Metric Miler wrote:
Swimming IS a joke.
I appreciate swimmers work hard and are great athletes, I don't deny that, but the sport itself is a joke.
Incredibly weak stance on dopers. Very small talent pool. Weak records. Sport is heavily influenced by pool technology (all the swimmers are way faster than 10 years ago) and too many events to spread the thin talent across.
Swimmers can just switch to a slightly different event (100 freestyle to 100 breaststroke for example) and win there if they face competition in the other event.
Bull. S**t.
There should only be freestyle. Push all the talent together.
This Adam Peaty covers the 100m way, way slower than the girls. He just does a stroke that deliberately retards progress. May as well do the 100m hopping race to let athletes that can't beat Bolt win Oly Gold.
(1.) They already have that hopping race you talked about: It's called hurdles. Imagine that...the same exact race, but we have them do something additional during: jump over stuff. Kind of like having them do different swimming strokes.
So if you think different swimming strokes are a joke, you eliminate the hurdle events, the steeplechase, and arguably the relays. With the relays, you could say, "Hey, we already have a 400m race, but why not let 4 guys do it instead of 1, and force them to pass a baton so that there are an additional layer of rules that increases the likelihood of DQ?" I happen to like the relays and hurdles, but your argument against swimming would be consistent with hating those races.
(2.) You're right, not everybody has access to a pool during their younger years, so the talent pool is weak relative to absolute, complete participation of the human race. However, if this is a reason why a sport should not exist or should be called a joke, then what about pole vault, or surfing, or equestrian, or shooting, or badminton, or perhaps even baseball? Not everyone around the planet can participate due to lack of access to implements or animals, geographic location, or, in some cases, low population density.
(3.) If you hate the way that technology is affecting the game, then you must hate baseball, basketball, track & field, soccer, tennis, golf, and pretty much every sport besides barefoot trail-running, since technology has provided different materials for footwear, gear, and implements than 100 years ago (or even 10 year ago, in som cases). I imagine you're a lot of fun to hang around with all that hate brewing.
In short, sure, swimming is a joke...if and only if almost every other sport is a "joke."