Column by Jason Marsteller
PHOENIX, Arizona, April 20. FOR a sport that so often begs to be considered a big deal more than once every four years by the mainstream media, we sure do some quirky things that don't help our cause.
See the picture to the right? That's "Tom Shields" celebrating his men's 100-yard backstroke title in Minneapolis at the 2011 NCAA Division I Championships. That sure doesn't look like Tom Shields to me.
Stand-ins for podium ceremonies are common at the collegiate level, and are even written into the NCAA Participant Manuals for both the men's and women's meets, even though the official Championship Handbook does not have such a distinction. Now, for the bulk of our audience, this is just a natural part of the sport allowing a swimmer to immediately take advantage of a much-needed warm down.
To me, and the bulk of mainstream media members that cover the sport as well as almost anyone that has routine contact with the mainstream media, stand-ins are considered fraudulent activity. While using stand-ins is not against the rules, I believe it should be for several reasons.
* A podium ceremony is the only guaranteed photo opportunity for swimming. There is no guarantee that either an action shot, reaction shot, or even a print quality shot of the start can happen for any particular swim. A quality image can mean the difference between a story being buried in a newspaper or relegated to a link box online versus front page coverage in a newspaper and a home page post online. But, when media members and photographers have to question if they actually are running a correct image, they are much less likely to spend the time on swimming, and will move on to another sport to give it the additional coverage.
* Don't forget about the broadcast media either. ESPN3.com webcasted the "Tom Shields" 100-yard backstroke podium celebration to its audience, and it is rumored that this footage also made its way into the ESPN's NCAA Championships Highlights Package. But, let's extrapolate this a bit further. One of swimming's biggest desires would be to have a live, television broadcast of the NCAA Championships. I would not want to be the director who winds up televising a potential American record celebration, and have it be a teammate celebrating the victory because the winner had the important need to warm down. It is hard enough to get meet managers to allow for television timeouts unless USA Swimming is running the event, much less making it difficult for a broadcaster by having deceptive moments as a routine part of the competition.
* Allowing for stand-ins as a routine part of the NCAA meet also robs the audience of being able to witness a crowning achievement in an athlete's life. I'm sure the California alums that were well-represented at the 2011 NCAA Championships really didn't care about "Tom Shields" being on top of the podium other than it just being a big win for the Golden Bears. But, what happens when you actually want to be a mainstream sport with fans that aren't already tied to someone competing? If a kid goes to a USA Swimming event for fun and wants to see Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte on the podium without the goggles and swim cap, that kid gets to experience that moment. In what is a similar crowning moment of achievement for a football player, you aren't going to see a teammate get his picture taken for Cam Newton at the NFL Draft later this month.
The stand-in policy is just a symptom of a deeper-rooted issue I've noticed in this sport for quite some time. If you want a sport to grow in the mainstream, you have to make concessions to the mainstream media to help it gain you the ever-important free publicity that it can drum up.
Some I've talked to about this explain that it should be the mainstream media's job to know the subject well enough to cover it. Beggars can't be choosers. If we want the mainstream media to cover the sport on a regular basis, we have to make it as accessible and reliable as any other sport. You don't have doppelgangers in football, baseball and basketball during any step of a competition.
As one possible solution to the problem, I suggest a different schedule while also requiring all top eight finishers to be at the ceremony. Instead of holding the podium ceremony immediately following every A final, robbing winning swimmers of the immediate chance for a warm down, we could follow a format often used in Europe. Podiums are grouped together at different times during the evening, in the same order in which the events were swum. That gives each winner plenty of time for a warm down, and also provides the broadcast partner a solid block of time during which to run promotional content such as commercials or extended movie previews. This time also still helps the print and online media with guaranteed photo opportunities for each event.
When all is said and done, it really just comes down to being a genuine and authentic sport. Why would we legislate a routine lack of authenticity into what many of us believe to be the purest sport of them all?
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