Might swimming be turning a corner in the mainstream media coverage? At the least, it’s going from a “once every four years” sport to a “three times every four years” sport.
The big-time sports media outlets often get criticized in our swimming community for not putting enough coverage into the sport we love and the athletes that train so hard. But it appears that they are starting to see the light, as the three biggest sporting websites have given the World Championships front-page love after this morning’s 200 free final.
Now that we’ve been given an inch, we have to take a mile. This has been a great, and exciting World Championships so far, and if that can continue (anchored by Phelps and Lochte to get them to take notice), maybe we can continue this growth!
1. Yahoo! Sports: Phelps loses 200 free again — to teammate Lochte | Soni wins women’s 100 breaststroke
Yahoo! Sports gets high marks for their coverage with an article and a home page picture. Tucked in amongst all of the NFL stories of the day will surely draw a lot of eyes to the swimming piece. Phelps gets top-billing, but would have liked to see Lochte identified by name rather than “teammate,” but still a solid effort. Yahoo included Soni’s win underneath as well, though, which should help fans branch out a bit, which is awesome.
2. ESPN: Ryan Lochte wins freestyle gold
ESPN, the big daddy of them all, has upped their website exposure of swimming, at least, with some solid work from Bonnie D. Ford, in the past few months. This isn’t the first time that they’ve had swimming on their home page recently, and after Santa Clara they even had a Phelps highlight in their top 10, but people would still love more TV coverage. If we, as a community, can show that we can make the costs worth it compared to the advertising revenues, I think that they’ll be open to hear about it. Props to them for giving Lochte first-billing, and including Phelps to draw readers in.
Update: This story has moved up on ESPN’s radar, and a day ahead of the one-year-until-London clock starts ticking, they’ve given Lochte and Phelps big-slot billing. Don’t be afraid to show them some love! Lots of traffic and feedback will continue to increase the exposure.
3. CBSSports.com: Lochte edges Phelps, wins 200 freestyle at World Championships
CBSSports.com is probably third in the sports pecking order, but until now they haven’t really dipped into the water yet until now. They probably saw ESPN and Yahoo! Giving it some love, and jumped on board. But hey, I’ve got no problems with some bandwagon publicity! That snowball is starting to roll!
4. New York Times Lochte wins 200 freestyle, big showdown looms
The New York Times gave swimming double-billing on their home page. They acknowledged Lochte’s win, and also gave the readers a hook to make them look for more news. That gives themselves the accountability to follow up later on in the meet, and also gives some good depth to the story. They also put a swimmer as the lead piece in their “Pictures of the Week” section.
5. USA Today Lochte beats Phelps in 200 freestyle at Worlds
The USA Today has been providing the most consistent, and probably best, main-stream coverage of swimming on its website for some time now, so its no surprise that they’ve put swimming double-duty on their home page. The USA Today has a huge, national platform, and a seemingly sound business model as newspapers across the country die off, which is great for our sport.
It’s in the news because Phelps lost.
If only FINA had kept parallel WR list, Shanghai would have been in the news more often, from magnussens and the aussies 400FR WRs to Soni’s 1:04.91.
Magnussen did the swim of the meet and not a mention (well, except for the aussies media, even then it’s overshadowed by Cadel Evans’ TDF win)
Oh ESPN , i knew i loved you for some reason!! A+
I’m surprised the relay didn’t get more coverage. They could have really played up the “redemption” storyline going into London.
Updated: ESPN has given swimming a lot more real estate now! Check the screenshot above.
still in the middle of the summer when there is very little real action going on (millionaire nfl players and billionaires owners fighting over money is not action) it should have been the TOP STORY ! but the big media outlets will never learn, they are there only for joe six pack and sally gossiper…
Yeah, that’s what I feel too. It’s only news to these outlets because Phelps “lost”, not because Lochte “won”. If Michael didn’t swim in that race, then it probably wouldn’t have gotten any coverage. Still, they were paying attention. It’s a start.
It’s news exactly because Phelps got silver.
loving it but we would really like to see more focus on Ryan, and his great swimming that.. Phelps getting silver.. But we are getting there..
It would love to see Ryan on the cover of SI