The NCAA News - News Features

For good measure

I swimming's switch to meters in 2000 permits sport to be compared to world standard

BY GARY T. BROWN
STAFF WRITER

Division I swimming is going metric. To coincide with the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, the 2000 NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Championships will be held as 25-meter short-course competitions instead of 25-yard meets.

The decision, subject to NCAA Executive Committee approval, was rendered during the NCAA Men's and Women's Swimming Committee's annual meeting in September and is creating more than just a ripple throughout the swimming community.

"This is a significant proposal for several reasons," said Donald L. Gambril, assistant athletics director at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and chair of the Men's and Women's Swimming Committee. "It really would give us an anchor point for NCAA swimming in international competition. We can showcase world records now and be evaluated on a world standard. This certainly will be looked upon as a positive step for NCAA swimming."

The attraction of potential world records is significant. Swimming's international governing body, FINA, began recognizing world records in short-course meters a few years ago, but because NCAA championships have been conducted in 25-yard pools, superior collegiate performances have little impact around the world.

With this proposal, NCAA championships competition -- regarded as some of the fastest in the world -- is bidding for international attention.

Re-establishing the meet

"It's been said that the NCAA meets are the most competitive in the world," said Dennis Pursley, United States Swimming (USS) National Team Director. "That was true for many years, but now the most competitive meets usually occur at a higher level. But this (proposal) could reestablish the NCAA meet as a top-level program."

The proposal is of particular interest to Pursley and other USS administrators, who for several years have encouraged the Men's and Women's Swimming Committee to conduct NCAA championships in meters.

Pursley said the NCAA championships are the only major swimming event in the world conducted in yards, and the event doesn't receive the exposure it deserves because the rest of the world has no comparison standards.

"Right now with a 25-yard championship, when we try to compare ourselves to the rest of the world we're comparing apples and oranges," he said. "The rest of the world didn't use to pay attention to the NCAA meets because they couldn't compare them to anything.

"Now they'll look more closely and with more interest."

Gambril said the USS had urged the Association to establish long-course NCAA meets in order to parallel international competition, but because few NCAA schools have access to 50-meter facilities, the proposal never held water. Gambril became interested in a compromise, however, after FINA began recognizing world records in short-course competition.

Coaches polled

Gambril said he asked Scott Hammond, swimming coach at North Carolina State University and president of the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA), to poll the coaches participating in last year's championships for their reaction to going metric. Seventeen of 20 coaches jumped aboard.

"I was surprised that the general populace had a lot of interest," Hammond said. "No one was sure of the best way to do it or how often, but most wanted to have short-course meters in conjunction with Olympic years to get the NCAA a little closer to world recognition in terms of media and in terms of having some parallel to international swimming."

With endorsements in hand, it didn't take long for the committee to back the plan. Committee member Karen M. Thornton, assistant athletics director at the University of California, Berkeley, said the committee was comfortable with the proposal because it did not compromise the best interests of the student-athletes.

"Historically, NCAA competition has made the statement that it's not pre-international preparation -- that the concerns aren't so much to prepare athletes to compete against the best in the world, but just to compete intercollegiately," she said. "And that has forced some student-athletes to choose either to give up their college eligibility or sit out a year. By changing to short-course meters, it's a bit of a compromise: The reasons for competing in meters are to better prepare our collegiate athletes for international competition without sacrificing what have been the benefits of collegiate competition -- short-course, exciting racing in a more intimate setting."

Benefits outweigh differences

The committee also recognized that the potential benefits of increased exposure outweighed the differences between swimming in meters and yards. Gambril said that the difference between the two is about one stroke per length. Conversely, the difference between long-course and short-course swimming is significant.

"Fifty meters makes for a completely different race, and some people are much better at long-course than short-course and vice versa," Gambril said. "But 25 meters vs. 25 yards -- I'm not going to say that somebody isn't going to lose a race because it's a little bit farther, and if somebody's passing somebody, they may catch them in 25 meters where they wouldn't in 25 yards -- but that's the race. As far as the turn and things like that, there should be no difference on the timing. So I don't think it's a distinct advantage to anyone. And the rewards of increased media attention to world records being set and the increased visibility to the NCAA institutions who have these Olympic athletes will be huge."

Gambril hopes the proposal will cause television to jump on the media bandwagon as well.

"I would hope that NBC is really brought into it hard because they'll be wanting to promote the Olympics and cover swimming, which is one of the two biggest sports as far as visibility and medals," he said. "I would think that to be able to jump in and cover that meet that year would be a salable item -- and who knows, maybe even during prime time instead of two in the morning or whatever."

Every other year?

Though the short-course change only would be in effect in Olympic years, there has been some discussion of conducting metric competition every other year, to coincide with the world championships meets that occur between Olympics.

The committee likely will adopt a wait-and-see attitude on that, which Hammond thinks is prudent.

"I think the next step is to see how it goes in 2000 and then look and see if it's something the committee wants to do every other year or just every Olympic year," he said. "We need to see what happens -- see how the public reacts, see how the times are and see how that all affects swimming."

For now, at least, there appears to be a sense of relief that NCAA competition may be one step closer to uniformity with USS competition.

"It's a factor for the coaches," Hammond said, "because we want USS and the NCAA to be on the same page, and by the NCAA showing some flexibility I think that it could be a positive step."

Pursley agreed.

"Another benefit (of the proposal) is the fact that the NCAA is considering the impact of NCAA competition on international competition in its decision," he said. "Whether we like it or not, the fact is that both programs do impact each other."

And now the impact in 2000 will be measured in meters.