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

I grew up a hardcore competitive swimmer and trained with a bunch of Olympians. It was our impression that swimming was NOT popular and we were pretty jealous of the more social appearing track team! I think the truth however is the opposite.

I can understand the video. As a swimmer, you are spending 6 hours a day in a pool/weight room. It IS your social life. As a result a team's swimmers have a very tight bond and understanding of one another. The result tends to be dorky lip-synched videos and the like done after morning practice. I don't think swimming is more popular than T&F but I do think swimmers bond together closer than T&F squads.

Not for you wrote:

Swimming is so popular that they have 306 views on the video in an Olympic year. Worldwide, track is much more popular. Swimmers are a bunch of country club kids while runners are a cross section of the entire world.

You are right. Swimming, competitively and to any standard, is mainly an American college sport. There are traditions here and there like Australia, but everywhere else the Government has to fund or facilitate swimming beyond local amateur meets to put together a team, or get their swimmers accepted by US colleges.

I think you're on to something. I honestly get the impression that most T&F athletes hate each other's guts.

The only time you can watch it ot TV is during an Olympic year. Track is a little more popular.

I love how this thread has evolved, a fun campy video and you guys are like Siskel & Ebert or contrasting the state of US track & Field and other implications. My 10 year old LOVED it.

Two points:

1) Will Lord Coe approve the use of this song, or will the entire US swimming team now be banned? We live in dangerous times.

2) As to whether our track folks could every pull this off, most of them are married and would never lip synch to a song about hooking up, especially Mr. Hall.

I think you need you need to emphasize a few more words in upper case.

hart crane wrote:

Swimming is more popular because white Americans are at the top of the sport.

Right, because track was never popular when Carl Lewis was king. Nor did anyone care to tune in to the 92 men's basketball team. And of course golf ratings plummeted once Tiger Woods became the best player on earth. U.S. preferences are clearly based on skin shade.

Wrong, wrong, wrong!!!

Think, think.. wrote:

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

That video makes me cringe. Also, many female T&F athletes are way hotter than the big shouldered, horse-faced swimmers. To be fair, they are still very attractive. I just have to use hyperbole to highlight which features are different.

I give you Michele Jeneke:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS66kLH6l14&feature=related

Suck on that swimfans.....

I think it is interesting how the posts on this thread show a hyper-competitive mindset. An alternative mindset would allow one to appreciate the beauty in something different than oneself. To argue either side of the argument is hyper-competitive, which is what most posters did, while only a few posters more or less said, "Hey, they're just having fun. I like it." Lots of unnecessary and self-defeating competitive/arrogant judgment. Very interesting.

It'd be fun to see the T&F folks do it. Especially for those -- e.g., Rupp, Flanagan -- who you wouldn't expect. And who wouldn't want to see Adam Goucher disapprovingly in the background with Kara doing the "call me maybe" line?

This one has 14 million hits.http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=tMgmYutL9W0

llort_vbo wrote:

I give you Michele Jeneke:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS66kLH6l14&feature=related

Suck on that swimfans.....

hart crane wrote:

Swimming is more popular because white Americans are at the top of the sport.

This is mostly correct. I don't think black people ruling the NFL is hurting them, though, so I believe you need to change "white" to "american born."

If we consistently had american born distance runners winning medals in the olympics, people would pay a little bit of attention every four years like they do with swimming.

blackie wrote:

Aquafina wrote:

White. They are all white.

One black guy, don't think he's on the team. We all know black people can't swim...

Three black or mixed race black swimmers on the team- Cullen Jones is pretty visible; hat guy is Anthony Ervin whose genetic make is is the Jewish version of Lolo Jones; and then you can briefly see about a third of Lia Neal's head in one of the head-bobbing shots on the shuttle bus.

Aghast wrote:

That is because swimming allows for a more feminine body type. Some body fat is required while in distance running you need to be rail thin. All swimmers have a much higher body fat % and female swimmers can have more feminine features such as breasts or hips. In distance running the more a woman looks like a man the better.

Think, think.. wrote:

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

Myth, very few female swimmers are attractive outside the pool, HUGE teeth, broad shoulders and a very manly physical appearance. You guys throw Lolo under the bus for these same features but she is less of a masculine figure than any swimmer in the Olympics right now. People are attracted to swimmers are the same people that are attracted to distance runners.

People with bad taste

America doesn't have a single running athlete that is anything in comparison to Jessica Ennis.

o.O wrote:

Myth, very few female swimmers are attractive outside the pool, HUGE teeth, broad shoulders and a very manly physical appearance. You guys throw Lolo under the bus for these same features but she is less of a masculine figure than any swimmer in the Olympics right now. People are attracted to swimmers are the same people that are attracted to distance runners.

People with bad taste

America doesn't have a single running athlete that is anything in comparison to Jessica Ennis.

I disagree that female swimmers aren't that attractive, many have managed magazine spreads. But then I love female athletic bodies. I think the reason why in Olympic year Swimming gets such attention in the US is:

1) It's about the dead cert guarantee of american gold.

2) The athletes seem white and safe. It's not a race thing but it appeals to middle America. People often imagine themselves as athletes or like to picture the girl next door or their son being the hero on screen. Nobody will picture Justin Gatlin or Jeter in that mould

3) US T&F athletes don't come over as a friendly lot.

4) Linking with part 2, common thinking is people of west African origin will sprint faster, people of east African origin will run distance faster. White middle class America don't project themselves or see themselves in the winners of these races. It is different with the NBA and NFL because people are already hooked into the brand of a team anyway for the most part, the individuals don't matter.

5) All the drug scandals. The USA, like Russia or Turkey, get an extremely high number of their T&F winners in some doping scandal. Do Americans really believe their T&F heroes are free of drugs these days?

However I agree that the US doesn't have a gorgeous T&F athlete comparable to Jess Ennis-Hill and has her down to earth, girl next door nature.