AP Race International Shows New Side, Opportunity for Swim Meets
This weekend, I was privileged enough to be given a media pass to the AP Race International Meet in London. With a money-can’t-buy view from the media event and poolside, I had the opportunity to witness a completely new, innovative side to what swimming competitions can be when organizers dare to deviate from the beaten track.
What Is the Industry Standard?
Swim meets, from my experience as a competitor and as a spectator, are typically a template affair. When you do not have a personal, vested interest in an athlete, they are merely statistics on a scoreboard. The character of someone who has dedicated blood, sweat and tears to their craft over years is simply not seen. The greatest testament to an individual is, perhaps, in a larger scale meet, the few seconds where the camera pans to them before a major final. Or, if they manage to take victory, a snippet of their exhausted yet triumphant reaction in the pool. No further consideration is given to the individuality of the swimmer. They simply go to swim down while the next race takes place.
Why is This Important?
As a sport, swimming lags behind others when it comes to the appreciation of the competitors on a wider scale. Here in Britain, a standard Premier League footballer will have a wider scope of public recognition than an elite level swimmer. This is something that the sport should strive to change, as our sport’s incredible athletes deserve greater credit on a mainstream scale. In this field, I believe that the AP Race International could be groundbreaking.
They are operating in an untapped market that does objectively exist. In the media event on Friday, AP Race CEO Ed Baxter referred to a statistic that swimming was the second most watched sport at the 2024 Olympic Games, illustrating that there is clearly a public interest. However, this fact may not currently be utilized in a way that maximizes the commercial potential of both the individual athletes and the sport as a whole.
How Have They Achieved This?
Involving the most notable athletes was a first, key step in achieving successful change. A business founded by Adam Peaty, arguably the greatest male breaststroke swimmer in history, was in prime position to achieve. It has gone from strength to strength, bringing such successful British athletes as James Guy, Matt Richards, Anna Hopkin and Luke Greenbank to the team. This athletes-first approach is embodied by none better than Kyle Sockwell, who has become a social media sensation through his unique and entertaining approach. In his own words, he is the “Chief Fun Officer @Swimming.”
The ‘Jorts Race’
During the AP Race Meet, a Jorts race between Peaty and Sockwell was highly publicized. Combining the forces of Peaty and Sockwell was always going to be a huge hit with swimming fans, especially when integrating multiple aspects that create a great sporting spectacle. The first of these is competition in the form of a head to head race between the pair. Another key factor is emotional investment achieved through the public recognition these two personalities have, as well as buildup via social media posts and interviews gradually increasing in quantity throughout the week.
Finally, the unique selling point of the race came through innovation. Peaty comfortably defeated Sockwell in a fair fight, as the Olympic champ wore jean shorts, while Sockwell raced in a typical racing tech suit.
This creative idea naturally drew in fans, as the prospect of one of swimming’s all-time greats racing while wearing jorts is something intriguing, even to those with little more than a passing interest in the sport. Hence, despite the meet featuring world champions, the loudest the arena sounded – and this was not for a lack of competition – was during the jorts race. This was also the race that achieved the greatest social media outreach, with reels combining to well over half a million views on Instagram.
The Elevation of the Athletes
A gimmick race, however, was not the only way the AP Race International Meet managed to promote the personalities at the meet. A boxing-style announcer introduced the most-decorated athletes alongside their achievements before every race, heat and final. Double Olympic champion Matt Richards competed in a trivia contest against a young child. Spectators sat in the ‘golden ticket’ area – a special area of seating on poolside – got an exclusive, close-up view with all the athletes with some, such as Peaty, taking time out of his busy schedule to sit with them.
The payoff was as hoped, as stars became demigods inside the arena. All were mobbed after their races with requests for autographs and pictures, with children leaning over balconies, screaming in an attempt to get their idols’ attention. The walk around poolside took upward of half an hour for the most popular of these athletes.
I managed to ask some of these athletes about how this adulation felt. Multiple time Olympic champion James Guy took pride in the fact that “that was me 20 years ago, so hopefully this can inspire them (children watching) to come back again.” Multiple Olympic champion Tom Dean said “he never quite gets used to it” and the feeling “never gets old,” and Olympian Oliver Morgan said that it was “really nice for the athletes to be seen as not just swimmers with caps and goggles on, but people, too.”
Leading Swimming Into the Future
The lessons that can be taken from a meet such as the AP International are invaluable. In terms of athlete marketability, swimming has been stuck in the dark ages while other sports have used the social media boom to drastically grow their respective audiences in recent years. The strides this meet has made to bridge this gap should be used as a blueprint for the rest of the industry to follow as we strive to expand swimming’s audience into the mainstream conscience.
