Guest editorial by John Craig
PHOENIX, Arizona, February 17. FOR as long as anybody currently involved in either swimming or diving can remember, the two sports have been melded together in an awkward pas de deux. No one ever questions this pairing, because that's the way it's always been. But it's high time the two sports were separated, at least at the championship level.
The only thing swimming and diving have in common is that both require water. They are completely unalike in terms of the athleticism involved. Diving is much more akin to gymnastics, which is why you hear of top divers who are former gymnasts. You'd never hear of, say, a Grant Hackett making a mid-career switch from the 1500 meter freestyle to the 3-meter springboard. Top divers tend to be compact, tightly-muscled, and acrobatic. Top swimmers tend to be longer, looser, and more endurance-oriented.
This is not a brief against either sport; both require tremendous (if different forms of) athleticism, and champions in both sports deserve all the accolades they get.
But scoring the two sports together makes as much sense as having the outcome of a hockey game partly determined by figure skaters who perform at halftime. (Again, this is not an indictment of either of those sports. I don't think Johnny Weir would be any happier about that marriage than the average NHL enforcer.)
At a certain level it makes sense that swimming and diving are combined for the sake of convenience. High schools and colleges are on limited budgets and therefore it may be unrealistic to expect separation at the dual meet level, since it's cheaper to pile everybody into one bus. And in dual meets, having the diving after the first four swimming events does give the swimmers an oft-needed rest period. But many high schools have old pools which aren't deep enough to allow for a diving board. Most high school budgets don't allow for a separate diving coach. And most swimming coaches know next to nothing about diving. So why not score the diving portion of the meet separately? One team could win the swimming meet, and the other team the diving meet. Too often, a high school swimming team is penalized simply for not having a deep pool or a diving coach.
With championship season kicking into full gear, it's a good time to think about separating the two. Occasionally championships are decided by diving points, and that doesn't sit right. It certainly wouldn't detract from the divers' glory to have their own separate championship. And having separate competitions would actually double the number of teams which would be able to say they won a team championship.
(By the way, if they are the same sport, why is this magazine not called Swimming and Diving World?)
No one suggests combining sailing regattas with rowing events. Nor wrestling with the floor exercises in gymnastics. Nor football with track, even though both often use the same stadium and sometimes champion sprinters go onto become running backs.
There is one other sport which actually does combine entirely different disciplines, and that's track and field. But that, too, seems a mismatch. No one would ever mistake a distance runner for a champion shot putter, or vice versa (although it is true that the best long jumpers are often the best sprinters). But this may be why the NCAA team championship competition in track and field seems to create less excitement than, say, the annual NCAA championship in cross country: you're talking about a less cohesive group.
Swimming actually has more in common with water polo than diving. The existence of Brad Schumacher, Matt Biondi and Tim Shaw, all Olympians in both sports, attests to that. So why not throw in a ten minute scrimmage after the 50 freestyle as an extra event? Is this absurd? Of course – but no more so than mixing swimming and diving.
Show me the athlete who makes the Olympic team in both swimming and diving and I'll change my mind.
John Craig has set two masters world records in the 200 meter butterfly, but has never been headfirst off a 3 meter springboard in his life (he's too scared). His blog is justnotsaid.blogspot.com.