Are We Facing A Crisis?
It appears that our sport may be facing a challenge that will need all levels to unite and fight for our very existence in the world of sports. Many of the things written on this site were directed toward US Diving but it now appears that even they will have to join the rest of diving community or watch everything disappear. Our sport is being slowly eroded from many directions and is disappearing at all levels. Taken together, they represent a real threat to our very survival.
Men's college swimming and diving programs have been losing their struggle with the gender equity (Title IX) issues. I can't figure out how things are equal if you drop the Men's program and still have a Women's swimming and diving program. This looks like a case of gender bias and is responsible for the disappearance of many men's collegiate swimming and diving programs.
It amazes me that some justifications for dropping a swimming and diving program include the cost of the facility. That makes it appear that there is a real savings when you drop these programs. However when the program is finally dropped, the facility is still operating. Now there's another recent twist on these events. Even though the men's program has disappeared at some colleges, a women's program has recently been dropped. This appears to have occurred because of budget crunches and a shift of pool operations to a recreational base.
Apparently still another problem persists at this level with injury statistics. Shallow water and non-competitive diving injuries have lingered in the data that suggests competitive diving is highly unsafe. This upsets me the most. After doing 2 research articles and giving both of them to the National Governing Board (USD) we are still being haunted by old, outdated and inaccurate data. Why hasn't anyone else been more vocal in this pursuit? Why hasn't anyone addressed this issue at this level? Why hasn't US Diving mentioned anything about this since it was given those results both 20 years ago and more recently 3 years ago?
At the high school level, a local school official recently asked its swimming coach if there were any divers on his team. The coach said not at this time. At this level there is a starting block depth issue that many schools are trying to accommodate. Nothing else was said in the above situation and then the district maintenance crew moved the starting blocks from the shallow end and removed the diving boards and standards because they were in the way for repositioning the blocks. Along with this they cut up a moveable bulkhead and threw it away rather than repair it. Nobody consulted the coach about any of the ramifications that would result with what they were about to do. That pool is now 25 meters & 2 feet long. By doing all of this, they have rendered that pool useless for competitive swimming and diving. Obviously there was not much thought given to their approach but the fact that remains is there are no diving boards in that high school pool.
Another situation happened at a pool in Indiana. A pool patron slipped and fell on the high board. No serious injury was incurred but the facility management seemingly over-reacted and removed the high board because of the injury. People must understand that all activities have the potential for serious injury. Does this type of action justify getting rid of the soccer ball because someone gets injured when the ball hits them in the head? Maybe we should empty all swimming pools for fear that someone would drown. It's a knee jerk reaction that is not being addressed.
Lastly the swimming pool industry has been changing to leisure pools that seem to omit a diving area. They replace diving boards with things like water slides, fountains and things to climb on, jump from or float on. It is creeping into the collegiate level also. Along with this is a change in various pool owner/operator's philosophy from "not for profit" status to for "profit". Also when a facility considers remodeling and finds that it can't afford the expense of following the recommended depths for starting block and/or diving boards, will they remodel or move toward the leisure pool idea?
Given all of the scenarios above and add the declining numbers of divers and coaches in US Diving, one should see that there is a serious dilemma facing the sport at all levels. This is a wake up call for everyone to join together and do something before it's too late. Diving needs a leader… a person to step up and begin a high profile challenge to address these issues. Continuing to do nothing but talk as we have done in the past will leave us reminiscing about our extinct activity. Maybe the time to start this process would be at the upcoming USD convention. Wouldn't this be an ideal platform for US Diving to become more visible in a National crusade to protect the sport? USD does rely on kids from all levels for its program and it is recognized as our National Governing Body but they seem too busy protecting their own assets.