Swimming-Games could become just another meeting for swimmers: Biondi

LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) – Matt Biondi has won 11 Olympic medals, including eight gold, but the American can see a day when the Games are no longer the main event for elite swimmers.

The 55-year-old American says it all depends on the business model and the extent to which global governing body FINA and Olympic Games organizers are ready to embrace the change and bring swimming into a professional era.

Biondi cited the examples of tennis, golf and football as Olympic sports which have their own showcase events of much greater importance to the athletes.

“They see the Olympics as entertainment, as a kind of amusement park, something fun to visit but it’s not their career,” California-based Biondi, who won his awards, told Reuters. gold medals at the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Games. interview.

“If the Olympics don’t include professional swimming it will take time, but at some point swimmers will be buttering their bread elsewhere and the Olympics will be just another fixture on their schedule.

“They (the Olympics) take time away from their families, time away from training, time away from their sponsors. So it’s possible — and I hope it doesn’t.”

Over the past two years, Biondi has recruited 120 world-class swimmers from 31 different countries for an International Swimmers Alliance which was announced last month and which he chairs. Read more

The 10-member board includes Katinka Hosszu from Hungary, Ranomi Kromowidjojo from the Netherlands and South African Chad Le Clos, all Olympic gold medalists.

The Alliance’s goals include pushing for financial rewards for competing at the Olympics, where swimming is the major sport for the first week of competition, and for success.

Many players participate in the International Professional Swimming League (ISL), which Biondi is also close to and which aims to make swimming a year-round sport for television.

“We see the money that is on the table at the Olympics, we see the role that swimmers play in the value of the fun and excitement at the Olympics, especially week one,” said the American.

“We’ve heard estimates of how 10-15% of Olympic fans rank swimming number one. So before the pandemic you have an industry of over $ 7 billion and swimmers can be at least 10%. , or $ 700 million.

“Our proposal was initially to have some of that money allocated to swimmers who appear in the finals and semi-finals.”

Biondi admitted that the COVID-19 pandemic had made a difference, but there were also social issues around health care and pension benefits to be addressed.

“If the Olympics had been canceled, what safety net is there for the athletes? They would literally be dropped without compensation or anything,” he said.

“So this is how it has evolved over the last year and the goals are to maintain a positive relationship and to have swimmers with a voice at the table and then to be able to share the economic benefits of who we are. all capable of creating. “

Biondi recalled the fierce resistance he encountered after the 1988 Seoul Games when he sought to maximize his market value as a professional.

He hoped FINA would be more responsive under the new leadership of Kuwaiti Husain Al-Musallam, but was ready for the long match.

“The door has been slammed in my face a number of times, figuratively speaking, and I have to believe that what I am doing is good for the sport. And I am doing it,” he said.

“I have to be optimistic that we can start from scratch. That we can look at the options and open the speech, the dialogue.”

Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Peter Rutheford

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