In the Montreal Olympics in 1976 the only non-American male swimmer standing on the top of the podium was the late David Wilkie. On the women’s side, the only gold by an American was a relay.

This disparity was created by America’s success.

Wilkie was a British swimmer and the champion in the 200m breaststroke in 1976. America still was the dominant force in the world for men. The writing was on the wall for women. Change was afoot.

Swimming past high school age was a luxury everywhere except in the US. Colleges in places like California, Indiana and Florida drew in young men from around the world offering scholarships.

For the neighbours of the USA, (that is everyone else) the grass is greener there. It seems to be the land of dreams. Hollywood, Disneyland, Cadillacs and champion athletes conjure up the ideals of American culture. Why not live in warm California, surf during the day, get a degree and keep swimming? Or stop swimming and go to work.

It is true that US success was built on shoulders of giants. The past hard graft of coaches, years of trial and error, generated complete success for the States. Sports like American football brought huge crowds to colleges. Huge crowds meant huge revenue. It is reputed that every college football team funds all their sport scholarships. So, top swimmer recruits, from around the world, could continue past high school and get a university education. Win -win right?

It is a huge win. It is a win for swimming and a win for individuals. David Wilkie swam most of his career in Florida after age 18. His team mates were successful and so was he. But at the Olympics he traded his University of Miami shirt for a British one.

The scholarship programmes were a win for the college, the swimmer and also for whatever nationality the swimmer represented. Countries like around the world, like Suriname, all of a sudden could have an Olympic gold medal in swimming.

On the girls side of the new paradigm, things were different. Scholarships were not available. It was only in mid 70’s that scholarships started to be offered. Slowly. Before that, brilliant minds like Doc Counsilman, George Haines, and Don Gambrel could earn a living at coaching, so girls benefited from professional coaching only in America.

Most coaches, looking over the fence, had day-to-day jobs, so brilliant minds were busy inventing TV’s and earning very good livings in other jobs, not coaching. For many though, coaching was fun, it was a hobby but not a profession.

Humans are very good at mimicry. And America is very generous to the point of their own undoing. Maybe they are too generous. In the late 1960’s the East Germans and Russians invited some top swimmers to train with them. Happy for a free trip, they obliged. They were carefully videotaped.

The coaches of the states openly shared their ideas in books and magazines. It was a status symbol as a coach to become published. They shared their knowledge and their Spitzian techniques.

Young coaches like Australian Bill Sweetenham and Laurie Lawrence travelled to the US to learn. Sweetenham even slept in the plant room of the pool to afford to learn from the best coaches in California. Lawrence went to Indiana to learn from Councilman.

Many like them from around the world came to learn and then they took that knowledge back to home. Some became professional but many just volunteered. Either way swimmers got faster!

The swimming techniques and training systems were quickly copied. In addition to this golden information the sports scientists of the eastern block added their own spice to the recipe. Soon there was a revolution in women’s sport, girls slowly began to recover 4x faster than their competitors.

With male hormones, girls could do in three years what they could do in twelve years of work. This was how they dominated the Olympics over the American girls in 1976. Those girls had no choice though, they were told what to do, so they recovered very fast, their voices got deep, they grew hair on their chest, their clitoris’s grew into little penises and they won races. I’d take a silver medal over that.

More and more ‘science’ created ways of using American systems of training to train more. The age of doping emerged. US dominance was over because America got beat at their own game.

US rivals used the US training systems and skills, and then recovered faster. The unethical use of male hormones, on unsuspecting young girls, became widespread in eastern block countries. The showcase of the Olympics was used as a political platform, winning became okay at any cost.

Fast forward to today. Coaches from around the world make a good living on poolsides. The days of professional swimming coaches living only in the USA are over. Sports scientists too earn a great livings around the globe despite their passport. Sports professionals are available to the highest bidder.

Swimmers from around the world can travel to any coach who will take them on. The shirt that is worn by the athlete at the Olympics is not a concern of many coaches. Chinese and Korean champions have trained in Australia, Canadian swimmers in America, Russian coaches in Switzerland, English coaches in Canada, Australian coaches in Denmark. It is a melting pot in a pool of chlorine.

The facade of the swimmers’ nationality is only a perception created by media. Success by a swimmers national team is usually purported by their national team coach who’s job depends on it. But the swimmers may be scattered across the world and do not train ‘at home’ at all.

America is still dominant. It’s just difficult to see when their swimmers are wearing different flag colours. Some countries have been trying to stop this leaching of brain power but it’s a pretty leaky boat and everyone in this sport knows how to swim.

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