Swimmers are the Most Well Known Athletes in Australia (Week 2)

This week, March 7th, was my first lecture with this class and my first learning experience about Australian swimming. During this 2 hour period, I learned so much information about swimming in Australia and how popular it is to compete. One of the things that Christina said was that swimmers are the most well known athletes in Australia, which completely blew my mind. In America, swimming is not a big sport at all and the athletes are not very well known. One reason I believe why swimmers are the most well known in Australia, and not in America, is because the majority of the people living in Australia live near the coast. In America, people live throughout the country, and not primarily on the edges near the water. Therefore, people who live in the middle of the country in America may never have seen the ocean, where swimming is very popular. Other sports such as basketball, baseball, soccer, and football do not need the ocean or a swimming pool to be played. Therefore, this can make these sports more popular because only land is needed, which occurs across the country.

I live about a mile from the beach back in America, where my city is called, "Surf City Huntington Beach." Therefore, a lot of my friends swim and surf, making many of the athletes who surf very well know in my city. Therefore, I can name a few surfers off of the top of my head, but can definitely name more athletes who play land sports. This gives me a new perspective and appreciation for swimmers and surfers after learning about the importance of swimmers and the ocean in Australia.