The Other Swimming Champions
March 23rd 2009 06:12
G. Patterson, M. Cowdrey and J. Tidy
I arrived late to the Australian Swimming Championships on Friday night because the parking closest to the Aquatic Centre had already been filled by footy fans. The first thing I saw was the Victory Ceremony for the Mens 100m Backstroke MD (Multi-Disability). What a race it would have been to watch – two world records had been broken!
Later at home, I happened to catch the swimming on TV. I was surprised to see that the highlights of the night on Channel Ten did not include this race, nor did it include any of the other disability events.
What’s going on here?
It can’t be because the competitors aren’t high profile enough. I’m not the biggest sports fan and even I have heard of Matt Cowdrey, multiple gold medalist of the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.
Even if Cowdrey had been a newbie, this race should have been included in the highlights. If I’d been doing the highlighting, this event would be covered in yellow fluoro. We’re talking about not one but two world records in the same race.
Originally, I’d intended to only post some of the pictures I’d taken on the night, but most of those will have to wait.
Media photographers were keener on taking pictures of Leisel Jones in her breaststroke semis than other finals events involving lesser known swimmers.
In order to reach the national finals, I would imagine that all the swimmers would have trained incredibly hard to get there. However, the finalists with disabilities would certainly have had greater difficulty than the ‘able-bodied’ competitors – which makes their efforts all the more inspiring.
Instead, their events aren’t even shown on the highlights list. When there’s plenty of time to show well-known swimmers in slow-mo shots of every conceivable angle, surely a few moments could be spared on these finalists as well.
What does it take to get some recognition and be worthy of media coverage if not for one’s outstanding achievements?
Are we being steered toward who we should be interested in? Or is this a reflection of the public’s interest/disinterest; a case of the media giving what we want?
Perhaps a bit of both?
the crowd at 7:33pm
at 9:40pm
the last victory ceremony of the evening
B. Hall, P. Donachie and J. Dohnt
The Australian Swimming Championships, which incorporated the selection trials for the XIIIth FINA World Championships in Rome, took place on 17-22 March.
For further information including the meet results, see http://www.swimming.org.au/.
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