It seems to me — based on the incomplete sample of 2 or 3 races I watched last night and numerous swims I watched last week — that there are significant differences in how swimmers and runners express their joy or disappointment at winning or losing. (A Political Season has a good post on the Agony of Defeat in one race last night.) The runners last night seemed to be running around yelling to the crowd when they won and generally proclaiming the greatness of their feat or, alternatively, pounding the ground and generally acting out their misery when they lost.
Not so much of either for the swimmers, I didn’t think. Obviously there was some, but the expressions of joy or disappointment seemed much more subdued.
Also: there seemed to be lots more down time between runs than swims.
Well, being a former swimmer (and thus a bit biased), I think part of it is that swimming a 100-yard race takes a lot more out of you than running a 100-yard race! It just takes about 5 times longer, for one thing. Ergo, less energy left over to celebrate/mope.
I dunno. Phelps let out quite a ruckus after he won that race in .01 of a second. I doubt he felt anything in the tank.
But, if you train for four years for a particular event on the world stage, you take your one shot at it, and immediately you know if there is reward or disappointment. And because the next time that event rolls around comes in another four years, you may be ‘too old’ to try to do it again.
Well, to be precise, we’re talking sprinters, not runners in general. Sprinters are born, and it seems they are often born bit on the hyperactive end of the spectrum. Distance runners are a bit more even tempered, don’t you think?
Good point re: sprinters v. other runners. Like I said, my data set for the runners is all of about 3 races last night. Not exactly conclusive.
Maybe it’s less a culture of sport than the culture of the participants. The majority of runners are dark-skinned whereas hardly any of the Olympic swimmers are.
BTW, make sure you watch Usain Bolt run the 200m finals tonight. He’s my favorite Olympic athlete after Phelps so far. His acceleration is unbelievable.
Speaking as a former competitive swimmer (11 years) who also ran some track in high school, my opinion is that swimming is much more of a team sport. I mean, did you see Phelp’s reaction after the relay wins?
Track (especially sprints) is very individual. I know they keep score and one team “wins” a meet, but I can assure you the winning and losing was far more important to my swimming teammates than it ever was my track teammates.
Bolt won it by a mile . World records in the 100m and 200m. Next to Phelps, maybe more so, this was the most dominant athlete in this Olympics competition, in the sprints.