Dash-for-Cash, Televised Swim Meet to Showcase “World’s Greatest Athletes”

NEW YORK, April 30. "WHAT sport has some of the world's most incredible athletes – athletes who probably train harder than any others, and have won far more Olympic medals for the USA than athletes in any other sport”. asks Phil Whitten, Editor-in-Chief of Swimming World magazine and SwimInfo.com.

"Which athletes personify the scholar-athlete ideal, consistently out-performing all other athletes – as well as the general student bodies – in their studies at high schools, colleges and universities across the land?" Whitten continues.

“And which athletes consistently come across as the kinds of young men and women most parents would like their kids to emulate and can represent sponsors the way the sponsors want to be represented?

Swimmers.

Swimmers are the ideal role models for international sponsors.

Phil Whitten believes that the days when swimmers toil in obscurity between Olympics must come to an end and he is actively going to make sure that it happens.

“Swimmers train as hard as – or, more likely, harder than – almost all professional athletes,” he says. “They often take jobs to help them get through school as scholarships are few and far between. They perform prodigious feats of speed, endurance, flexibility and balance on a daily basis. It’s time,” he says, “for swimmers to no longer accept being seen as the Rodney Dangerfields of the sports world. It’s time they got some respect.”

That's why Whitten has teamed up with David Arluck, a successful sports marketer (and Masters swimmer) who has a great passion for the sport. Together they hope to create something unique – a series of live-audience, TV-friendly, dash-for-cash swim meets that combine the best in sports entertainment with the world's greatest swimmers at the peak of their game. "The goal is to put cash in the pockets of these great athletes, and associate some of the best international brands with the BEST athletes in the world while putting swimming on the map as far as the U.S. public is concerned," explains Arluck.

Step One is an exciting, hip-hop-style, dash-for-cash extravaganza to be held next January. "We plan to have it at one of several possible venues in the metropolitan New York area," explains Arluck.

Arluck, who heads Arluck Promotions in New York, had this to say about the meet and the city in which he resides: "It's the media, marketing and advertising capital of the world and I want Madison Avenue to see and meet the best athletes in the world (swimmers). There is a limitless number of prospective sponsors, many of whom are unaware of the great relationships that they can form with swimmers. Phil and I are going to bring it to them. They will be very excited about this – particularly since it is an Olympic year.”

In the past, Arluck has successfully sold sponsorships at high-visibility events involving professional athletes that play professional team sports as well as top-ranked boxers, including the undisputed middleweight boxing champion of the world, Bernard Hopkins.

The plan has generated great enthusiasm among the world's top swimmers. "Every four years, at the Olympic Games, swimming is in the spotlight," says Gary Hall, Jr., 28, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, "and every four years it garners among the highest audience ratings of the entire Games. Then it falls off the edge of the Earth. As far as the general public is concerned, swimming no longer exists."

"But, of course, swimmers are hard at work every day between Olympiads," adds Whitten. "And, in places like Australia, swimmers get the respect and recognition they deserve for being among the world's most skilled, highly-trained athletes. We see these meets as a first step toward getting swimmers in the USA the recognition and financial opportunity they so richly deserve."

Jenny Thompson, the most highly-decorated female U.S. Olympian in any sport and currently a second-year medical student at Columbia University, enthuses: "I think that a televised dash-for-cash swimming series could be the most exciting thing to happen to the sport of swimming in a long time. In my experience, there's always a ton of excitement surrounding that type of format. I think it could be a huge success and attract a lot of great swimmers and big crowds."

Olympic gold, silver and bronze medalist Amanda Beard, 21, agrees: "I am really excited about this plan to get our sport more exposure. During the Olympics swimming is one of the most watched sports, people get really involved in it, but as soon as the Games are over people forget about all those wonderful athletes. What we need to do is exactly what you are talking about, get more exposure!! This event will be great for our sport and I give it my full support."

Ed Moses, a 2000 Olympic gold and silver medalist, summarizes: "There's nothing better than a high-explosion meet with intense rivalries. A meet like this draws nothing but attention and fast swimming. This is a huge step in the swimming world."

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