Swimming Finals in the 2008 Olympic Games will be in the Morning
Thursday October 26, 2006
A recent press release from the IOC, well in advance of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, combined with a press release from USA Swimming seem to confirm it. The swimming finals in the 2008 Olympics will be in the morning, something not too well received by many swimmers and coaches. USA television viewers will be happy, but will it provide the best possible swimming competition for the swimmers that have trained for years to reach the Beijing for the Olympic games? Swimming Finals in the 2008 Olympic Games will be in the Morning
Comments
I think it will need to be tested in other meets prior to the games.
Though we will see fewer world records, I think the suspense of a potential upset between Thorpe and Phelps in the 200 free or perhaps seeing Cullen Jones, an American sprinter of African descent making gold in the 50 or 100 free will draw many more viewers since the results will be in real time rqther than announced on the radio hours in advance.
Subsequently I think we will getmore swimmers in the pool post Bejing as a result.
I think it will be an even playing field but I also think there will be many swimmers tired on the next day from an anxious sleep. This change will establish another mental competitive area for swimming.
If they are making the change to raise profits, I find it disgusting. The Olympics is a showcase of the best of the best athletes. The first consideration should be for their benefit. Have the athletes commented on this? Everyone familiar with swimming knows that finals are always at night and the environment and atmosphere certainly play a role in performance.
I think this is ridiculous. I am a swimmer, and though I don’t compete anymore, I did for many years. Everyone who has ever swum competitively has grown up with prelims in the morning and finals at night. That is how everyone’s swimming career goes. To competely switch that routine at one of the biggest swimming meets of many of these swimmer’s lives just to get more profits is messing with these swimmers’ heads and bodies. Yes, these swimmers can change their training now to help their bodies get more used to swimming their fastest in the mornings, but no swimmer who swims competetively for a club team is used to having to swim their best times in the morning. So long world records and best times.
As a former college swimmer this just looks like another way for those in charge to make money at the sacrifice of the athletes. I am not interested in an even playing field as much as I am in seeing the best out of every swimmer at a given meet. Put in the swimmer in the best position to swim should be the only focal pooint. As Sarah stated swimmers are used to a certain time to preform and I just think that if the change is directly related to profits and not related to getting the best out of the athletes, who train rediculously hard by the way, it is simply nauseating. Chicago near where I live is making a bid for a future summer Olympics and I am dying for them to get so I can go to see the top swimmers in the world compete. However, I hope they have this worked out by then. Sadly it seems the concerns of the athletes may have to suffer again at the hands of those who are only intersted in filling thier pockets.
As a former competitive swimmer this just looks like that US TV-stations want to influence the olympics while saying it will be shown at the best prime time on TV. During the prime time on TV, people in the US don’t watch swimming!! (Best Example was Atlanta 1996, where the events were not shown live although, it was the prime time. There are other continents, where people at home show more respect to Olympic athlets. And for swimmers the best time to perform with a top result would be the late afternoon, early evening (18:00 local time)
Another former swimmer here - I agree this is egregious and ridiculous. The athletes will adapt and do the best they can, but this completely runs contrary to every other single meet in which they have participated in their lives. Prelims are in the mornings, and finals are in the evenings. That is a rule and a ritual from age-group swimming all the way up through the highest level of international competition.
If we knew about this beforehand as indicated above, why didn’t the US Trials at least simulate this altered schedule to give our athletes one round of practice at it?
And how exactly is this going to work? I assume the Opening Ceremonies are Friday evening. Will the swimming not begin until Saturday evening and then run a half day late from what we are accustomed to going forward?
How will this affect Phelps’ run at 8 golds?
Finally, can anyone tell me exactly how I’ll best be able to watch the most live swimming coverage? I don’t want to get spoiled on the internet, and I’m anticipating that NBC is not going to be on the ball live the whole way through, even with this dumb schedule alteration.
I agree with the comments about it affecting the swimmers but also there is the wider issue of the audience. The tradition of the Olympics being held at different locations means the worldwide audience has a chance at various locations to see the games at their own or near to their own time zone. By doing this they are denying the people of some of the most populous countries in the world - Japan, Indonesia, India and of course China from seeing the finals in the evening - not during the day when most people have to work. All because money talks.