Swimming Blogs - Jeff Grace

The Value of Objectivity

August 15, 2008

The last week of Olympic competition has show cased many of the great things about swimming that those who are not immersed in it may not realize.

The quest for eight gold medals by Phelps has shown just how great an athlete can be; how someone can be a master of all the skills in a chosen discipline, it has shown the world how hard someone has to work to achieve that mastery and it has shown how important and special a relationship between a coach and athlete can be.

The men’s 4 x 100 freestyle relay showed how exciting and unbelievable the finish of a race is. How basketball, football and boxing are not the only sports that can have trash talkers that will as one might say, ‘Have a guitar shoved down their throat,’ after making predictions.

There have been great stories of athletes overcoming adversity and heart break that the public seems to desire and need.

One of the greatest things about our sport is that the final standings are the result of objective and not subjective criteria. I believe (and it kills me to say this) that swimming is the second hardest sport to prepare for; second only to gymnastics.

It made me sick last night watching the athletes doing incredible feats of athleticism and then be subject to the opinion of judges and watching those judges on phones and in front of monitors arguing about what the right score should be.

It is obvious that those who govern the sport realize that the legitimacy of the results and their sport are questioned on a regular basis. There are many articles that make the argument that judged sports should not be in the Olympics.

Can you take a sport out of the Olympics in which the athletes show case what could be the ultimate display of what a human is capable of through tremendous discipline and athleticism. At the same time, should a sport that is decided by such subjective measures that allows not only human error, but unpreventable bias be in the Olympics?

That brings me back to the point that one of the greatest things about swimming is that the results are objective. It is black and white. The clock rewards the person that gets their hand on the wall first.

The clock is fair, but harsh.

It doesn’t care if your goggles fill up with water, it doesn’t care if you have the stomach flu, it doesn’t care if you had to study for three finals and missed five days of practice and it doesn’t care if you are having family problems.

The results of swimming are legitimate and cannot be argued, because the clock does not accept excuses.

Disclaimer – Once again I will put in a disclaimer because there will ultimately be the argument that the results are not always legitimate because of the drug issue. This argument cannot be avoided and is valid, but let’s hope those who are not playing by the rules are being caught.

Post a Comment

	Brent Curtis posted August 17 at 4:28pm. Phillip Hersh wrote that article if you were wondering. I really think we should let him know he crossed a line on that article.....and just because we dont have the highest profile sport in the world doesnt mean that gives a reporter the power to directly insult it, and its greatest athlete, who just happens to be the greatest athlete of all time. He took words from a Chicago hometown hero, Matt Grevers, and twisted them around to make a completely false point (that all strokes should basically be the same because they are so easy). What an idiot
	Isaac Cole posted August 16 at 5:41pm. ok WOW who the heck wrote that article in the chicago tribune?! Cause that person is an ***hole. Seriously the most ridiculous article written in a while that i have read. I mean yes you may not like swimming, and to rank phelps as the 6th best olympian fine, but to belittle his achievements, you have got to be kidding me. Shut your mouth. I seriously want to know who wrote that article so I can e-mail him and give him a piece of my mind. He isnt the greatest olympian cause he hasnt done gotten these medals in 3 olympics. O WAIT HE HAS MORON. What makes it even more amazing is that he didnt medal at his fir olympics in Sydney and for him to get 13 golds so far in 2 olympics is mind boggling in ANY SPORT. This columnist is a hater and seriously needs to re-evaluate his life.
	Brent Curtis posted August 16 at 3:35pm. Great Post! and in more good news, the Chicago Tribune followed up that bogus article with a poll asking the readers who they thought was the greatest olympian of all time. Interestingly enough, Michael Phelps was the name on the top of the list. At least people know when to draw the line on listening to false and disrespectful articles, and know when to give a great champion and a VERY tough sport the credit they deserve.
	Medina posted August 16 at 10:45am. Liking the article jeff. You're making people actually think here and getting a mass debate on the floor! I get where you're coming from with gymnastics. I remember the Alexei Nemov situation in Athens 2004. It completely showed the subjective nature of what the scoring system was. Thankfully it seemed to be the last straw in changing the system. p.s. Brent I read that article and could not believe what I was reading. I sent an e-mail in responce to it. It left me in utter contempt for the author and the lack of knowledge they must have around swimmers.
	Agreed posted August 16 at 2:32am. that guy is way off base with anything bordering reality. this is the first time i can remember that non-swimmers actually are interested in the sport and are giving it the credit it deserves, and some guy writes an article like that. talk about subjectivity and bias... in other news, great post. some people can't handle a sport without judges, appeals, and all that comes with them. i never understood that.
	Eric Angle posted August 15 at 11:20pm. That article is horrible: "Swimming is pressure off your body, where we are pounding on it." "Swimming offers three relays with the risk of a false start minimal." "Three of swimming's four strokes—everything but breaststroke—might as well be the same." "It is easier to win multiple medals in swimming." These are ridiculous statements.
	Jeff posted August 15 at 11:15pm. I'm just throwing this out there because I don't know anyone with the answer. What happened to Paul Kornfield?
	Brent Curtis posted August 15 at 10:33pm. I know this is random but I am so offended with this article i think I should share it with all of you. Tell me what you think about this http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-15-olympics-greates…
	Colin posted August 15 at 9:56pm. I am blowing up those last three paragraphs and putting them on my wall in my dorm. Great quote.
	Eric Angle posted August 15 at 8:09pm. Subjective sports are definitely irritating at times. Though if you think about it, few sports approach the subjectivity of swimming (not that swimming is without some amount subjectivity with things like disqualifications). In a sport like basketball, you could argue that ultimately all that matters is how many baskets a team makes, but there are a ton of calls made in games, and those calls are based on decisions made by humans. I think it's particularly irritating when the commentators in a sport like gymnastics will evaluate a score's fairness. I think if you're going to be involved in a sport like gymnastics or figure skating, you have to accept the subjectivity. After all, if you think a score isn't fair, how are you supposed to argue what the correct score is? If there were a rigorous, objective way to produce the score, then maybe you could argue. But there isn't. That's why they're called judges, not officials. There would also be no reason (if there were an objective scoring method) for makeup, attractive clothing, or irrelevant dance-type frills included in routines. Sure, it's not supposed to affect the score... (Those are a few reasons why I prefer mens gymnastics.) Disclaimer: I can't think of a better way to score a sport like gymnastics. It and other subjective sports just have this inherent flaw. Question: Why wont line breaks correctly display in comments? Everything I type looks like one big paragraph.