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| This was the medal ceremony for the 2011 Men's NCAA Championship 100 Freestyle. Feigen and Brown maybe, but that is definitely not Nathan Adrian in first place. |
So, uh… apparently at the NCAA Championship, sometimes the athletes are just too tired or too busy to bother with collecting their medals during the ceremony. They are essentially bringing in stunt men to do the easy part.
Really? That really happens? Substitute medalists? I guess I get it. I remember skipping ceremonies at age groups meets a couple of times because I needed to warm down. Once even because I was on the toilet and there was no way I was gonna make it in time… but NCAA’s? For real?
Jason Marsteller at Swimming World recently voiced his frustration with imposters taking part in podium ceremonies and all of the problems that causes the media people trying to cover the events. Jason makes some great points about why this silliness shouldn’t go on and even gives some suggestions of ways we could make it work with the right people accepting the hardware.
Jason, I feel for you. I am sure that the commenters just love to point stuff like that out when you get it wrong. I never noticed the incorrect pics and I was the Podium Pursuit winner fer cryin' out loud. You could have posted a couple of white boys as first and second in the 200 free and I would have had no clue how historically wrong you were. My wife tells me all the time how unobservant I am. Heck, I coached one girl for five years and had no clue she had long hair simply because I never saw her without a swim cap on. It never occurred to me that she had hair at all.
I have to ask, though… if medal ceremony stand-ins are so common, can I sign up to be one somehow? Does anyone have any connections to help me fulfill my dream of collecting a medal on the podium at the D1 meet? I don’t really care whose medal it is. I just think that would be awesome to experience it. I would even dress as a girl if it was my only shot do this.
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| I look damn good in a skirt, if I do say so myself. |
Even better, let’s set up a contest where whoever can get The Swim Brief the most face book likes from their friends list will get to stand on the podium in place of one athlete at the 2012 NCAA's. Any of you big time swimmers want to give up a ceremony to help us promote our site? I promise will write up a blog about how awesome you are in exchange for just one event. I am not even afraid to make stuff up about you that is way more awesome than you really are.
Seriously. Give it a thought. We’ll make it worth your while.
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| I promise, if I win, your name won't accompany a picture of my dog when the results are posted at Swimming World. |
I have mixed feelings about this. At the Big Ten Championships, I went up to the stands for a winning relay because some of the guys needed to warm down. And that makes sense -- after giving up 10 years of your life for a single night of swimming, you're not going to stand around while some dude takes his time giving you a medal while lactate acid is slowly eating away an entire lifetime of training. You want to warm down and do everything you can... after all, your competitors in the next race are warming-up, and they won't care that you didn't get a chance to warm down or not. I understand the media perspective (that you need photo ops and it's a matter of respect), but the problem is simply meet organization. Have all the awards at the end of the finals session, so there's no overlap between warming-down and medal ceremonies, and there's no problem. Until that happens though, I'm OK with stand-ins.
ReplyDeleteyeah... it doesn't bother me that much but I am sure they could come up with a way to do it right. I read so many results, it is nice when I can finally put a face with the names. We don't get enough big time press to give up such an important chance at getting our top faces out there.
ReplyDeletehonestly, I just wanted to write this as an excuse to post a picture of myself in drag. Next I have to find a way to include a picture of bugs bunny dressed like a girl, because nobody does it better than him.
I mean, isn't it easy enough to stagger the medal ceremonies in the following manner. Let's take the first night of NCAAs for instance:
ReplyDelete200 Free Relay, A Final
20 min break
Awards Ceremony
And so on...
SV.. i hate to say it but you look kinda cute as the bride-of-Frankenstein
ReplyDeleteHave all the medal presentations at the end of the session.
ReplyDeleteParents are happy, media get their photo ops, swimmers get to focus on racing.
It will also help the flow of the meet and make it far more TV friendly.
PS. Viking, looking good.