The background of this issue can be found at the Marathon Swimmers Forum where here.

For a detailed analysis of the issue, readers can follow the Blog of The Year produced by Donal Buckley here.

With an increasing amount of information available online, more swimmers are becoming more aware of more possibilities and happenings in the global open water swimming community. On Facebook or forums, via text or email, swimmers are conveniently enabled and apt to share their respect – or disdain – for other swimmers among their growing fraternity of aquatic adventurers.

While this increased volume of communication across borders, cultures, time zones and generations among swimmers leads to a better informed community with a shared knowledge base, it also occasionally leads to either a cacophony of criticism or a cascade of cheers.

Take the case of Trent Grimsey who broke Petar Stoychev’s record for swimming across the English Channel. Recently, Grimsey deservedly received immediate global adulation for his record-setting swim, exponentially larger than when Stoychev set his own record in 2007, largely due to the immediacy and intimacy of communications via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

But just as quickly as the good cheer was shared by many around the globe, a few marathon swimmers noticed via a YouTube video clip that Grimsey had positioned himself closer to his escort boat than they had in their own English Channel crossings.

This led to a multitude of descriptions, assumptions and accusations online at the Marathon Swimmers Forum. Some claimed swimming near the boat was an advantage. In contrast, Donal Buckley explained why it a disadvantage. A few said they would not recognize Grimsey’s new record while others praised his speed and his strategy. The complaints and criticisms were offset by overwhelming amount of praise and respect showered upon the humble Australian hero, but the debate certainly grabbed the marathon swimming community’s attention.

So we pondered, what causes open water swimmers to get riled up – either positively or negatively – about other swimmers? With hundreds of channel swimmers and thousands of marathon swimmers populating the world’s waterways, what is the catalyst for a particular swimmer garnering so much attention?

Is there any commonality among these swimmers?

It appears to us that a minimum of three circumstances must be met for a swimmer or swimmer to reach this tipping point among the global swimming audience:

1. When a good portion of information is provided, but not absolutely everything leading to sharing of speculation, questions and assumptions.

2. When swimmers realize it is possible to do [the swim/tactic], but they didn’t do it themselves, either because of lack of knowledge or self-choice.
3. When the swim is documented and distributed visually.

When this trio of circumstances occur, then a greater-than-average amount of negative criticisms and positive comments hit the social media. Without all three, issues can be raised by a handful of individuals, but the momentum of discussions on the global social scale continue.

Just an observation, right or not.

Copyright © 2012 by Open Water Source