emerging that are easily marketable in my opinion. But since Rio, I feel like USA Swimming did not capitalize on that at all, and we have simply fallen back into the normal pattern of no one caring outside of the swimming community, waiting for Tokyo 2020 again.
For those of you that do not know, USA Swimming has a domestic series of events called the Arena Pro Swim Series (APSS) that take place throughout the year, with modest cash prizes for event winners. They always stream these events live on their website, and NBC Sports will usually air a tape delay of the race. For an organization that has roughly 500,000 members, the numbers for the livestream have been abysmal; when Katie Ledecky was going the 3rd fastest time in the history of the sport two weeks ago at the Santa Clara APSS, there were 450 people watching the stream. I competed at the APSS in Austin back in January, and the stands were empty every session; there was only a small sign out front about the event, but other than that it seemed like no local outreach was done.
I think that a lot of pros that I've talked to are at times scared to talk about these issues, since they are to an extent at the mercy of the sports governing bodies, which is why I think it is important for people like my myself who don't have a stake in the pro athlete world right now to stand up for this and at the very least ensure that the governing bodies know that there is an issue and that they need to change what they've been doing.
I will also say that I am not a huge fan of Rowdy Gaines' commentary, who is the person that essentially works every single major swim competition on NBC and ESPN. How does the Slowtwitch community feel about his style? Or is it something that you didn't notice? Again, a lot of the elite swimmers that I have talked to recently are not a fan, but are afraid of voicing their opinions because he is so closely tied to executives at USA Swimming by this point. Yes, he has "energy and passion" for swimming, but a lot of times for me that just manifests itself as shouting and not actually walking viewers through what's going on in a race. And there are countless times where his "facts" about the sport are just plain wrong. His counter is that there's a reason he's done 7 Olympic games and that USA Swimming membership has exponentially grown during that time period, but how much can you simply attribute that to the Phelps factor, and could another broadcasting crew done even better?
Here's a recent example from the APSS in Mesa, Arizona, and it's not even a particularly bad example, just an average broadcast. https://www.youtube.com/...L8K9RI4Uo&t=291s (skip to around 1:40 for the race start)
So they don't actually start talking about the race at hand until it is 3/4 of the way done. Jacob Pebley has an incredible story (the backstroker that wins the race), and I would love to hear about that either before or after the event to build it up and give context to the situation. Hardly any of the other racers were even mentioned, and there was very little context on how fast they were going, technique, etc. As an "average" viewer around the country, I feel like I would be completely in the dark for the majority of the race, but maybe I'm being to picky. What're your thoughts?
Looking forward to your guys' comments and having a good discussion. My goal is to always keep moving the sports of swimming/triathlon/running forward and growing them to a mainstream audience.
The Gram: @agyenis
My latest story on Swimswam: More than a title
The topic of growing swimming/triathlon/running to "mainstream" sports that the world cares about more than once every four years is something that I am very passionate about (and you can argue that triathlon, at least at the Olympic level, doesn't yet capture the world's attention at the Olympic Games), so excuse the long post as I've wanted to get these thoughts down for a while. I personally believe that the broadcasts and productions of these sports in non-Olympic competitions has a huge impact on the public's perception and growth of triathlon/swimming/running. Specifically, I think the commentating has been especially sub par over the course of the past year, and is really important as to how the "average" viewer perceives the sport.
Something that we have seen to know for a while, but the governing body of those sports can't seem to grasp, is that "standard" triathlon races, swim meets, and track meets do not make for good TV and broadcasts. I understand keeping the Olympics and World Championship races more traditional, and I think that is very important for the integrity of those sports, but why keep that same format of racing throughout the rest of the year at your major professional events? I know that triathlon has been doing those mini sprint races for decades that have been very popular and fun to watch, but as far as I'm aware they haven't gotten the proper backing, funding, and broadcasting from national bodies.
So my main question is, how does the triathlon/endurance community feel about the quality of broadcasting in triathlon/swimming/running? What are the main things that can be improved? Are you satisfied with the marketing/outreach efforts of the main governing bodies?
I'm going to focus specifically on swimming now, as that is what my specialty is and what's been on my mind the most lately. USA Swimming had an incredibly successful Rio games, with lots of potential superstars emerging that are easily marketable in my opinion. But since Rio, I feel like USA Swimming did not capitalize on that at all, and we have simply fallen back into the normal pattern of no one caring outside of the swimming community, waiting for Tokyo 2020 again.
For those of you that do not know, USA Swimming has a domestic series of events called the Arena Pro Swim Series (APSS) that take place throughout the year, with modest cash prizes for event winners. They always stream these events live on their website, and NBC Sports will usually air a tape delay of the race. For an organization that has roughly 500,000 members, the numbers for the livestream have been abysmal; when Katie Ledecky was going the 3rd fastest time in the history of the sport two weeks ago at the Santa Clara APSS, there were 450 people watching the stream. I competed at the APSS in Austin back in January, and the stands were empty every session; there was only a small sign out front about the event, but other than that it seemed like no local outreach was done.
I think that a lot of pros that I've talked to are at times scared to talk about these issues, since they are to an extent at the mercy of the sports governing bodies, which is why I think it is important for people like my myself who don't have a stake in the pro athlete world right now to stand up for this and at the very least ensure that the governing bodies know that there is an issue and that they need to change what they've been doing.
I will also say that I am not a huge fan of Rowdy Gaines' commentary, who is the person that essentially works every single major swim competition on NBC and ESPN. How does the Slowtwitch community feel about his style? Or is it something that you didn't notice? Again, a lot of the elite swimmers that I have talked to recently are not a fan, but are afraid of voicing their opinions because he is so closely tied to executives at USA Swimming by this point. Yes, he has "energy and passion" for swimming, but a lot of times for me that just manifests itself as shouting and not actually walking viewers through what's going on in a race. And there are countless times where his "facts" about the sport are just plain wrong. His counter is that there's a reason he's done 7 Olympic games and that USA Swimming membership has exponentially grown during that time period, but how much can you simply attribute that to the Phelps factor, and could another broadcasting crew done even better?
Here's a recent example from the APSS in Mesa, Arizona, and it's not even a particularly bad example, just an average broadcast. https://www.youtube.com/...L8K9RI4Uo&t=291s (skip to around 1:40 for the race start)
So they don't actually start talking about the race at hand until it is 3/4 of the way done. Jacob Pebley has an incredible story (the backstroker that wins the race), and I would love to hear about that either before or after the event to build it up and give context to the situation. Hardly any of the other racers were even mentioned, and there was very little context on how fast they were going, technique, etc. As an "average" viewer around the country, I feel like I would be completely in the dark for the majority of the race, but maybe I'm being to picky. What're your thoughts?
Looking forward to your guys' comments and having a good discussion. My goal is to always keep moving the sports of swimming/triathlon/running forward and growing them to a mainstream audience.
The Gram: @agyenis
My latest story on Swimswam: More than a title