Let’s Make Our Swimming All-Star Weekend

Sports fans, and especially swimming fans, I call your attention!

While our beloved international swimming is still on pause, as the off-season runs, this was the Americans’ most anticipated week of the year. As the Philadelphia Eagles demolished the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs on Super Bowl Sunday, the week will end on a high note with the NBA All-Star Weekend.

It is known that this weekend is a fun and entertaining way to hold a break between the regular season, and also to gain spectators from a very large public, which attracts everyone from die-hard fans to casual viewers and even those who never watch it. So the question is: What if we had our All-Star Weekend of Swimming?

DUEL IN THE POOL

Between 2003 and 2015 (plus 2022) USA Swimming organized different editions of Duel in The Pool, a biannual meeting first based on the Australia vs USA rivalry, then experimented with USA vs Europe. The concept of the last edition included the selection of the all-star swimmers for each team as they competed in atypical events, such as skin races and relays like the 6×50 free or the mixed swimmers and para swimmers relay.

So we kind of had an exhibition meeting like the All-Star Weekend but how could this be improved? Here’s some ideas.

TEAMS

Instead of just two teams, there could be three to ensure no top athletes are left out. For example, it could be

• Americas
• Europe
• Rest Of The World. 

As for the All-Star Games athletes should be selected by a mix of fans, media, swimmers and coaches’ votes.

Each team can choose which members to field for each challenge or event, earning points just like in a dual or multi-team meet.

The leader of the team who has to make these decisions could be either the coaches with the best results obtained during the past season, or the captain of the team, a title assigned to the most-voted swimmers.

EVENTS AND CHALLENGES

Let’s go straight to the ideas.

25m Races

What if we held an 8x25m relay? This should always be composed of four swimmers, each swimming just a lap, free or mixed. After the end of the first round, another round will begin without any pause, with every swimmer swimming two 25m with a few seconds of rest between them. Maybe underwaters would be banned or it would just be curious to see how fast can elite swimmers go touching by hand in a 25m lap.

Mystery Events

The original Duel in the Pool had a particular event called the mystery 200 Im. Here the order of the strokes was decided a few moments before the start, always starting from the block.

This inspired some fun events that could be held.

For example, it would be fun to have a sort of Chance Relay. 

This concept could be used in a 4×50 mixed relay or even for the atypical 6×50 freestyle relay.

Before each race, a representative from each team picks a chance card which can contain any type of penalty. Some examples are

• “Your best swimmer will have to swim with a band around his legs”
•  “Your third member can’t use underwaters”
• or even, in a mixed relay “Two members of the team have to switch their strokes”.

In addition, there could be an optional rule as the first team touching the wall after the first and second leg can get another chance card applying on the third and fourth legs.

This could lead to some messy, funny and even strategic dynamics.

Skill Races

Have you ever wondered how fast elite swimmers can swim just using their kick? Or who would win an underwater-only race? This should be the exact definition of exhibition, showing the best specialists in the world racing against in an atypical event like the 50m freestyle kicks or the 50m back underwater. This could be a nice excuse to create new world records to beat.

Stroke Relays

Another weird attempt could be relays like a 4×50 fly relay or a 4×50 breast relay. This would be fun and would be the occasion for each team to line up swimmers who are not specialized in that stroke, going out of their comfort zone and showing the world what they’re capable of (as if they hadn’t already done it).

UNEXPECTED SWIMMERS – SPECIAL GUESTS

All-Star weekend is famous for other events as well. There’s the Rising Star game, where all the best rookies of the league play against each other in an exhibition game. Then there’s the Celebrity game, where personalities across different fields, like actors, singers, athletes of other sports, are put together in two teams. For example, a few years ago there was Gianmarco Tamberi, the men’s high jump Olympic gold medalist from Tokyo in 2021, competing in the Celebrity game winning the MVP.

Celebrity Game

So what if we had our celebrity race? It could be a short one as just a 25m or 50m race and it could feature important personalities or athletes from other sports. For example, the Minnesota Timberwolves basketball player Anthony Edwards, had confidently claimed that he would beat all of his national teammates in a swimming race. Why not give him the chance to prove it?

Another attempt could be a mixed relay with two elite swimmers and two celebrities for each team.

Legends + Next Generation

Imagine if we could have swimmers like Ian Thorpe, Theresa Alshammar, Michael Phelps or Natalie Coughlin swimming again between the lanes. Imagine then, if we could see this old generation of legends in the same lanes of who could be the next generation.

There are actually two proposals on this topic.

• One would be pairing them up in a relay composed of two legends + two All-Stars. Even if legends wouldn’t be at their best fit, of course, wouldn’t it be amazing just to see Leon Marchand and Michael Phelps swimming in the same pool?
• Another way could be creating a relay team of 2 legends + 2 rising stars. The rising stars could be selected from the junior world champions of the previous edition for example. We could see very young swimmers doing their favorite thing along with their idols, everybody competing for the same goal.

This may be the most difficult to make happen, but how fun and inspiring would it be?

In conclusion, let’s recall that this would be like an exhibition event. It shouldn’t be viewed as a crucial preparation meet or anything similar, but rather as a fun opportunity to compete, without pressure and with a relaxed, open-minded approach.

Let us know what you think about the idea and provide any other fun ideas in the comments below.

Let’s make swimming for everybody.