Saturday, December 27, 2008
By Joe Scalzo
Phelps’ historic Olympics has sport booming
For more than 15 years, Sue Mellish
has been teaching swimmers how to breathe — or, more specifically, when to breathe.
See, swimmers often want to breathe during every stroke, which is understandable since they spend a lot of time underwater, which (as you may have noticed) is not conducive to breathing.
“Every stroke is all about breath control,” Mellish said. “You don’t want to breathe during every stroke.”
Then, this summer, a 23-year-old kid from Baltimore had the audacity to breathe during every stroke and, even worse, win every race with that strategy.
“Yeah, my older kids harped on me about that,” Mellish said, chuckling. “And I was like, ‘Yeah? Well, Michael Phelps has a wingspan this big and feet this big, so when you’re that tall, you can do it.
“But for now, you can’t.”
This story is notable because it may be the only negative thing Phelps brought to the sport this summer, when his (successful) quest for eight gold medals electrified the country during the Olympics.
That medal haul set records for most golds at a single Games and also helped him become the most decorated Olympian in history.
But it was only the second-most impressive thing he did in 2008, ranking just behind this: He made swimming cool.
In most non-Olympic years, swimming’s popularity as a spectator sport ranks just ahead of freeze tag and just behind professional bowling.
There’s a reason for this: Swimming is not an easy sport. It combines the glamour of swimming hundreds of laps with the prestige of swimming hundreds of more laps — and tends to be dominated by the highly-disciplined rather than the highly-flamboyant.
“These aren’t the normal kids,” said Boardman swim coach Terry O’Halloran. “These are the kids who evolve into leaders.”
And now those kids have a hero.
Since August, Phelps has appeared on magazine covers (including Sports Illustrated as its Sportsman of the Year), made the rounds of talk shows and even hosted “Saturday Night Live.” He has nearly 1.8 million fans on Facebook and quite a few more around the world.
But it’s his effect on swimming, not popular culture, that stands to make the biggest impact over the next decade. Although the sport always gets a boost during Olympic years — O’Halloran estimates it’s about a 4-5 percent bump — USA Swimming has seen unprecedented growth at many of its 2,700 swim clubs over the past few months. Consequently, many swim fans are hoping Phelps can do for swimming what Tiger Woods has done for golf.
“I think membership in competitive swimming has grown in the neighborhood of 20-25 percent this year,” said O’Halloran. “That’s huge.”
Mellish, who coaches the Y-Neptunes at the downtown YMCA, said the growth has already started. At one point this fall, she had 230 swimmers during a four-week trial period, compared to 140 last year. She now has 190 swimmers in her demanding winter session.
“It’s unbelievable what’s happening,” she said.
While NBC’s Olympics coverage got huge numbers from casual fans, it was even more pronounced among swimmers. One of Mellish’s swimmers, 10-year-old Seth Morrow, convinced his parents to let him stay up and watch all of Phelps’ finals. The 100-meter butterfly thriller, which featured Phelps’ .01-second victory over Serbia’s Milorad Cavic, was his favorite race.
“It was cool,” said Morrow, whose good friend Fred started swimming for the first time after the Olympics.
That race has become a teaching tool for Mellish. Cavic lost the race because he lifted his head at the end, while Phelps kept his head down. So, whenever Mellish’s swimmers lift their heads at the end of the race, they’ve “done a Cavic.”
Another Y-Neptunes swimmer, 12-year-old Sarah Heaven, has a shrine to Phelps at her house. And 12-year-old Zo ´ Sommers recently went to see Olympian Natalie Coughlin speak and got her autograph, proving you don’t have to be Phelps to be a star.
“She was right there,” said Sommers, who still seems amazed. “It was really cool.”
Membership and ratings are just part of the story. O’Halloran said he’s noticed a difference in the way his athletes are perceived and in the level of cooperation he gets from the school’s athletic department.
“We can now hold our heads up with basketball,” said O’Halloran. “Being a high school swimmer never meant as much as it does now.”
The best part is, unlike some top track and field athletes, Phelps hasn’t been dogged by allegations of steroid use, nor has he got in big trouble out of the pool. He’s used his own money to fund his foundation, which aims to increase opportunities for kids to get involved in swimming.
“I think the window is just starting to open,” said O’Halloran. “He’s doing so many things, like going to inner-city pools and YMCAs and giving cash and donations. He’s such an outstanding role model.
“I think everyone, especially kids, has been caught up in it. His message is all about not limiting your dreams.”
Obviously, not every young swimmer is going to become a standout in the sport and it’s pretty likely there will never be another Phelps.
But swimmers aren’t just competing against each other; they’re also competing against their previous-best times and building friendships while they do it. As Mellish said, winning races isn’t the only way to have fun.
“Swimmers almost become like a huge group of siblings,” said Mellish. “They usually start young and they sort of group up together.”
And, thanks to Phelps, that family is getting a lot bigger.
scalzo@vindy.com