Sometimes I feel spoiled when I explain our sport to others. It's so straight forward. You're not judged on the design of your suit, the path of your stroke, or the amount of water you displace. You may do things to alter anyone of those aspects in training and in race preparation, but once the race starts its simple - touch the wall first without cheating and you win. Swimming typically avoids headlines like the ones dispatched from the recent Vancouver Games - Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21 year old Georgian Luge Slider Dies in Practice Run , and Dutch Speed Skating Coach costs Sven Kramer Gold. And our sport knows that it at the end of a race two athletes (or two teams) are tied, they both equally deserve the medal they were fighting for.
But how protected are we from some of the headlines from this past winter Games? How different is an organizing committee building a track an unsafe 5% (up to 15 mph) faster than any other track used in international competition, and an organizing committee ignoring the issue of water quality on open water courses leading to athletes being exposed to unknown toxins for nearly two hours and as a result having ongoing health issues for the rest of their lives. USA Olympian and AEC member, Kalyn Keller, feels strongly about this topic. If inherent risk is avoidable, isn't it the responsibility of FINA (and furthermore, USA Swimming) to do something about it?
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