This is why swimming is more popular than track and field in the US:

distance guy wrote:

eryer wrote:

i survived 49 seconds of that utter shite.

You made it about 43 seconds longer than me. I couldn't close the browser window fast enough. I'm slightly embarrassed to be an American right now.

I somehow managed to get to 37 seconds. Can anyone better this?

Loved it. Clicked Replay. Twice.

I survived 2-3 seconds of that nonsense. How can you stand to listen to that kind of music? And nice head bobbing there. Stick to the pool.

Seriously though, swimmers consume TONS of calories. Like think about the runner you know personally who can eat the most. I guarantee swimmers eat more. And then they stop swimming but their body still needs the calories so they get fat.

May be in US and Australia but Soccer still popular and I am not sure if Michael is that big outside US and other Australian nation.....Track still popular than swimmimg/ imma have to wait again for 4 years to start thinking about Michael phelps and media hype in your country. Anyways who cares!!! Am sure if Haile was white and African had same access to computers, results could be different.

Usain Bolt Vs Michael Phelps vs Ian Thorpe!

https://www.facebook.com/usainbolt

https://www.facebook.com/michaelphelps

Think, think.. wrote:

Even the average girls in that video are far more attractive than the American track and field runners.

You never get to see their bodies or faces in the pool and when you do see them at the start they wear those hideous black suits. As they are in lanes it can hardly be considered more exciting than track either. The main reason why any sport is popular on tv outside the team based ones like football is marketing

In swimming, some Americans win 5 or more golds. It gets hyped endlessly. Sprinters win 3 tops. It's easier to see how close competitors are in the pool.

Except Lolo Jones wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPIA7mpm1wU&feature=player_embedded

They all have better chances to medal AND they are more attractive.

TF/XC/RR are 1,000,000 times more popular than swimming. Every HS, Juco, & 4 yr college has a TF/XC team. RR and marathons have 10-30,000 runners. On the otherhand, swimming is expensive, pool fees are very high, thus few kids can compete in swimming, thus swimming is more popular in affluent parts of town.

Jeff Gordon wrote

That and not being a weak anorexic.

Could not agree more.

Were the US track team to make a similar video, I venture to say it would more resemble the film set of a certain film I probably dare not mention, rather than the US swimming team video.

Seyta wrote:

In fact, I can personally confirm that if you were to travel to Hefei, Ningbo, Shanghai, or Beijing in China, you'd be VERY hard-pressed to find someone who didn't know who Phelps was.

In contrast, ask them who Bekele, Gebrselassie, Rupp, Lagat, El Guerrouj or Komen are, and you won't even get a response.

USAIN BOLT?

On that note, you can also travel around the US asking junior high DISTANCE RUNNERS who Jim Ryun is, and a titanic portion of them will draw a blank. In contrast, most 8-year-old swimmers in Illinois are aware of Mark Spitz and his swimming accomplishments (7 Gold Medals if you're not aware).

Right, most high school runners don't know the names of all the American distance runners with 7 gold medals.

t94bell wrote:

distance guy wrote:

You made it about 43 seconds longer than me. I couldn't close the browser window fast enough. I'm slightly embarrassed to be an American right now.

I somehow managed to get to 37 seconds. Can anyone better this?

Um yes - the guy you quoted in your own post who got to 49 seconds

Watching that video made me feel like a poor kid looking in at the fancy prep school and seeing all the rich shiny kids and feeling nothing but resentment.

Why did I click on this thread?

White. They are all white.

Up to 267,000 views.

Call me when any track athletes can do that.

Bolt is bigger than all the swimmers put together.

Game over. Go back to the pool and enjoy your evolutionally unsuperior sport.

Cute video, looks like they're having a good time. Together! Maybe that's the real message here? I can't imagine 3 dozen T&F athletes getting together to do anything, right?

To the posters that said the swimmers made the vid because they are all 15-year-old teenie-boppers (or something to that effect), that's not really true. A lot of our U.S. Olympians are post-collegiate athletes, especially the guys. Did the Harvard baseball team catch a raft of sh__ for doing their lip sync job to the same song?

The swimmers were just having a little fun. Doesn't mean they are necessarily more popular than T&F athletes, but I think they are way more likeable. Our U.S. Olympic T&T athletes take themselves way too seriously. Too uptight. Don't live up to the hype. U.S. swimmers are consistently the world's best. You can count on them every time. And they don't drop the baton in the sprint relay every Olympics or World Championships.