In two years, at the Beijing Olympics, yet another new sport will be added— open water distance swimming. That means you get into a large body of water (I’m not sure if it has to be an ocean, or if large lakes count), and you swim a LONG way. The United States is pretty ill-prepared for the sport at this point in time.
Case in point, the current national champion is 14 and just took up the sport a couple of months ago. That means that either she is a BRILLIANT swimmer, or the United States depth of talent is a bit shallow.
Despite that, it seems like a really interesting sport. Swimming the English Channel and other long distance swimming has always attracted attention and crowds. It will be interesting to see how that translates in an Olympic venue.
