Swimming Blogs - Chris DeSantis

Well, today I have to admit I'm pretty tired. You see, I started work this week at Harvard Technique Swim Camp, and although my hours are 8-4, I rarely feel as if I'm done. To compound my exhaustion, my beloved Boston Celtics insisted on winning a championship game that ended just a shade before midnight. While I revelled in their victory today, I was also struck by the sharp juxtapositon of two of my favorite sports: swimming and basketball. Listening to a guilty pleasure of mine (sports radio), I overheard the following themes repeated throughout the day:

1. Kevin Garnett unselfishness was key to the team's victory

2. Paul Pierce is one of the greatest players in the NBA and a possible hall of famer

3. Doc Rivers is an outstanding coach.

Now these facts may seem self evident, but just a week ago you could have heard the opposite. It seemed people were split as to whether Garnett's selflessness was helping his team, or whether Paul Pierce was truly an elite player. Many still thought that Doc Rivers was a below-average coach. A similar process proceeded withevaluations of any player or team personnel involved in the series.

Its the kind of argument you almost never hear, at least spoken out loud, in our sport. Maybe its the lack of physical contact, but swimmers aren't labelled "soft" by the media when they fail in high level competition. No one criticizes Michael Phelps for not being selfish enough in deferring his spot on the 400 Medley Relay to a teammate. I dare you to find someone outside of an anonymous message board who would denounce Dave Marsh as a below-average swim coach. Quite frankly, very few people questioned whether Brendan Hansen was one of the all time greats even as he failed to win gold in Athens.

Most likely, the tangibility of our results have so much to do with it. There's a simple beauty to a sport where a clock starting and stopping determines the winner. At the end of Aaron Piersol's 200 backstroke in Athens, the reason for his victory can be boiled down to three words: he swam fastest. In my opinion, the value judgements we make on athletes in other sports can really take away from the victor. To compare once again to basketball, a sports pundit might assert that Markus Rogan lacked heart and resolve. That lack would be attributed to his finishing second. What then, of Peirsol? Is he just lucky that he didn't have to race someone with heart and resolve?

The absolute and finite results of our sport give us the benefit of wasting little time trying to judge our athletes on intangibles. I'm not denying that psychological integrity plays a huge role in whether or not we succeed. That doesn't mean that people should play psychologist from the sideline. I for one, would be happy if that particular trend stayed in basketball.