swimming

[erilyn]

My family has a question they'd like me to ask any Americans I know:

Has there been much(/any) coverage of or news about, the World Swimming Championships (on at the moment in Melbourne) in the US? The US team has done well, especially Michael Phelps (he's just...wow - 6 gold medals and counting, it was a shame about the relay, plus multiple world records), and they're just interested in how the sport gets covered there vs how it's covered here.

Thanks for indulging their curiousity :)

Comments

[between-names.livejournal.com]

I don't watch network or cable news much/at all, but I caught an article about Phelps on my newsreader/homepage. I haven't heard much else about him since the Olympics, except for the drunk/reckless driving charge he got (I don't remember the exact circumstances).

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[trumpeterofdoom.livejournal.com]

How did Thorpey do?

Phelps = sex
Thorpe = seeeeeeeex

Swimming is the only sport I watch during the Olympics. ;)

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

Um, sorry but Ian Thorpe retired from swimming last November :(

[trumpeterofdoom.livejournal.com]

Just goes to show how much I pay attention to swimming these days without a TV. :P How did Australia do then?

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

7 Gold, 6 Silver, 9 Bronze so far, and fourth overall (to USA, Russia and China).

But that's a good point, if you were Australian, you couldn't NOT know that Ian had retired ;)

[trumpeterofdoom.livejournal.com]

At least it wasn't like he'd retired three years ago and I only just found out!

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

Nah, I just meant that it's UNAVOIDABLE here *g*.

Plus, now there's a scandal that he might have tested positive before he retired (which I'm 99% sure is bullshit).

[lucylooo.livejournal.com]

Not American, but I watch CNN's offshoot Headline News in the mornings and he (and the team) was covered during the normal sports segment (along with basketball and golf, I think). Pretty pictures of men in swim gear. :) I have to say, pro sports (football, baseball, basketball, hockey, golf, and NASCAR) are covered much more overall than amateur, though, unless it's Olympics year.

[lucylooo.livejournal.com]

And now that I am actually home and watching the morning news, Phelps got a segment to himself _before_ the sports news, which qualifies as a Big Deal.

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that's just the sort of thing I was interested in (cause he deserved it, but didn't know if he'd get that sort of coverage). The championships as a whole have been very impressive - world records tumbling all over the place.

[swabian.livejournal.com]

I know you didn't ask about Europe but I'm in a chatty mood. :)

Coverage on Eurosports has been exceptional. All of it live if you were inclined to stay up half the night for the qualifications. The finals aired live from 11 am on. I was more than happy with the coverage. Not at all happy with the way the German swimmers performed. :(

Still, big ole yay for all the medals the Australian swimmers won. Go Aussies!

[topaz119.livejournal.com]

ESPN is on around our house practically 24/7, so I don't really even hear it most times, but I did hear some discussion amongst the menfolk of my house about Phelps and medals. So there's at least *some* coverage. But right now, it's college basketball tournament time, aka March Madness, so that's taken up most of the airtime.

[breny.livejournal.com]

I don't "regularly" listen to the news but I catch bit and pieces from TV and also on the radio. I have to admit that I've not heard anything about the swimming. However, I did see a full page picture of Phelps somewhere last week but didn't read what it was about. I was wondering why out of the clear blue sky they would have a picture of him. As someone already said, about the only thing sports-wise you hear right now is basketball "MARCH MADNESS"

[sweetchacha.livejournal.com]

Since I work for USA Swimming, everyone I know tells me when they watch something to do with swimming on tv. It appears that they've been covering quite a bit of the World Champs based on how much people have watched and told me what happened.

[shannenb.livejournal.com]

There's been *some* coverage, not much. Two networks have been covering it--one is World Championship Sports (wcsn.com) which unfortunately only a small segment of the country gets (although you could order a $5 subscription and watch the event streamed live on their website) and the other is Fox Sports Network (FSN). Fox has their regional FSN networks (so FSN showing something where I live might not be showing something to say California, because the regional stations set their own programming) and then their Fox College Sports Networks. Basically, they were showing a compressed two hour version of the meet each day, which was basically the finals of the big events, semis where it looked like it might be interesting, and some of the finals.

Duel in the Pool will be shown here on NBC, but they show that because of Phelps.

Or at least the coverage that I've been made aware of . I closed my swimming website earlier in the year, so I'm kind of out of the fandom.

I do know that this morning, all the coverage is "OMG, Ian Crocker cost Michel Phelps a chance at 8 golds by DQing the relay" which is just too bad....for Ian. He had to put up with all the press harping on how he cost Phelps 8 golds in Athens because he was sick, and now he's got to listen to it again. The poor guy doesn't deserve that.

[geeklite.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen any, except for on http://www.towleroad.com/ (possibly NSFW) and they're more interested in pictures of shirtless male swimmers.

But then again, I pretty much only watch the Science Channel and ignore the news.

[olivejz28.livejournal.com]

A couple of people have already mentioned coverage on ESPN and CNN, which is about right. There's been a little more coverage about it here in the metro Detroit newspapers because Phelps' coach works at the University of Michigan and that's where he trains. At least, that's the last I knew. Swimming doesn't seem to get much coverage unless it's an Olympic year. But really, how can you ignore a guy that's one seven gold medals?

[cubby-bear.livejournal.com]

Phelps is getting some coverage in the Chicago sports reports I listen to because of the number of races he has won. Not much else is being said about the other races. Baseball is starting so that is getting alot of coverage around here.