THEMA: Swimming Evolution

"Some were calling it the T20 of swimming. Others were saying it was the biggest innovation since pace clocks hit the pool deck. It was Australia vs The World at the Valley Pool in Brisbane and while the scoreboard read Australia 131 defeating The World 105, the winner was the sport itself."

So begins the short report from Swimming Australia on its Australia Vs The World showcase for swimming in Brisbane, Olympic City 2032, yesterday.

Much fun appears to have been had at this latest manifestation of a much-needed departure from the traditional championship format in the spaces in between the ultimate tests of swimming skill, strength, speed and prowess in the marriage of aquatic athleticism and aestheticism that reflects some of what makes the sport as glorious as it can be gladiatorial.

For all that, my take on those opening lines in the Australian news statement is 'maybe, maybe not'. I think the ISL might have something to say about that pace clock line - and I say that as a supporter of change and any process that gets swimming closer to finding a home between Olympics (and to a lesser, yet significant extent World long-course Championships) that attracts a much wider and regular audience: one that reaches the crowd that tunes in once every four years when the flame flies for the planet's biggest multi-sports event.

In that sense, we should all be delighted to find Australia, one of the pioneering nations of progress in the pool, then and now, refusing to let the light fade on attempts to find formats that might and can help swimming meet the constitutional obligation of governors to "grow" the sport.

Understandable that the likes of ABC would run a headline on its piece declaring: "Swimming's newest revolution is here, as Australia vs The World lights up The Valley Pool". I have no doubt that the fun event that unfolded with the clock turned off - king the win, queen the entertainment of mixed events and jumbled medleys - played out well Down Under among the hosts, and visitors en route to their escape-from-winter training camps, as Australia warms up for summer Christmas and the big January break that follows for many at the height of an antipodean holiday season that stretches from the festive to the main annual break for many families and even firms.

It's long been a special time of year for swimmers and swimming Down Under, the world-record history book having long reflected that flip of the northern hemisphere's July-August climax of swimming speed.

Australia Vs The Rest of the World introduced a couple of novelties and coupled the sport to the kind of enthusiasm we can read in the quotes of those who were there and the fun and thrill of the day as witnessed by those who were able to tune in.

Even so, "revolution" calls on us to embrace a certain convenience of forgetfulness and a little fantasy.

Go back to a time of war when the Olympics was off and we find swimming showcased by Billy Rose's Aquacade, a lavish water show featuring Johnny Weissmuller and Esther Williams at the 1939 New York World's Fair and the 1940 Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco.

The national duels and tri-nation 'bouts' (GER Vs NED Vs GBR etc) of the 1960s and 1970s, the World Cups of the 1980s and 1990s, with the car to be won parked win the deck; the duels in the pools; the International Swimming League 2018-2022. They are all part of a long thread of notable efforts down the decades to sell the gladiatorial nature of swimming to wider audiences in formats and with themes that get the sport away from the traditional championship format.

There's no question that they have all helped raise the profile of swimmers, at least in the short window they opened. Yet, it seems to me that swimming is no closer to finding a constant and consistent hook on which to hang the sign it needs:

"Open for business in out-of-championship season, every year".