This is a first. I went to a sporting event and I don’t know who won.

Given that I’m a semi-trained, quasi-professional sports-watcher, this is a bit embarrassing to admit. But I have a plausible defense – nobody at the USC vs. UC Santa Barbara dual swim meet I attended recently ever made mention of a winning team. I wasn’t even positive they were keeping score.

Let me tell you about my day, and let you decide if I am guilty of Negligent Spectating…

First of all, I know I’ve previously gone on record proclaiming that ALL aquatic events should be conducted outside – but I was young and foolish then. It was the sunshine and 75 degrees talking. It was now January however, and I was wearing layers to an outdoor aquatic event. Be careful what you ask for.
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Did I really end my last post by saying that Michael Phelps looked like just another swimmer?!?

What I really meant was that there was no more deference paid to him than to any of the other swimmers during the preliminary heats for the men’s 100 meter butterfly competition. It was Day 3 of the ConocoPhillips Swimming National Championships, and things were moving along at a clip that would make process engineers green with envy.

So there wasn’t much time to reflect on Michael Phelp’s 783 (or so) Olympic medals – or much of anything for that matter, as a parade of swimmers went through 14 heats in each of five different events.
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Forgive me for the embarrassing outburst, but THIS is what I’m talking about – a textbook event buildout!

The site constructed to host the ConocoPhillips National Swimming Championships was not too overdone, showy or aesthetically assaulting. Nor was it too minimalist, leaving people to wander around Irvine, CA looking for the event. It was welcoming, well-marked and user-friendly.

This shouldn’t really have been a surprise, for USA Swimming, the National Governing Body of amateur swimming in the country, is one of the “haves” among NGB’s. Among “second-tier” sports in this country, swimming is one of the glamour children, primarily because every four years the Olympics make a household name of one or more American swimmer.

This draws sponsors, which in turn provides the funding to train more and more athletes and to stage bigger, better events for them to swim in. I vaguely remember this type of thing being called a “virtuous circle” in PowerPoint presentation-ese.

Let’s recap: As an organization, USA Swimming wants for nothing.

So you think that they would have someone who could communicate to the public what time the ConocoPhillips National Championships start. Well, you would be thinking wrong.
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