The Post-Olympic Plunge
A new wave of swimmers is flocking to clubs nationwide this fall.
Aquatic sports no longer have a spot on primetime television in the aftermath of the Olympics, but the impact of the Rio Games is still just beginning for the swimming world.
USA Swimming, the sport’s national governing body, is experiencing increasing swim club enrollment nationwide as young athletes with Olympic-fueled dreams try their luck in the pool.
Malibu Seawolves swimmers, coaches and parents discuss the Olympics' impact
Since the early 1990s, USA Swimming has enjoyed substantial bumps of over 10 percent in almost every post-Olympic season. After the 2012 games, clubs nationwide brought in over 40,000 new members to post a whopping 13.2 percent enrollment increase-- the highest USA Swimming has ever seen.
“It’s directly related to the Olympics. From a business standpoint and a coach standpoint, we now have what we have to work with for the next quadrennial.
— Max Jaben
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“The trend to have a spike the year following the Olympic Games is very consistent and something that we count on,” USA Swimming’s Club Development Managing Director Pat Hogan said. “I think the reason it happens is so much related to the attention the Olympic Games get on television. We don’t get that kind of media attention year to year, except at the Olympic Games.”
The new year for USA Swimming clubs began on September 1 and official numbers are yet to be released, but unofficial data has led the organization to predict a 9 to 10 percent increase this year. New athletes are registered across the 59 Local Swim Committees that make up USA Swimming.
“As we talk to coaches and club leaders throughout the country, what we’re hearing is people are enjoying a pretty noticeable bump,” Hogan said.
Malibu Seawolves Swimming, a small club that is part of Southern California Swimming, has nearly doubled in size this fall, adding 33 new swimmers to its 35 returning athletes.
“It’s directly related to the Olympics,” Head coach Max Jaben said. “From a business standpoint and a coach standpoint, we now have what we have to work with for the next quadrennial.”
The majority of the Seawolves’ new members are younger swimmers, which is consistent with USA Swimming’s high enrollment numbers for swimmers ages 12 and under.
“The percentage of 12-and-unders versus 13-and-overs is quite a bit higher,” Hogan said. “We do have older kids start for the first time but that’s not as common has having swimmers that are eight, nine and 10 years of age start competitive swimming.”
USA Swimming helps its clubs and Local Swim Committees prepare for the post-Olympic influx of new swimmers. Hogan stressed the importance of making sure there are enough swim meets and competitive opportunities for members to participate in.
“If people are going to have a very positive, welcoming experience to join USA Swimming, the clubs have to make sure they do the little things it takes to welcome new people to the program,” Hogan said. “And they do that on a year-to-year basis anyway, but they just deal with greater quantities of new swimmers the year after the Olympics.”
Bridging the Gap
Even with over 330,000 swimmers from beginners to Olympians, USA Swimming makes efforts to connect novice athletes with elites.
“The primary thing that we do is encourage some of our bigger names and national team members to have opportunities to interact with young swimmers and give those swimmers the opportunity to meet their heroes and the people whose names they see in the sport,” Hogan said.
A provision in national team members’ contracts requires them to commit to community service and spending time with young swimmers. Outside organizations, such as Fitter and Faster tours, also allow elite athletes to put on clinics across the country.
The Seawolves hosted their own pre-season clinic this August, which came right on the heels of the Rio games and right before the new season began. During the clinic, Jaben brought in former Olympians Ed Moses and Markus Rogan.
“It wasn’t a very strenuous clinic, but more so we wanted to work up the hype of the Olympics,” Jaben said. “We had a couple Olympians come and talk about their experiences, bring in Olympic medals and do team building activities to just show how great of a time being part of a team like this can be.”
Jaben also advertised the clinic to the public, which helped the Seawolves pick up some new swimmers before the season officially began.
“It’s really good to start off the year like that in such high spirits, especially when we did so good as a country,” Jaben said. “It’s really something to celebrate.”
Jaben, who qualified for the Israeli Olympic team in 2008, said his experience as an Olympian is a positive contribution to his coaching, but can also get in the way at times.
Photos courtesy Max Jaben
“It can help because I understand the sport at a really, really high level and the level of dedication and many steps you have to take...to become an Olympian,” he said. “With that being said, we’re also a youth swimming club and I find myself wanting to push some of these kids. And we have some great kids making it to Olympic Trials, but we have to understand that not every kid’s going to be an Olympian and it’s about being the best each kid can be.”
Though American swimmers, including standout Ryan Lochte, were thrust into the spotlight for falsifying a story of an armed robbery during the Rio games, Hogan believes the negative press will not have a substantial impact on membership growth at a grassroots level.
“There was a period of time shortly after it happened that it got a lot of media attention and, certainly, we were concerned about it being negative towards our brand,” he added.Retaining the Excitement
With an influx of new athletes comes the pressure to keep them around.
Although USA Swimming’s numbers tend to dip slightly in non-Olympic years, Hogan said the organization holds a consistent 70 percent retention rate. Around 90 percent of 13-and-over athletes tend to remain in the sport, while 60 percent of 12-and-under-athletes typically return for another season.
“Those retention rates have held steady throughout the four years since our big bump in 2013,” he explained. “Where we see a bit of flattening is in the number of new swimmers starting each of the last three years. It’s not significant.”
Still, USA Swimming is thinking up ways to bring more athletes to the pool in non-Olympic years. A pre-competitive membership category has been discussed as a potential way to draw in younger swimmers.
“There are a lot of USA Swimming clubs that run a pre-competitive membership program where kids are offered the opportunity to come to practice once or twice a week, they don’t necessarily go to meets and they’re probably participating in other activities as well,” Hogan explained. “It’s more of an activity option than it is a sport option. We’re thinking of creating a membership category that would be focused on that age and that type of swimmer.”
Jaben is also implementing new strategies to keep new swimmers around and bring the Seawolves together as a club. This year, he appointed five senior-level swimmers as team captains and gave them the job of running movie nights and other team bonding events.
Everest Brady is a team captain and often helps Jaben run dryland and stretching exercises before the team gets in the water. He stressed the captains’ role to be an example to the younger swimmers and keep them interested, and sees the Olympics’ impact on new swimmers firsthand.
“It definitely shows them what they can get to and then it inspires kids if there’s a hard workout,” Brady said. “They’ll be like, ‘that’s the dream that we’re working towards.’ If you really take it to heart they will keep going, keep working hard, try to get better and maybe some will reach that place.”
Coach Moorea Maguire coaches 25-yard swims
Team captain Everest Brady helps coach younger swimmers
Swim fins are popular training equipment
Coach Moorea Maguire and team captain Everest Brady work with swimmers
Jaben also spoke about the importance of taking attendance and keeping tabs on each individual swimmer day to day.
“Kids these days have a lot going on,” he said. “They have a lot of other obligations and it’s pretty easy to stop showing up, so attendance is one way to track that and let families know if we haven’t seen them and that we miss them at the pool.”
Jaben also encourages his swimmers to participate in meets from an early age. The Seawolves are a member of the Los Angeles Swimming Association-- an organization that hosts small meets for swimmers new to competing.
“If they’re capable of being part of this team, they’re capable of swimming in those,” Jaben said. “As soon as we see a kid go to one of those meets and get the satisfaction of seeing their hard work pay off, that is the very, very best retention.”
With an expanding clubs comes the issue of pool space-- a problem many clubs, including the Seawolves, have to deal with. Since the City of Malibu does not have a city pool, the club rents pool space at Malibu High School. This fall, Jaben moved practice times back a half hour so the club would have more lanes and additional swimmers would not interfere with other pool users.
“Lane space has never been an issue until now really,” he said. “We really need a city pool and I think what the enrollment this fall has done just really illuminates the fact that we need a new pool.”
U.S. Olympian Haley Anderson answers questions about the Olympic effect
A New Quadrennial
The most important piece Hogan would give to new swimmers is to look at their progress over an extended period of time.
“In the sport of swimming, we’re learning to simply feel the water and develop sensitivity to the water, and that takes time,” he said. “The great thing about competitive swimming compared to some sports is it’s easy to track your individual progress. If you’re getting best times and showing improvement meet to meet, year to year, then that’s a very positive way to judge your experiences.”
Hogan also encourages parents of new swimmers to view their children's’ involvement in the sport from a long-term perspective.
“There’s a period of time in a sport where you’re laying down a foundation and developing the skills, the fundamentals that are necessary down the line,” he said. “Be patient and allow that process to happen, and that pace is going to be different from one youngster to another.”