When the global open water swimming community saw the pre-release images of the Ventura Deep Six documentary, they got excited – and rightly so. The Scott Stankey film is just one of five documentaries or movies that are scheduled to be released in America in 2011 according to knowledgeable sources along the coastlines and shorelines of America.

What is unprecedented in America is that this media exposure of open water swimming community will be in the year before of the 2012 London Olympics.

The Daily News of Open Water Swimming predicts, at least for the American market, that the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim will serve as open water swimming’s equivalent of Julie Moss crossing the finish line at the Hawaiian Ironman that was broadcast on ABC-TV in 1982 – the catalyst of triathlon’s worldwide growth.

The European market – where television more frequently broadcasts open water swims like the Descenso a Nado de la Ría de Navia or the Great Swim Series – already understands the drama open water swimming.

Like college student Julie Moss who mezmerized television audiences with her courage and determination to crawl across the finish in the 1982 Hawaiian Ironman despite the pain wracking her body, the community will be overwhelmed with the turnout and imagery from the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim in Hyde Park come July 2012.

While there were very few triathletes back in 1982, there are already several hundreds of thousands of active open water swimmers around the world. As a result, what the open water swimming world will be like in 2012 (or 2013 or 2014…) will be nothing like it is now.

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