The Evolution of Competitive Swimming in American Culture

1646 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: History of swimming in the olympics paper

The regular person thinks that swimming isn’t really complex. One person just swims down and back and thats it. Nothing else, nothing more deep into the sport and nothing really changed about it either. But how has swimming changed as a sport in the last 50 years? The sport has changed so much throughout the last 50 years because what the American people are doing to improve the sport. Swimming has been almost the same sport since the 60’s-70’s, but things that have changed are the swimmers, technique of strokes and the technology of the sport which in turn reflects that American culture has evolved in technology and skills in America.
Back in 1972, the best swimmer was Mark Spitz, but now it is Michael Phelps. According to the World Biography “The difference between Phelps and Spitz is remarkably different”. Michael Phelps had a lot more things to make him a better swimmer, he had more knowledge of the sport and a more efficient body type. The World Biography says that “Mark got seven gold at 1972 and Phelps got eight in 2008” . Phelps won gold in all of his events in the 2008 Olympics and Spitz got gold in all of his but he only did seven events in 1972. Phelps had more opportunities in his time of swimming than Spitz.Which shows the evolution in skills in American culture through Michael Phelps
Born in Modesto, California on February 10 1950. Spitz started training at the YMCA in Sacramento. He left and went to Arden Hills Swim Club. Later he took his swimming to the next level when he went to Santa Clara Swim Club. The World Biography says “Mark Spitz was 17 when he entered the Olympics in 1968 in Mexico City”. His first Olympics he won the 4x100m Freestyle Relay, 4x200m Freestyle Relay, 200m Butterfly and 400m Individual ...

... middle of paper ...

...ing World 49.7 (2008): 37. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.

Sears, Phil. "Touchy Feely." New Scientist 203.2716 (2009): 69. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.
Todd, Deborah M. "Southpointe-based business helps Speedo swimsuit line speed up." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) 22 July 2012: Newspaper Source. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
"The Speedo Lzr Racer." Advertiser, The (Adelaide) (n.d.): Newspaper Source. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
Gambril, Don. Swimming. Pacific Palisades, CA: Goodyear Pub., 1969. Print.
Sapet, Kerrily. Xtreme Athletes: Michael Phelps. Greensboro, NC: Morgan Reynolds Pub., 2009. Print

Michael Phelps." Michael Phelps. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.
Speedo Swimwear - Speedo.com." Speedo Swimwear - Speedo.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 13
" USA Swimming - Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.
Speedo Pace Club." Fastskin 3. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.

Show More
Related

  • Olympic Games Dbq

    958 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since 776 BCE, the Olympics have been a way for people of different cultures to come together and compete in friendly competition. In 1892 the first modern Olympics were held in Athens, although it had been over a thousand years since the last game it still had brought together an assortment of different religions and ethnic groups together. Many factors shaping the Olympic Games reflect the changes that have taken place in our world since the last game in 393 CE in Greece such changes include woman’s suffrage, global economy, world wars, and proving competency.

    Read More

  • Adversity In George Orwell's The 1936 Olympic Games

    1429 Words  | 3 Pages

    Propaganda and Nazi rule surrounded the team, and the pressure piled on for their qualifying race. At the start line, their coxswain missed that start call, and they began almost two strokes behind - a massive loss in a race like this. Strategically playing the underdog, Washington stayed back, at a low stroke rate but with powerful strokes, slowly digging their way upwards. With a ghostly, pneumonia-stricken stroke seat, it was a wonder they made it past the halfway mark, but this sliver of time was all they had. In the last twelve hundred meters, they made their sprint, pulling across the finish line six-tenths of a second ahead of the Italian boat. And that is how Joe and his eight teammates won gold, forever immortalized as America’s team in the 1936

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Swimmer

    1022 Words  | 3 Pages

    If you’re one of the many people who has a family member who simply can’t live without alcohol, then John Cheever’s “The Swimmer” is a story that you would like to read. The story is about a guy named Neddy Merrill who is simply in love with alcohol. Throughout the story, Neddy goes from someone's swimming pool to the next because he wants to make his way home by ‘water.’ This is not normal for an ordinary dude to do. Throughout the story, Cheever hides in plain sight symbolic clues that foreshadow a conclusion that Neddy has a serious issue.

    Read More

  • The Controversy Over the LZR Racer Suit in College Swimming

    1270 Words  | 3 Pages

    At 5 A.M., swimmers around the world get up to go to practice or are already jumping into the pool. Later on that day, swimmers will get into the water again and practice for another couple of hours. In addition to that, there are always weights and some sort of dry land activity. Some teams even include yoga and Pilates for added flexibility. Having a social life beyond seeing the people on your swim team is near impossible. With school work, high physical demands at practice, having to eat almost every three hours, and trying to maintain a normal life, the weeks are exhausting. It is no wonder why the NCAA has set a maximum number of hours to train each week in regards to college swimming. All of these factors play into the hopes that when a swimmer tapers, or rests for a meet so that they are in top condition to compete, they will be able to swim faster than they ever have before and hopefully achieve a best time or get a new “cut”. The same process has been happening year after year, and then 2008 came around and one of the biggest headaches for the swimmers and all of their supporters was created: the LZR ( pronounced lasar) Racer. This suit has been one of the largest controversies swimming has had to face. In swimming, technology, technique, and conditioning are key to success, but when technology becomes the main factor, the sport of swimming is lost in the turmoil. If suits keep becoming faster and more technologically advanced, the only thing left to do will be to jump into the pool, and where is the sport in that? All suits manufactured with a non-permeable material should be banned from all competitive swimming events; in addition to that, the suits should not be longer than the knees, no higher than the waist for men,...

    Read More

  • Jesse Owens: Breaking the Color Barrier

    573 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the year 1936, not just racial tension in America was spreading, but it was as if the world was diagnosed with a viral racial sickness. The Olympics were hosted that year in Berlin, Germany. Jesse Owen’s devotion to track finally paid off for him by being “one of the ten blacks selected to the sixty six member Olympic team.” (“Jesse Owens” UXL 1) The German...

    Read More

  • The Influence, Role, and Meaning of Sports in American Society

    549 Words  | 2 Pages

    1. It has become much harder to identify the true and amateur-taught values around sport in our culture. The passion for competition, the aspect of a team, and the actions of sportsmanship are deep values that sports act to instill. It becomes one of the most important ways to teach those values to our young and unfortunately is becoming easy to forget. Throughout the semester we scrutinized sports, looking at their influence, role, and meaning in our American society today. Two foundations to view sport, critical and functionalist theory, were brought upon early in the semester, laying groundwork for looking at the rest of the topics. To better understand these two view points a working definition of each is needed. The three C’s of: capitalism, coercion and commercialism help describe the critical/conflict theory and view of sport in our United States. When looking with this viewpoint some of sport’s purposes in society include, promoting and expanding capitalistic drives as well as showing the power and privilege of elite groups within society. (Coakley, 2001) On the contrary the ...

    Read More

  • African American Athlete: Their Role in American Culture

    3732 Words  | 8 Pages

    Sports played and continue to play a pivotal role in American history and culture. Baseball provided an escape from the stress and frustration of WWII, a beacon of light during hard times and later helped influence integration. Athletes became symbols of what being a true American meant and many sports enhanced American culture. One of the most prolific changes sports brought to our society was the beginning of racial equality on the field. It encouraged and aided the fledgling equal rights movement that evolved in the 1960s. African American athletes were considered second-class citizen until sports provided the first taste of equality. Teams life the Indians, Dodgers and Giants led the way for all teams to accept black players on equal footing. More sports then followed, helping to pave the way for the equal rights movement. African American athletes provided a spark of social and cultural change as America was at the emergence of the civil rights movement.

    Read More

  • Sports Influence On Culture

    1633 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sports may have impacted our culture much more then we thought it would, and keeps impacting. Sports have affected some of the most important aspects of life, such as jobs and money. It has also affected things as little as who we look up to and how we dress. Culture means “the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.” The definition of sports is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” So when we put two and two together we get a a nation or world that has changed due to sports. Back in the mid and late 1900’s sports were used to see whose way of life was better. As time went on and keeps going on, we

    Read More

  • The Evolution of Sports

    886 Words  | 2 Pages

    The sports of today have changed the way the players play the game. Starting on the professional sports level, bad sportsmanship behaviors, like the use of steroids or "throwing" a game or a match in an effort to please the sports gambler trying to get their big pay-off, has trickled down through the college level and even down to the high school level. One person recalls the days when athletes played their sport for the love of the game, because it is what they lived for. They remember when they were younger, sitting in their grandfather's lap and watching the Atlanta Braves (in the days of Dale Murphy, Bob Horner, Glenn Hubbard and other great names in Braves history) running out on the diamond every game. In fact, they quoted country artist, Collin Raye, saying [I've been] "a Braves fan even through the rotten years". Watching these games, they remember looking up at their grandfather’s face and seeing the look he had in his eyes by watching these guys play their sport from the heart. Now, years later, sports have been threatened by strikes. The athletes playing now aren't playing because they love to, but now it's more about the money and how much they can make. Sports of today are tainted and don't come from the heart. The kids today need to be taught what it was like "in the good ole' days" and how playing sports teaches an individual about how to work with other people and how to pull together as a family.

    Read More

  • What Is The Significance Of The Olympic Games Essay

    1145 Words  | 3 Pages

    Most at times do not really realize how important history and its events greatly influence the way we live and what we do today! Every four years we celebrate the beginning of something that was brought up long ago, the Olympics! This great event in which, now the whole world participates in started way back in the year 776 BC. It started from people playing for the God Zeus to people playing for their country and a medal, the Olympic Games sure did evolve as the time and beliefs changed.

    Read More

  • Olympic Games: A Reflection of Ancient Greek Culture

    1671 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Olympic Games, hosted in Olympia, Greece, reflected and represented many of Greece 's traditional values in their culture, politics, and social institutions. With the Olympics being the biggest event in Greece at the time, the occasion brought many new ideas and showed what the traditions and customs of Greece were really about. Through this big spectacle people learned about their own culture and went through many experiences ranging from listening to poets and praying at the Temple of Zeus to spectating the sport of “Pankration”, a combination of boxing and wrestling. They would even compete in the nude as a time-honored tradition. “...the practice [competing in the nude] also symbolically stripped away social rank, an extraordinary gesture toward a democratic sporting ideal in the status-obsessed ancient world.”(pg. 7) The Olympics

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative About Swimming

    1117 Words  | 3 Pages

    Swimming has been my whole life, since I jumped into the pool for the very first time. I loved every aspect of swimming from the adrenaline running through my body during my races and getting to spend even more time with my friends and my sister, and the stress of big meets coming up in the schedule. Except everything didn't go according to plan after the first day of school when I got home and I saw my parents sitting by my sister on the coach and my sister was crying.

    Read More

  • Great Olympic Moments

    1437 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...thens. The final and most recent great moment in olympic history was in Beijing 2008 when Phelps broke a record that will never be broken but it can be tied. He won 8 gold medals out of his 8 events. He broke Mark Spitz's 36 year old record.

    Read More

  • Historical and Sociocultural Foundations of PE and Sports

    3308 Words  | 7 Pages

    Sports in America have many different levels of competition, each with a particular purpose that correlates to their philosophical position. However, I believe that the overall philosophical trend of the sports construction in America is one of Social Darwinism. Social Darwinism is an extension of the theory of natural selection made famous by Charles Darwin. The idea is that the fittest individuals are the ones that are be capable of leaving the most amount of offspring, in turn having an impact on the future direction of the particular species. This is where the mantra of “only the strongest survive” originates from. While it is true that at the younger competition levels this philosophical idea does not hold well to sports, however, consider the following analogy: A large pool of athletes in the younger age groups are like the starting population size of a species. However, as the age groups rise, like to high school, college, and maybe to professional leagues, the pool of athletes becomes vastly depleted. This is very similar to individuals in a species dying out to various causes, the idea is that only the strongest survive. Athletes competing at the professional level are so competitive that sometimes they will seek to circumvent the rules of the sport in order to survive and thrive. That is why the philosophical construct of sport in America is that of Social Darwinism. Professional athletes are at the top of the food chain and are under fierce competition and scrutiny from their fellow athletes, and the ever watchful eye of the media. The result is athletes tend to treat their sport more as a game of survival and compete ruthlessly in order to be the best instead of playing for a pure love of the game.

    Read More

  • Biography of Michael Phelps

    902 Words  | 2 Pages

    Forde, Pat. "Ranking Phelps' Eight Great Wins In Beijing." ESPN.com. ESPN Internet Ventures, 17 Aug. 2008. Web. 07 Mar. 2014.

    Read More

More about The Evolution of Competitive Swimming in American Culture

Open Document