The Best Don't Show

By David

If you type “Toni Jeffs, New Zealand” into Google and go to the eighth item on page two you will find an article written by Joseph Romanos. It was published when Romanos worked for the New Zealand Listener; a magazine that was all the better for his presence. However the magazine’s new editor, a woman called Pamela Stirling, fired Romanos and replaced him with someone called Paul Lewis, whose writing is at best sporting froth compared to the substance provided by Romanos. I taught Stirling’s son to swim and understand that her knowledge of things sporting is pretty limited; a view confirmed by her selection of Lewis ahead of the erudite Romanos.

In this particular article Romanos discusses the fate of athletes who have missed selection for Olympic Games’ teams. In particular he highlights the Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe, the New Zealand freestyler Toni Jeffs and the American hurdler Harrison Dillard. While it may be necessary for the USA to have strict selection criteria, Romanos argues that New Zealand and Australia need to be more flexible. In his last paragraph he says, “New Zealand and Australia aren’t the US. Competitors good enough for the Olympics should be selected. Poor rules should not exclude them.”

I agree with the Romanos’ view. A number of fine New Zealand Olympic results have been achieved by athletes who were “not-good-enough” to be on the team. Norman Reid who won the 50km walk in 1956 and Peter Snell who won the track 800m in 1960 could both be said to be in that category.

Whether Jeffs could have been another we will never know. I see her swimming career has come to an end. The Dominion Post reports that “Mr Garlick, 54, and his partner Toni Jeffs, 38, a former Kiwi representative swimmer, have a four-week-old son … Toni has finished swimming and we haven’t got a lot of ties here now.”

I was responsible for Jeffs’ coaching from 1989 to 1995. In that time she competed in the Barcelona Olympic Games, she won bronze medals at the Pan Pacific Games and the World Cup finals (today called the World Short Course Championships), she was fourth and sixth in two Commonwealth Games and second in the first Oceania Swimming Championships. Since then she has been third in two Commonwealth Games and has missed selection for the Atlanta, Sydney and Athens Olympic Games.

Prior to 1995 Jeffs career owed much to generous patrons, Arthur Lydiard and Brian LeGros. Track coaching legend, Arthur Lydiard, contributed the training principles I used to guide Jeffs’ training. White House strip club owner and gentleman, Brian LeGros, provided a bucket-full of money.

Lydiard invested hours of his time working on the conversion of his track training to swimming and in particular sprint swimming. Appropriate aerobic, anaerobic and speed training were carefully calculated, tested and confirmed. Every week, almost every day, for three years, at an average cost of around $400 a month we discussed Jeffs training. Lydiard later recorded our association in his biography, “Arthur Lydiard, Master Coach”. Get yourself a copy, it’s an interesting read. Mistakes were made and were always acknowledged. I have no doubt that the longevity and successes of Jeffs’ career owe much to the meticulous conditioning inspired and guided by the world’s authority on that subject.

LeGros’ money was hard earned and was a financial life-line. I recorded the following appreciation of his willing support in my first book, “Swim to the Top”.

“Brian has financed Toni, Nichola Chellingworth and me with considerable money and has asked for nothing in return. His business might not be to everyone’s liking but his compassion and care for me and my swimmers has been unstinting and often unheralded; as has his financing of Disneyland visits for terminally-ill children, his provision of free accommodation for mothers and children stranded during an inter-island ferry strike and his weekly visits to Porirua Hospital with sweets and cigarettes for a mentally-disturbed young man. He could show his detractors the true meaning of charity. A fine and generouos man. I count myself lucky to have been his friend.”

The contribution of these two men may not be well understood. The fact one was primarily a track coach and the other worked in a “leper” industry may have contributed to their exclusion. Perhaps and hopefully this article will partially redress any inequity and provide some deserved and overdue recognition.

Testing for Drugs

By David

Some of you may recall that twice before this website has expressed concern at the behavior of national drug agencies. This is what we said.

“Beware though; when you are debating getting tough on the drug cheats, don’t create an out-of-control agency whose behavior may be worse than the original problem. Power corrupts and absolute power … you know the rest.”

“All this is especially true when the evidence suggests the Agency is not doing its job properly. Mistakes, errors, omissions and you begin to wonder whether the cure is turning out to be worse than the problem. The Drug Agency’s performance should be subject to the same critical tests as everyone else to ensure its performance does protect sports people.”

The fidelity of our concern was confirmed yesterday when Tour de France winner, Floyd Landis, lost his arbitration doping case. By a vote of two to one the finding that Landis used synthetic testosterone was confirmed. Our principal fear however is not whether Landis used testosterone. Compared to other matters raised by this case, whether Landis is a cheat or not is unimportant. There are many in the drug police world who will claim that “getting their man”, that stripping Landis of his Tour title is a victory for us all. The CEO of the US Anti-Doping Agency, Travis Tygart has already called the decision “a victory for all clean athletes and everyone who values fair and honest competition.” He may well be jubilant, but in our view there is little to celebrate.

The potential damage to every athlete “who values fair and honest competition” is not in the behavior of Landis. The real dangers are the mammoth inefficiencies, deception and disgraceful behavior of the testing laboratory and US drug agency. Don’t take my word for it. Read the arbitration report. Upholding and dissenting arbitrators agreed on one thing. Aspects of the testing protocol and hearing procedures were a shambles; for example.

The initial test for testosterone is a relatively simple procedure called the T-E ratio test. The French Laboratory (LNDD) so badly handled this easy test that the results were inconclusive and could not be used. Authorities had to use the backup IRMS test, acknowledged as very complicated test, requiring a high level of technical skill. The obvious question is, if the laboratory could not get the T-E ratio test right, why on earth should we believe they can manage the much more complicated IRMS procedure?

The panel of arbitration also found that the chain of command in controlling the urine sample was inadequate. The way the test was run on the machine, the way the machine was prepared, the lack of appropriate laboratory training and the “forensic corrections” done on the laboratory paper work were all said to be below standard. The arbitration report concluded this section as follows, “If such practices continue, it may well be that in the future, an error like this could result in the dismissal” of a positive finding. For all of us that is real scary stuff.

The USADA did not emerge unscathed. Their attorneys went after Landis’ character with nasty and unnecessarily mean aggression. The liberties they took in evidence discovery would never have been allowed in a regular court. Without question the USADA were out to get their man. Their every action smacked of scoring a win, a blood lust to strip an athlete of his title and his career. National drug agencies have legislative, administrative and judicial powers and, without appropriate checks and balances, they exercise them badly. In this case the USADA has acted almost as poorly as the New Zealand agency did when it prosecuted Trent Bray after his sample had been mistakenly left on a laboratory shelf, in the sun, for two weeks. One day national drug agencies may see their role as working with athletes in a “fair and honest” search for the truth: one day, but not just now.

Why should all this be a concern? Imagine this, you have just been asked to take a urine drug test. As you wait for nature to take its course, reflect on the Landis case. Will the laboratory staff, who test your sample have been properly trained, will the laboratory screw up the test, will the machine they use be set up properly, will it be clean, will your paper work be changed? And if by some chance one of the readings is out of line, those nice USADA people, asking for your sample, will they come after you, walking roughshod over the conventions of natural justice, bent on ending your career and your good name? Is there any possibility of them helping you determine what has gone wrong? Yes, there is good cause for concern.

You may not be able to cross your legs in the hope of good luck at that moment, but I’d certainly cross my fingers. The Landis case says you may need a bit of luck.

How Not To Be the Fat Ex-Swimmer

By Jane

I've been wanting to write this post for a while and, in fact, I did once. I wrote it in a Word document while on holiday this summer. I remember saving the file with the name "how not to become a fatass.doc." I even remember where I saved it. Unfortunately, the next time I turned on my computer, it no longer existed. I searched through the entire computer and it was gone. I have no idea what I did, but it seems that I have to write this again!

I quit swimming when I graduated from college. In fact, I quit on the last night of the NCAA Championships in 2006. We parted on good terms, swimming and I. I was very pleased with the relationship and was equally satisfied with the way it ended. The problem, upon ending the relationship, was that swimming had kept me fit since I was 11 years old. I had some worries about the future of my waistline. I was pretty sure that I could get away with a few months of sloth before my metabolism would catch up with my lifestyle and I'd put on weight.

All of you reading this site know how much time it takes to stay fit by swimming. At an average speed of four kilometers an hour, swimming long distances takes hours on end. I was incredibly uninspired by the idea of "taking up" swimming again for the sake of not getting fat. And by uninspired, I mean that I was definitely not going to do it.

So I took up running. Anyone who knew me during my swimming career would be laughing by now. I hated running back then. A 5'4" 200m breaststroker, I was hardly built for running. Not many swimmers are. At first, running was torture. I did myself no favours by taking up running in the middle of winter, when my throat, lungs and eyes would burn in the 33 degree Fahrenheit weather. On my first morning of running, I made it through only three miles... I had to sit outside for ten minutes on returning home (still in 33 degree weather) because I thought I was going to throw up. I didn't, thankfully. I may have given up right then if I had!

The first month of running was no fun, either. Obviously, it was still winter and I was still a swimmer and the only thing that kept me going was the fact that running makes you look good. I did start to notice some improvement in my running abilities, however. I could run four or five miles comfortably and my legs no longer ached and burned when I had to walk down stairs. I fit into size three pants again. Life was excellent.

This is not to say that starting running doesn't come with its fair share of difficulties. My ankles have given out at various stages of this venture; I'd take a short time off and they'd get better.
Next up were my knees. That was pretty awful, but luckily, I had a week-long conference to attend during my right knee's problems, which was a forcible recovery period. Most recently, my hip attempted a mutiny from what has become eight mile runs. It looks like I've fixed that now as well.

The "fact" of the fat ex swimmer is total rubbish. It's easy to see how swimmers end up gaining pounds when they leave the pool, as we're accustomed to being able to eat thousands and thousands of calories a day and staying skinny. We're almost universally bad or inept at other sports and forms of exercise, and we're often burned out on exercise as it is. I am, however, of the opinion that running is the best (only?) way to keep fit. It is so very energy intensive, and yet it takes virtually no time at all. An hour run on a sidewalk that's available right outside the door, or a two hour swim at a pool that I have to drive to and from? I know which one I have time for these days and which one is a weekend luxury, at best.

I'm not an expert on running, but I can share some thoughts about how I began this venture and what has worked for me:

1. Run in the mornings. This won't work for everyone, but I have no motivation to do anything after work other than lay around. It's also usually cooler in the mornings, which is a plus if you're dealing with a season other than the middle of winter. Running in the heat sucks a lot.
2. Listen to music. There is no need to be discerning in your musical tastes. My running playlist is an embarrassment, to say the least. However, time seems to pass a lot faster when it's passing by in four-minute intervals. Also, as the majority of swimmers know, music can be great for getting one "pumped up." Being non-pumped-up is a fantastic way to run like crap and return home quickly.
3. Don't run circuits. If you're going to run six miles, run three miles away from home and then turn around. Trying to run circuits that take you back home before you're done only increases the likelihood that you'll quit half way through. If you're three miles away from home with no money and no car, you have to get home somehow and walking takes a long time. If you're also running in the morning, you don't have the time to walk home.
4. Give "injuries" time to recover. I kind of hate using the word "injury" as it implies that you're a very important professional athlete. However, if your knee, hip, ankle etc hurts, rest it for a few days. Even using correct form, running is pretty hard on your body. You don't want to be going through hip reconstructions at the age of twenty-six because you kept pounding sidewalks while your hips were out of shape.
   
5. Go running on Mondays. It's very hard to go on Tuesday if you started the week by sleeping in.
6. Imagine your results. Did you ever think about winning races and qualifying for meets while you were swimming? When it hurts really badly and you want to give the hell up and take up eating pancakes, think of yourself looking hot at the beach. Vanity and motivation go together like filet mignon and red wine.
7. Get a dog. Yeah, this one isn't going to work for everyone. However, having a high-energy dog is a good way to get yourself out the door, as you know that the dog will be bouncing off the walls if you don't take him running.

My friend and co-worker Matt recently wrote this fantastic post about his own running. He also recently completed the Vancouver marathon, which is no small feat. There's just no need to become overweight or get out of shape after you stop swimming at a highly competitive level... although as with everything that's worthwhile, it takes some work.

Swimming... Faster

By David

While Rhi and John have been finishing their morning 8000 meters, I’ve just finished reading the book “Eats, Shoots and Leaves” by Lynn Truss. It’s a very good 220 pages about the boring subject of punctuation. As Truss says, “Punctuation really does matter, even if it is only occasionally a matter of life and death.” Towards the end of the book, on page 196 to be exact, Truss makes an important point and one that is relevant to all of us involved in the sports of swimming and running.

She expresses annoyance that bomb is spelt b-o-m-b, with the “b” on the end. Why is the last “b” needed at all? The word would be just as meaningful spelt bom. In fact after testing herself over timed intervals of one minute, Truss determined she could write bom 25% more times than bomb. Consider the savings in time and resources dropping the “b” would have on reporting events in today’s world. Whole forests could be saved.

The American nation has done its bit to improve the wasted effort they inherited from the other side of the Atlantic. Harbour, with a Microsoft squiggly line under it, has become harbor, labour has become labor, flavour has become flavor and so on. For some reason though this most logical of people, the Americans, have left your as your. It should of course have become yor.

If you are still interested in all this, you may be asking by now, “What has this got to do with swimming and running?” Well consider this. If we dropped the second “m” in swimming and the second “n” in running and the words became swiming and runing all of us involved in these sports could make a similar saving at no cost to the sound or meaning of the words.

I’ve tested this today and have determined that swiming can be written 23 times in one minute compared to 17 times for swimming, a proven saving of 35%. My wife, Alison – she’s the New Zealand 1000 meter track record holder, so has a vested interest in all this – studied linguistics at University and tells me the “m” and “n” cannot be dropped because swimming would then be pronounced sw’eye’ming and running would become r’eye’ning. Well that might be the case in Victoria University’s linguistic department but if that’s true why isn’t swim pronounced sw’eye’m and run, r’eye’n, because those words don’t have a double “m” or “n”.

There is a clear need here for a linguistic revolution; we have nothing to lose, except an “m” and “n”. I do not expect Craig Lord to become part of our movement. I’m sure he would consider it grounds for treason. Swimming World Magazine and Timed Finals must surely see the light. And USA Swimming, if they have any concern for conservation, any green feelings at all, must change their name now to USA Swiming.

The spelling of swimming is not the only verbal problem to bedevil those involved in the sport. In New Zealand and Australia calling one of the team a “bloody dag” is certainly a term of high praise and endearment. For those poor souls who do not understand Australasian, the word “dag” means something rather gross. That fact should clarify immediately why being a “bloody dag” is a much sort after title. I have learned, however, that in America, one needs to exercise considerable caution. It seems very few of the country’s 301 million people appreciate the value of being dag. Having said that, quite a number of our team qualify as bloody dags and seem to hold their status in appropriate high regard. Get Rhi and Haley McGregory together on the last night of the Nationals and you certainly have the ultimate in two bloody dags.

"Bloody idiot" is a similar Australasian term. There is no offense here. The term usually describes the team’s story teller, the practical joker of the group. Not long after I arrived I called one of our swimmers a bloody idiot. He told his parents and they were deeply offended. Two weeks of tension and two apologies later it was sorted out: another lesson learned. This directly relates to my previous post about foreign coaches fitting in to their new environments. A New Zealand swimmer, upon being called a bloody idiot, would probably smile quietly and forget about it. International linguistics and regional differences are fascinating!

"Fartlek" is a Swedish term meaning speed play. It is widely used in track and field to describe a type of training in which a runner’s speed is varied throughout the run. It is not however a term that is widely used in USA swimming. You can imagine what the bloody dags in our team made of a word like that when I first wrote it on our training white board.

And so you can see there is a far wider responsibility to being involved in this sport. It is not just a matter of swimming laps and recording times. The language of the sport needs your respect. Join the revolution.

Lorem Ipsum

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Notes on Sweetenham Leaving Britain

By David

The Australian Sweetenham is on his way: back home to Australia, and before the job is done. He was employed to be Britain’s National Coach, to lift the country’s swimming fortunes through to the Beijing Olympic Games. With a year to go, he’s decided to cut and run. It would be churlish not to acknowledge that his father has just died and his mother is seriously ill. Remember though, this is the guy who called on Britain’s finest swimmers to give their all in the name of success in Beijing. Sweetenham was quite happy to call into question the application of some of Britain’s finest swimmers. He was perfectly happy to demand that Britain's finest swimmers spend their Christmas at a training camp in Wales as opposed to... anywhere else. World record holders with fantastic careers like Mark Foster and Zoe Baker got the rough edge of Sweetenham’s tongue as he slated their training habits and questioned their loyalty.

Many coaches have had to deal with difficult family problems: Tony Dungy, Head Coach of the Indianapolis Colts, for example. Faced with these problems, Sweetenham decided to run up a white flag. Dungy, in much more difficult circumstances, battled on and won the superbowl.

As soon as the going got tough for Sweetenham, as soon as wife, children and family wanted him back in Australia he was out of there, on his way home; do what I say, not what I do, was his message. He was quick to caustically demand application, work and loyalty from others, but not so tough when it came stumping up with the same commitment himself. Is Sweetenham simply a schoolyard bully? Is he a man of little substance? Were the athletes he abused actually the ones with character? Did he take cheap shots at men and women who did not deserve his abuse? He has left someone else to front the big test, which suggests these are legitimate and outstanding questions.

But Sweetenham’s has provided us all with one lasting and important legacy. He has given every aspiring international coach an object lesson in how a foreigner should not act in a strange land.

The first duty of a foreign coach is to learn and understand the culture of his or her new home. If Sweetenham’s family stayed in Australia for the seven years he was in Britain, it sounds like Britain was never his home. Therefore, and although we did not know it at the time, the game was lost before it began. Sweetenham’s task was to use his experience to accentuate Britain’s strengths. His task was not to convert Britain into a copy of Australia. This was Sweetenham’s mistake and was at the heart of Sharon Davis’ criticism. Britain did not need to be colonized in reverse. Aggressive Australian coaches such as Sweetenham and Talbot are fine in Australia; in fact they’re quite fun and highly successful. Their less than polite behavior and “call a spade a bloody shovel” attitude are understood and accepted “down-under”. But Britain is not “down-under” and it never will be.

Britain is Britain. There are many types of person in Britain, but they are not Australians. There are the loud, loutish Brits, but they're still a different breed of person and a different type of athlete. There and there are the reserved, quiet Brits, who are not Germans and are not Kiwis. Coaches like Terry Denison, legendary City of Leeds coach, knew how to get the best out of British swimmers. There were others who knew how to do the same thing. The land of Wells, Ovett, Coe, Drake, Raleigh, Wilkie, Christie, Churchill and William Wallace do not need to be told by some upstart Australian how to win. The upstart Australian though, needed to learn that the British way of winning is different from the Australian or American way. Done properly, the British way is just as effective; but different.

Sweetenham’s job was to take care of the “doing it properly” bit, not convert Britain into an Australian or American clone. Australian sport can be brash and crass. There is a petulant arrogance about much that they do. The rugby player, George Greegan’s taunting call of, “Four more years,” to the New Zealand team after Australia beat New Zealand in the 2003 world rugby cup is pretty typical. American sport is full of rehearsed cheers and idealized ritual.

None of these things are British. Neither are they necessary components of winning. British athletes of all codes have proven over and over again that they can win, but they do it in their own way, not someone else's. Sweetenham failed because he tried to do the wrong thing. He tried to colonize Britain with Australia’s swimming culture. His was a religious crusade. He should have identified how the Brits work, what makes them win and accentuate and grow those qualities. That’s how Lydiard did it in Finland: he made that point often. Lydiard did not attempt to turn his Finnish runners into Speights-drinking, sheep-shearing (yes, that's shearing), Crowded House-listening Kiwis. Neither did I attempt to create Kiwis when I coached some of Britain's best runners in the 1970s.

Because Sweetenham was not relevant, when he goes his message will soon be lost: two thousand years of British history will see to that. If he'd had the smarts to build the British way, he would have won more swimming races and created something capable of lasting after he had gone. Now, Britain is back at "square one" once more.

Swimwatch's Face-Lift

You'll notice that Swimwatch looks a little different today than it has since we re-launched the site on a blogger platform last year. We'd been meaning to do this for a long time, but had never gotten around to it. There are a lot more things we'd still like to do with the look of the site, and we'll be attempting to keep on making positive changes. We hope you all like the new(ish) layout!

Recounting Stupid Swim Training Ideas

By David

Some guys will do anything to find an easy way out. The best sprinter at my school used to lie on our couch in the Prefect’s Room and pathetically whine, “David, I wish there was a pill you could take to become an Olympic champion.” Well today, Nigel my friend, there almost is. It’s still not a good idea though.

Lydiard had a better thought and it was so very simple. He said winning a swimming or running race required three things. First it required a fit aerobic system, so each season should spend ten weeks getting that into order. It required a fit anaerobic system, so work on that for four weeks. And it meant being race prepared and fast, so spend a final ten weeks seeing to that task. Aerobically fit, anaerobically fit and race sharp; winning performances would follow.

Lydiard based his preparation on sound physiological principles. Aerobic conditioning is improved by running or swimming many miles. Anaerobic conditioning is improved by swimming or training over modest distances at a pretty fast pace. Speed and race conditioning are improved by hard fast trials over short distances. So, he said in a blaze of brilliance, why don’t we do that?

Not everyone has the clarity of thought to see the training process in these simple terms. The mark of true genius is to see, understand and explain complex situations in clear, unadorned logic. That was Lydiard’s genius.

Not everyone is that clever. I’ve come across some amazing theories. One ex-New Zealand national coach used to explain his training in terms of energy systems and speeds that all had numbers and definition codes. I never had any trouble understanding Lydiard, but this guy was too much for me. I wish I could explain to you how his training worked but try as I might I still don’t know. I’ve often wondered how his swimmers ever understood something that complicated.

At the other end of the complexity scale was a guy who worked for me for a very short time. His training theory was based on the story of a young Spanish boy who had a pet bull calf. The boy figured that if he lifted the calf every day, he would be capable of lifting a thousand pound beast by the time the bull was fully grown. Applying the same logic, this coach said, he would take a twelve year old swimmer, race her over 50 meters on their first weekend, sprint train her all week and race her again. As long as each weekend’s trial was a tenth of a second faster than the previous weekend, by age fifteen or sixteen he would have a world record holder. We parted company about a day after he explained this unique theory.

A few years ago I got a call from a coach who said he wanted two or three “Lydiard distance training sessions.” He told me that all the different training ideas were confusing him so he decided he would get some Lydiard type schedules from me for Monday’s training, some interval sessions from a specialist interval coach for Tuesday, some sprint schedules from a “Salo” type coach for Wednesday and so on through the week. He would, he said, then have the ultimate in a balanced program. His squad would be getting a bit of everybody’s ideas - it just had to work. I couldn’t believe it but I gave him week five’s Saturday morning Waitakeres session. All that was a couple of years ago now and I haven’t heard of a host of champions coming from his squad so I guess his idea of a balanced program needs to be reviewed. Perhaps week two’s Thursday session might have worked!

Another coach spent an evening telling me that his coaching secret lay in a deep understanding of bio-rhythms. Before he wrote up his training schedules he’d fill out one of those bio-rhythm charts for his key swimmers and base his program on the result. I know you think I’m making this stuff up. But I swear it’s true. My bio-rhythms for today tell me I am in “very good physical shape. Instead of wasting it I should go for a run or walk,” – looks like there’s no swimming for me today.

But it’s not only coaches that have flown over the training cuckoo nest. There are some real strange parents too. One of the best brought her daughter to the pool to join the swim team. She spent some time asking me about training. I explained aerobic, anaerobic, speed; all that stuff. She listened attentively and then said she would bring her daughter back in three months. She said she knew a better way of getting her daughter started than swimming hundreds of kilometers for all those weeks. “What was her idea?” I asked. She said she knew a very special hypnotherapist who could get her daughter’s aerobic conditioning done in ten half hour sessions. I told her to let me know if it worked. There are a few of my guys who’d love to nap themselves into shape. I’ve not seen her since.

At the world rugby championships in France just now, the New Zealand team are training with an eye patch on one eye to improve the vision of the unveiled eye. Each player also has a test tube of dirt from every rugby ground in New Zealand. The idea is that the soil of home will give them strength. I know of a swim team in New Zealand’s that are asked to lie on the pool deck visualizing their future: their coach calls it, “dream time”. A local swimmer was reported in the newspaper recently as being into “Bikram Yoga”; evidently it flushes “out the toxins in my body”. Whenever I hear any of this stuff, I hear also the voice of Lydiard growling that they should all do an extra 2000 meters, “It would do them more good.”

And, of course, Lydiard is right. Do the training properly and there is no need for packages of dirt, eye patches or even hypnotherapy. The knowledge that your preparation has made you fitter, stronger and faster than your opponents is a toxic combination that all the yoga in the world will never expel.

Individualism versus Mob Rule

By David

I see we have been the beneficiaries of another sermon from Mount Swimnews. This time, “from heaven did the Lord behold the earth,” and say, “Individuals without a strong team structure behind them tend to emerge from Olympic finals with a ranking equal to or lower than that they enjoyed going into Olympic year.”

Craig Lord is arguing in favor of, what he calls, the strong American team system and against the disruption of personality that he says is affecting the South African team just now.

It’s pretty typical of establishment commentators like Lord to revere conformity and abhor individualism. But to suggest that independent individuals are somehow weaker and less able to perform great deeds is just rubbish.

Probably the world’s greatest sportsman, Mohammed Ali, was the ultimate independent individual. For a period he stood alone; denied status by his sport and his nation. He was shot at, jailed, and refused permission to play. He was alone and hated, without a team or a nation. But he emerged a supreme winner. By the strength of his character and iron will, he overcame. Ali, the individual beat his sport and won over his country. Craig Lord is never going to convince me that the Mohammed Ali that stood and lit the Atlanta Olympic flame was the product of some team factory. To believe that is to belittle and diminish the strength of Ali’s character and the torment of his lonely exile.

Lord’s wildly inaccurate view also ignores the record of magnificent African runners. Men like Abbe Bikila, and Kip Keino; women like Lornah Kiplagat and Mary Chemweno. Bikila didn’t have a team; he didn’t even have shoes when he ran 2.15.16 to win the Rome Olympic marathon.

Kip Keino didn’t need a team either. Fancy that, the man who won two Olympic gold and two silver medals and is now revered as the father of the African running revolution didn’t have a team. How did he do it? He did it like all the other best Olympic athletes. He was tough, he worked hard and he was an individual, maybe even a slightly lonely one.

Lord’s view that team structure is the driving force behind America’s Olympic success is simplistic and misleading. Team structure has little to do with it. To say that it does, runs counter to one of the most basic underlying qualities of American life; the value it puts on individualism. As long ago as 1840 Alex de Tocqueville in his book “Democracy in America” described Americans as exceptionally individualistic; “each man is forever thrown back upon himself, and there is a danger that he may shut up in the solitude of his own heart.” One only has to look as far as the absence of universal health care in the United States, to detect the American’s belief in individual, rather than team responsibility.

Individual personal gain is the fuel that drives America’s gold medal victories, just as obviously as it has driven its corporate and industrial success. A façade of team unity may modestly strengthen America’s individualism. It certainly makes the drive for personal gain more politically acceptable. Lord, however, has seen the façade of America’s team structure, and has described it to us as the substance of America’s success.

One does not need to scratch the American team structure far to see the cult of individualism appear. Lochte is hard at work now because he wants to win the 200IM in Beijing in twelve months. He undoubtedly does not wish Phelps any ill will but my guess is he certainly wants him to be second. Don’t be fooled by the well rehearsed cheers and untroubled contract signings; life in the USA team is probably more cut throat than any other team in the world. Sure, US swimmers don’t hate each other but at the international level it’s every man and woman for themselves.

It’s a bit off the subject but I tell you what US swimmers do have that helps them win. They have bloody good officials and a good Federation. US athletes are looked after. They are paid well. Their Federation is efficient and fair. If you don’t believe me; does your Association have an air conditioned lounge with TV, soda, Gatorade, water and as much good food as you can eat at its national championships. They don’t? Well the Americans do and in a way that lounge is symbolic of why American swimmers are the world’s best. It’s not a team thing, but it is looking after the individual.

Lord may tell you that “individuals without a strong team structure” are likely to fail. He is wrong. If you’re swimming laps in the North Sydney pool, running Lydiard’s Waitakeres in New Zealand, or swimming a hard set of 400s freestyle in Florida’s heat; wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, it’s not a team structure you need. You need to be tough, dedicated and hard beyond belief. If you are, you can win an Olympic gold medal, on your own.

Cotton Chicken; Candy Nuggets

We visited Pig Out in the Park in Spokane, Washington this weekend. It will take a lot of swimming and running to work off the food and beer, but we had to share this lovely sign we came across during the event. Cotton Chicken and Candy Nuggets for the win!